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Posts Tagged ‘EMR’

Read, for how an advanced and fully operational EMR is more advantageous than other, for better health outcomes!

 

In a new study conducted by W.P.Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, it has been demonstrated that hospitals/emergency rooms that had advanced electronic medical records being implemented have had streamlined operation, as patients were required to spend 22.4% time less for various procedures than other hospitals with paper-based work culture, and this is a good sign that EMR adoption extends forth. (Courtesy: Healthcare IT News, HIMSS).

Patients that chose hospitals equipped with best EMR software, fully functional across the network, have had good experience with such care units; shorter stay and treatment time at emergency departments were some of the advantages that patients had been having, through with this. On the other, with a basic EMR system, the outcomes vary, as healthcare professionals would not be able to completely optimize their care units, for increased productivity/efficiency.

The research author (Michael Furukawa, Assistant Professor) evaluated previous data from 2006 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey; the data comprised records of about 364 hospitals that more than 30,000 patients made visit to, through out; the study examined subsequent categories: hospital/emergency rooms that did not implement electronic medical records; other that had basic EMR system that lacked advanced functional attributes, viz. online accessibility to varied test results, etc., and emergency units/hospitals that had advanced/fully-operational EMR systems, through the networked facility.

Emergency rooms at hospitals with advanced EMR systems had 23.5% shorter stays for patients admitted to the hospital, and 13.1% shorter treatment times for the patients; besides about 21.3% shorter stays were recorded for patients at emergency departments, as they were discharged after immediate treatment, without even getting hospitalized by.

Emergency rooms at hospitals that had basic electronic medical records being implemented over had about 47.3% longer waiting time for patients with grave medical conditions, and related, for urgent care and treatment.

The refinement of health IT infrastructure is vital, as the study found that some of the healthcare organizations just for Medicare bonus, and to keep away from penalties do up with basic electronic medical records, but do not go for advanced, fully-operational EMR systems, at their care facilities, which would in the long run only have negative effects on the organization, where productivity and competence are concerned.

Proper training, and acquaintance of the system is necessary for medical care professionals/staff, so as to get to be more efficient and proficient in everyday healthcare activities. Furukawa says, partial EMRs are not most favorable, by any means, and would not serve the purpose to help organizations optimize workflow, for better outcomes, as Government is even up to declare regular standards for Health IT that healthcare units have to strictly abide with.

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As per the new KLAS study, the healthcare market is up with the new development, as the stories are hot of that of replacement of EMRs, from one-third of ambulatory practices, as big companies have come forward to do up with the initiative, where the subsequent vendors -  Allscripts, eClinicalWorks, Epic and NextGen have obliged for ambulatory EMR growth. KLAS is a research firm that monitors and reports the performance of healthcare vendors in the marketplace, with intention to improve delivery, through measurement of vendor performance for the extensive benefit of healthcare providers, investors, and varied other identities related to the domain. KLAs measure out performance of medical equipment vendors, software and services that they support etc.

The booming market of Ambulatory EMR for first-time and replacement sales shot up, in comparison to the previous year. Though the options are plentiful for the market, like before, healthcare organizations are up to move toward the tried-and-tested things. KLAS that assist healthcare organizations/care providers to measure up the vendor performance, carried on around 400 provider interviews for to recognize out the buying/purchase trend in the Ambulatory EMR market, and of users for varied EMR products, and as per the reports, the EMR replacement has gained enough momentum in the market, over the previous years, as healthcare organizations are up with the options for substitution of existent ambulatory EMRs, and this is occurring in a fast pace, when conducted the study by one of the dignitaries of KLAS.

It has been found through the report that about 35 percent of the providers that were interviewed have opted for the substitution of their existent EMRs, which is inclusive of more than a third of the smallest practice care providers, and about 43 percent of cluster with a mix of about 100 and so, of  doctors/physicians, and as per the report that is available, the healthcare providers are switching over to vendors that they felt are durable and steady, and according to the detailed report, it has been recognized out that the health care professionals are turning to vendors they perceive as enduring and stable, viz. Allscripts, eClinicalWorks, Epic and NextGen, where these all are known as to be some of most-considered vendors.

The vendors that were considered by providers are broader, this year, in comparison to the previous year record. It has been come to view through the market analysis and report that – though the healthcare providers are attached to specialized features and workflow of some of less-acknowledged names in the market, but they all opted for the certificate/security of recognized brand figures in the marketplace, as they (healthcare providers) believe that the vendors available in the marketplace will live on to the changeover for the significant and meaningful use.

On the popularity front, the big names with percentage of deals were – Allscripts (16 percent), Epic (12 percent), NextGen (10 percent) etc.

