Government incentives for using electronic medical records will result in spending on systems doubling by 2015, according to a report by IDC Health Insights. However, the study notes that much of that growth will come closer to end of that projected period, because vendors are having trouble keeping up with the orders.
Total EMR spending, which is expected to grow from $1.9 billion in 2009 to $3.8 billion by 2015, is about twice the growth rate analysts are seeing over the health information technology market and the general IT market, said Judy Hanover, research director of provider IT strategies for the Framingham, Mass.-based market research company and co-author of the report.
The report notes that a separate IDC survey in August 2010 found that 44% of health care organizations plan to accelerate or aggressively accelerate their plans to deploy EMRs because of financial incentives in the 2009 economic stimulus package. The stimulus provided incentives of up to $44,000 under Medicare and nearly $64,000 under Medicaid for meaningful use of an EMR.
But this rapid deployment is causing a vendor backlog that has resulted in unanticipated delays of up to six months for some practices and hospitals. Hanover said this has been a bigger issue for inpatient system deployments, but analysts are starting to see it on the ambulatory side as well.
The authors of the report predicted that the largest chunk of EMR investments will come in 2015. Not only is the backlog expected to cause delays, but some physicians will put off purchasing until it gets closer to 2015, when incentives turn to penalties.
The forecast shows clinics and physician practices will spend $335 million on EMRs in 2011 and $490 million in 2015. Ambulatory EMR spending overall was $633 million in 2009 and is expected to reach $1.4 billion in 2015.
Making an early decision on an EMR will help ensure that staff members are available for its installation, Hanover said. Practices might want to consider looking at third-party vendors if their primary vendors are experiencing a backlog, she said. Many third parties can provide installation and training services with the help of the vendor, she said.
After 2015, vendors are expected to enter a “maintenance cycle” in which revenue will come mostly from replacement systems or upgrades. Not only could the government require EMRs to perform more functions than they do today to qualify for incentives, health system reform may have an impact.
“We do expect to see, as health care reform goes into effect, a massive consolidation in the provider community in terms of acquisitions and reductions in the total number of providers,” Hanover said. “And that will drive some replacements and upgrading and reinvestment in EMRs.”
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2011/02/emr-spending-expected-to-double-in-4-years/
Showing posts with label emr implementation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label emr implementation. Show all posts
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Healthcare iPad Deployment To Approach 70% In 2011
Results from a survey of nearly 950 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) members indicates that iPad deployments are accelerating in large part due to the mobile device’s compelling point-of-care applications and uses.
Conducted October 26 during an online webinar cosponsored by HIMSS and BoxTone, a mobile service management (MSM) company, the survey’s results were released earlier this month.
Data showed that nearly 70% of the attendees were from hospitals or healthcare organizations with more than 1,500 employees, and 15% of attendees were executive-level staff or physicians.
More than 25% of the HIMSS respondents plan to deploy the iPad and other iOS devices immediately and nearly 70% plan to deploy the devices within the next year.
One-third of respondents identified point-of-care applications — including lab order visualization and results, clinical decision support, and medical image viewing applications — as top priorities, while 18% identified general administration, including billing, coding, and claims applications, as top priorities.
Nearly 75% identified secure configuration and deployment as the number one iPad IT management challenge, and 53% identified mobile application deployment as a key issue.
Lynne Dunbrack, analyst with IDC Health Insights, said security will remain a top concern for healthcare CIOs, especially if clinicians bring in their own devices to access the hospital’s healthcare information systems, such as electronic medical records (EMRs) and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems.
“As more patient information is moved into EMRs and made accessible both inside and outside the organization via a range of devices, including mobile devices and tablets, the risk of a privacy breach rises. Organized deployment and virtualized clients will help to mitigate this concern,” Dunbrack said.
Dunbrack also noted that the iPad, which has a sleek design, an intuitive user interface, and a large screen (relative to a smartphone), is becoming increasingly popular among clinicians. As the iPad gains traction among healthcare providers, EMR vendors will develop bidirectional integration between their EMR applications and clinicians’ mobile point-of-care devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Vendors are also developing EMR applications specifically for the iPad, Dunbrack observed. One example is St. Louis-based ClearPractice, a company that develops Web-based ambulatory EMR and revenue cycle management applications. ClearPractice recently launched Nimble, a comprehensive EMR application designed and developed specifically for the iPad.
