EMR gets big push from NY hospitals

I read a great article by Mr. Steven Lohr regarding a big hospital network taking on EMR. Here's an excerpt, but read the full article here (its good!)

...an effort to be announced on Monday by a big New York regional hospital group may be the most ambitious effort of this type yet --  a sizable investment intended as a linchpin in the group's $400 million commitment to digitize patient records throughout its system, including 13 hospitals.

North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System plans to offer its 7,000 affiliated doctors subsidies of up to $40,000 each over five years to adopt digital patient records. That would be in addition to federal support for computerizing patient records, which can total $44,000 per doctor over five years.

...Big hospitals operators like North Shore, analysts say, want to use electronic health records that share data among doctors' offices, labs and hospitals to coordinate patient care, reduce unnecessary tests and cut down on medical mistakes....The program will deploy tablet personal computers by Dell, and software by Allscripts, which can be retrieved by a doctor from devices including PCs, BlackBerrys and iPhones.

The North Shore move will be closely watched. ''This is big enough and bold enough that hospital groups across the country will take notice and rethink their own plans,'' said Glen E. Tullman, chief executive of Allscripts.

Still, to move so forcefully, analysts note, also carries risk for North Shore, if the expected payoff for physicians and the hospital group proves elusive. Mr. Dowling acknowledged that risk, but he added:  ''This was not done on  a pure dollars-and-cents, return-on-investment perspective. But better health care and better quality should be a good investment.'

Sen. Baucus Introduces Landmark Health Care Plan

Here it is hot off the press... release... website...

After more than a year of preparation, and holding more than 40 health care events in the state, Montana's senior U.S. Senator Max Baucus today introduced the America's Healthy Future Act, his landmark health care reform legislation that will lower costs and provide quality, affordable health care coverage for all Montanans and all Americans.

Baucus, chairman of the powerful U.S. Senate Finance Committee, released his plan- known as a 'Chairman's Mark'- this morning during a nationally televised news conference.

Baucus' plan will make it easier for families and small businesses to buy health care coverage while ensuring Montanans can choose to keep their current health care coverage if they like it, and slowing the growth of health care costs over time. It will block insurance companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions or imposing annual caps or lifetime limits on the amount of coverage they will provide. The bill would also improve the way the health care system delivers care by improving efficiency, quality and coordination.

In addition, The Congressional Budget Office estimates the Baucus plan would make an $856 billion investment in the health care system over ten years. That investment would not add to the federal deficit. Instead, the plan would be fully paid for through increased focus on quality, efficiency, prevention and adjustments in federal health program payments.

"I've been talking with Montanans for more than a year about health care reform, and this plan is a culmination of all our efforts. This plan is balanced, based on common sense, and is right for Montanans and Americans. This is our moment to finally make quality, affordable health care available to everyone," Baucus said. "Our health care system is simply unsustainable. It is breaking the bank for everyone from families to small businesses. My plan will turn that around. It will fix the way Montanans get the care they need. I'm so proud to introduce this plan today, I'm looking forward to the finish line. It's time to get this done."

Provisions in Baucus' America's Healthy Future Act
Provisions included in the legislation to ensure Montanans have quality, affordable, health care coverage would:
• Create health care affordability tax credits to help low and middle income families purchase insurance in the private market;
• Provide tax credits for small businesses to help them offer insurance to their employees; • Allow people who like the coverage they have today the choice to keep it;
• Reform the insurance market to end discrimination based on pre-existing conditions and health status;
• Eliminate yearly and lifetime limits on the amount of coverage plans provide;
• Create web-based insurance exchanges that would standardize health plan premiums and coverage information to make purchasing insurance easier;
• Give consumers the choice of non-profit, consumer owned and oriented plans (CO-OP); and
• Standardize Medicaid coverage for everyone under 133 percent of the federal poverty level.

Read the press release here

NYC Mayor and Health Commissioner Unveil 2012 Health Goals

Mayor Bloomberg and New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Farley today unveiled New York City's ambitious new health policy - Take Care New York 2012 - outlining the City's plan to improve the health of New Yorkers by targeting 10 leading causes of preventable sickness and death, including lung cancer, heart disease and HIV.

Read the press release here.

eClinicalWorks Announces P2P and Enhancements

eClinicalWorks^®, a market leader in ambulatory clinical systems, today announced eClinicalWorks P2P, a tool for improving healthcare collaboratively. eClinicalWorks P2P introduces interoperability for peer-to-peer communications not only to other eClinicalWorks users, but any provider/practice that the provider and practice interacts with for patient care.