Recently talked to a friend who had an ultrasound scan of their ovaries. The ultrasonographer was quite cagey and left my friend feeling rather anxious about the results. She is at that age where fear of ovarian cancer is real and meaningful and appropriate. She is waiting to hear the results; a wait that is made worse by the fact that the hotline number is always busy. It made me realise that an EMR would make a huge difference to a patient if it allowed them to seek second opinions and circumvent the specific practices of the UK health system. As EMR and EHR programmes are being rolled out, it will be fascinating to see whether they are used to reduce healthcare costs, empower patients and stimulate innovation in healthcare or whether as is most likely they will simply be used to reduce costs and retain the hegemony of medical professionals. The promise of Electronic Medical Records is of a patient record that enables patients to understand a great deal more about both their health and any illnesses they experience and to improve the quality of their lives thereby, it opens an exciting opportunity for community building and sharing health experiences especially for afflictions that impact the social capacity of the patient, it enables universities to undertake extraordinary statistical research into epidemiology and it provides the platform for patients to “own” their own health rather than the contemporary disease of outsourcing it to doctors and numerous alternative quacks.

Patient data confidentiality and Institutional security will continue to be at risk if proper care is not taken while, transferring data from paper to digital Ericka Chickowski from darkreading writes on Apr-30th.

Surveys recently conducted revealed that,

1. The adoption rate of EMRs within U.S. medical offices grew higher.
2. Low budgeted healthcare organizations have increased their EMR use,
3. Fraud based on exposure to health data ALSO rose.

Deke George, CEO of NetSPI, (a security consultancy with healthcare client base) are of the opinion that, Even the resourceful healthcare organizations, with established databases, are yet to catch up with their counterparts in other industries, in terms of security of data. “There are many healthcare environments that still haven’t even put in DMZs,” he says. “From just a logical separation within the larger environments, these organizations are not necessarily segmenting off their databases.” Scores of significant data is scattered around, across numerous databases to collaborate, observe and research for healthcare informatics. Unsaved or loosely kept important patient data can also be found under test environments.

George says, “It’s more than a leak- what ends up happening is there’s a lot of data warehousing and there’s a lot of information that is in one database, but it gets spread around because it needs to be used for healthcare informatics in other uses. So you have all of these databases that just multiply, whether it’s because the applications themselves grow or the use of the database information grows from the native database to the data warehouse to other types of systems that now need this information.Everyone says up front that they don’t have real information in their test environments, but I would say probably 50 percent of the time we find that test environments contain live information,” Thus, understanding the value and location of the data and allowing authorised access to them, are meant to improve data confidentiality management according to him.

However, Josh Shaul, vice president of product management for database and application security vendor Application Security Inc adds, “…In the end we’re all securing data in databases and Oracle, SQL Server, and Sybase. They work the same whether you have your secret recipe in them or you have your healthcare information in them or you have credit card data in them.”

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ( CMS ), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced on Apr-26th, 2010 that, Washington’s Medicaid program will receive federal matching funds for state planning activities required to utilize the electronic health record (EHR) incentive program formed by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). Washington is entitled to approximately $967,000 in federal matching funds.

EHRs are expected to serve the purpose of improving general health care for the people of Washington. These records are meant to fit in conveniently with various providers treating a Medicaid patient subject to care. Decision making comes in handy with EHRs. The Recovery Act provides a 90 percent federal match for state planning activities to administer the incentive payments to Medicaid assistants, to make sure of their payments through audits and statewide participation to promote “meaningful use” and work-structure within the block of EHR technology across Washington.

Washington intends to make full use of its federal matching funds for planning activities that include organising a detailed analysis to understand the recent situation of Health IT activities in the state. Data on issues such as existing barriers to its use of EHRs, provider eligibility for EHR incentive payments, and the creation of a State Medicaid HIT Plan, which will define the state’s vision for its long-term HIT use will taken into account.

We congratulate Washington for qualifying for these federal matching funds to assist its plan for implementing the Recovery Act’s EHR incentive program, Meaningful and interoperable use of EHRs in Medicaid will increase health care efficiency, reduce medical errors and improve quality-outcomes and patient satisfaction within and across the states.” said Cindy Mann, director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations at CMS.

Other States who recieved similar funding include:

• New Mexico will be assigned about $405,000 for the EHR planning work.
• Missouri will receive approximately $1.53 million in federal matching funds.
• Puerto Rico will receive approximately $1.80 million in federal matching funds.
• Oregon will receive approximately $3.53 million in federal matching funds.

An earlier Kalorama report EMR 2010 (Market Analysis, ARRA Incentives, Key Players, and Important Trends), officially posted on April 7th-2010, states how HHS is being constantly urged by health practitioners’ organisations and Congress Members to unlax the ‘meaningful use’ criteria for active growth in the EMR industry. A $13.8 billion market is predicted in the report which can be successfully increased to almost its double earning by systematic use of incentives and urging of health systems. Kalorama identifies the standards of obtaining EMR status for a physician is the most important obstacle they are facing at the moment.

Certain criterias for medical practitioners by HSS, such as, submitting a percentage of claims electronically, implementing established diagnostic list such as ICD-9, common medications listed for every patient etc are required to be met in order to be elligible to earn the EMR incentives by 2011. Kalorama however, also believes that requiring 80% of orders via CPOE by 2011, or that half of patients get auto-reminders through an EMR system, may affect EMR systems sales.

It is also mentioned in the report, about the letter prepared by the Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and his batch of thirty-seven U.S. Senators along with D-Montana, and American Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. It was about mprovements in an earlier proposal for distributing substantial amounts for health Information and Technology. The letter was published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.The idea was to motivate provider participation.A total of 235 members of the United States House of Representatives insisted CMS to axpand its proposed definition and criteria for hospitals to be elligible for the ‘meaningful use’ of health IT incentives.

Kalorama quoted Mr.Bruce Carlson, the publisher of Kalorama Information saying, “Requiring physicians to undergo 25 mandates by next year may not be effective given the kind of real-world usage among physicians we see today.Getting physicians used to these systems is the challenge to a totally paperless healthcare system in the United States and we think gradual, achievable goals would be preferable.

The report can be purchased from Kalorama Information at: http://www.kaloramainformation.com/redirect.asp?progid=78541&productid=2503320.

Amidst the debates and campaigns by the Obama administration to gain support to move forward advancing the healthcare reform bill, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius has announced an additional amount of 162 million dollars in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for advancement of health information technology (HIT).

The additional funding is to award the states for meaningful use of of HIT and adoption of electronic health records and health information exchange (HIE) . It  will be given to the following 16 states and state designated entities for adoption of HIE according to the national standards:

• Agency of Health Care Administration (FL)
• The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
• New Jersey Health Care Facilities Financing Authority
• South Carolina Department of Health & Human Services
• Iowa Department of Public Health
• Idaho Health Data Exchange
• State of North Dakota, Information Technology Department
• State of Alaska
• Nebraska Department of Administrative Services
• South Dakota Department of Health
• Department of Public Health, State of CT
• State of Mississippi
• Indiana Health Information Technology, Inc.
• HealthShare Montana
• Texas Health and Human Services Commission
• Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum

Dr. David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health information technology stated that the grant has now empowered the state to develop innovative ways to overcome the barriers preventing health information exchange.

“States play a critical leadership role in advancing the development of the exchange capacity of healthcare providers and hospitals within their states and across the nation. Health information exchange will enable eligible healthcare providers to be deemed meaningful users of health IT and receive incentive payments under the Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record (EHR) incentive program,”he added.

The funding is part of the 2 billlion effort by the government to achieve meaningful use of HIT and make available the use of electronic health record by each person by 2014.

The latest market research report by Global Industry Analysts (GIA) on Electronic Medical Records (EMR) states that there is an excellent potential for EMR systems in the healthcare industry worldwide. This is due to widespread adoption of electonic systems for effective management of data, less costs, minimum staff and improving the quality of care.

The report titled ‘Electronic Medical Record Systems: A North American and European Market Report,’ provides a comprehensive analysis of European and North American markets for EMRs, including company profiles, product reviews/introductions/innovations, key players and present industry analysis.  According to the report, the European and North American markets are exceed US$5.4 billion and US$1.4 billion, respectively by 2015.

The GIA profiles companies like Agfa-Gevaert Ltd, Ascribe plc, Cambio Healthcare Systems, Cerner Corporation, CompuGROUP HOLDING AG, Computer Programs and Systems, Inc, EBIT AET S.p.A., Eclipsys Corporation, Egton Medical Information Systems Limited, Epic Systems Corporation, GE Healthcare, Hewlett Packard Company, IBA Health (Europe) Ltd, IMS MAXIMS plc, Indra Sistemas SA, iSoft Group plc, McKesson Corporation, MDS Medical Software, MedPlus, Inc, Medical Information Technology, Inc, Medasys SA, Nexus AG, Noemalife SpA, Profdoc AB, QuadraMed Corporation, SAP (UK) Limited, Siemens Medical Solutions GSD GmbH, System C Healthcare plc etc as key players in the electronic medical records industry.