Records are now shared electronically, so practices do not have to fax communications, including referrals and patient charts, to other providers. Practices will also be able to schedule appointments and communicate generic messages regarding patient care. P2P is an interoperable, scalable and secure way to communicate while enhancing patient care.

"Even once a practice is using an electronic medical records system, faxing is still common for communicating with other practices, which does not allow for continuity of care," said Girish Kumar Navani, CEO and co-founder of eClinicalWorks. "Our mission is to improve healthcare by providing technology and services to reduce costs, reduce errors and improve the quality of care. These goals can not be achieved without showing continuity of care. eClinicalWorks P2P, along with the enhancements to our additional solutions, allows our customers to improve healthcare collaboratively."

Enhancements to other eClinicalWorks solutions include:

•Enterprise Business Optimizer (eBO) 2.0 – eBO has been accelerated to include integration of the eClinicalWorks Registry with eBO reports, enhanced clinical metadata and reports, enhanced financial metadata data and reports, and added security integration with eClinicalWorks EMR/PM Reports exchange via eCWShare (http://ecwshare.eclinicalworks.com).•eClinicalWorks Electronic Health eXchange (eEHX) 3.0 – Some enhancements include split screen patient lookup, threshold settings for patient matching, patient reconciliation, community-wide measure reporting and population health alerts.•eClinicalMessenger 2.0 – eClinicalWorks is piloting 2.0 which includes a further refined back end infrastructure, new Web-based screens for easier navigation, additional administrative options, SMS text messaging and integration with eClinicalWorks Registry. •eClinicalMobile 2.0 – eClinicalWorks is piloting 2.0, which offers streamlined navigation on the iPhone, enhanced charge entry, lab ordering, enhanced administrative and favorite settings, creating appointments and faxing of progress notes.

Availability
eClinicalWorks P2P will be available in Q4 2009. It is included free as a module in eEHX 3.0 for community deployments. The solution is also available as a standalone product and will be offered free to clients until the end of 2010.

eClinicalWorks is a registered trademark of eClinicalWorks, LLC. All other trademarks or service marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

NYC's William F. Ryan Community Health Network Selects eClinicalWorks

eClinicalWorks just published a press release on their website.

eClinicalWorks^®, a market leader in ambulatory clinical systems, today announced that New York City’s William F. Ryan Community Health Network has chosen eClinicalWorks unified electronic medical records (EMR) and practice management (PM) solution along with eClinicalWorks Enterprise Business Optimizer’s (eBO) enhanced reporting capabilities for its more than 250 physicians and residents in 16 locations. These sites include three main health centers, schools, homeless shelters and mobile vans.

"Building on the belief that healthcare is a right and not a privilege, William F. Ryan searched for an electronic health records system that could help our practitioners improve care in the community," said Barbra E. Minch, president and CEO of William F. Ryan Community Health Network. "We selected eClinicalWorks because of the user-friendly nature of the product, its reporting capabilities, and its ability to coordinate care across not only multiple locations, but also various types of settings."

eClinicalWorks EMR/PM will allow William F. Ryan to streamline processes between locations and promote patient care. The community health network has also chosen to implement eBO, which uses meta-data to give the practice more flexibility through the creation of customized reports and by performing clinical and financial analysis.

 Full version available here

Healthy Dose of Digital

 I just read a NYTimes article that highlights how technology companies are pushing technology into the practice because there seems to be a bipartisan consensus that EMR is A-OK! Great article, here's a sample, scroll down for a link to the full version.

The goal of moving paper medical records into the digital age has been championed for years by health care policy makers across the political spectrum, from Hillary Rodham Clinton to Newt Gingrich. As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama, too, was an advocate, and the economic crisis opened the door for an ambitious step — $19 billion put into the recovery package to encourage doctors and hospitals to install and use electronic health records.

So even as the Obama administration and Congress struggle with broad health policy legislation, the technology industry is pursuing the opportunity in digital health records as never before. Although most of the government money will not start flowing until next year, the companies hoping to get their share include technology giants like General Electric, I.B.M. and the big telecommunications company, Verizon. Also in the hunt are smaller health technology specialists like Athenahealth, eClinicalWorks and Practice Fusion.

Source: Steve Lohr, Tech Companies Push to Digitize Patients’ Records, New York Times (September 10, 200) (available online here)

EMR Coming to NY Veterans Home

EMR is coming to a veterans home in NY. Read the article (link below in source).

The Long Island State Veterans Home will develop an electronic medical records system similar to those at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers, using $1.13 million in federal and state grants. The grants will also allow the 350-bed nursing home on the campus of Stony Brook University to make technological improvements to the nurse training center and upgrades to resident communications systems.

Source: Martin C. Evans, Electronic records coming to state veterans home, Newsday (September 2, 2009) (available online here)