Alan Snyder, BoxTone’s CEO, said in a statement that the iPad is redefining how organizations leverage mobile technology in the enterprise and the healthcare community is leading this paradigm shift.
“As these devices are used more frequently at the point of care, IT must ensure both data security and privacy, as well as superior remote connectivity,” Snyder said.
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/12/healthcare-ipad-deployment-to-approach-70-in-2011/
Conducted October 26 during an online webinar cosponsored by HIMSS and BoxTone, a mobile service management (MSM) company, the survey’s results were released earlier this month.
Data showed that nearly 70% of the attendees were from hospitals or healthcare organizations with more than 1,500 employees, and 15% of attendees were executive-level staff or physicians.
More than 25% of the HIMSS respondents plan to deploy the iPad and other iOS devices immediately and nearly 70% plan to deploy the devices within the next year.
One-third of respondents identified point-of-care applications — including lab order visualization and results, clinical decision support, and medical image viewing applications — as top priorities, while 18% identified general administration, including billing, coding, and claims applications, as top priorities.
Nearly 75% identified secure configuration and deployment as the number one iPad IT management challenge, and 53% identified mobile application deployment as a key issue.
Lynne Dunbrack, analyst with IDC Health Insights, said security will remain a top concern for healthcare CIOs, especially if clinicians bring in their own devices to access the hospital’s healthcare information systems, such as electronic medical records (EMRs) and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems.
“As more patient information is moved into EMRs and made accessible both inside and outside the organization via a range of devices, including mobile devices and tablets, the risk of a privacy breach rises. Organized deployment and virtualized clients will help to mitigate this concern,” Dunbrack said.
Dunbrack also noted that the iPad, which has a sleek design, an intuitive user interface, and a large screen (relative to a smartphone), is becoming increasingly popular among clinicians. As the iPad gains traction among healthcare providers, EMR vendors will develop bidirectional integration between their EMR applications and clinicians’ mobile point-of-care devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Vendors are also developing EMR applications specifically for the iPad, Dunbrack observed. One example is St. Louis-based ClearPractice, a company that develops Web-based ambulatory EMR and revenue cycle management applications. ClearPractice recently launched Nimble, a comprehensive EMR application designed and developed specifically for the iPad.
Alan Snyder, BoxTone’s CEO, said in a statement that the iPad is redefining how organizations leverage mobile technology in the enterprise and the healthcare community is leading this paradigm shift.
“As these devices are used more frequently at the point of care, IT must ensure both data security and privacy, as well as superior remote connectivity,” Snyder said.
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/12/healthcare-ipad-deployment-to-approach-70-in-2011/
Friday, December 31, 2010
HIMSS Analytics Names First Korean Stage 7 Hospital
SEOUL, South Korea – Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (SNUBH) has reached Stage 7 on the HIMSS Analytics Electronic Medical Records Adoption Model (EMRAM) scale. It is the first hospital outside of the United States to achieve the Stage 7 designation, and the only hospital in Asia to do so.
The EMR Adoption Model provides a leadership guide for IT adoption in healthcare. The higher the stage, the more advanced the IT application coverts to. Stage 7 represents a totally paperless environment.
Only 1 percent of US hospitals rank at the Stage 7 achievement level on the EMRAM. At this stage, care coordination across the hospital is improved using EMR, developing better health information exchanges, and data warehousing for population health improvement.
The Seoul National University Bundang Hospital reached Stage 7 with:
HIMSS Analytics is beginning to collect data on electronic health record implementation from all hospitals in Korea. More information on Stage 7 recognition is available on the HIMSS Analytics website.
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/12/himss-analytics-names-first-korean-stage-7-hospital/
The EMR Adoption Model provides a leadership guide for IT adoption in healthcare. The higher the stage, the more advanced the IT application coverts to. Stage 7 represents a totally paperless environment.
Only 1 percent of US hospitals rank at the Stage 7 achievement level on the EMRAM. At this stage, care coordination across the hospital is improved using EMR, developing better health information exchanges, and data warehousing for population health improvement.
The Seoul National University Bundang Hospital reached Stage 7 with:
- Almost all medical orders entered by physicians.
- Ninety percent of physicians enter patient health information into the EHR, using structured templates that generate data, allowing clinical decision support for clinical guidance.
- Efficiency gained through automation, such as relying on only four transcriptionists to support 910 inpatient beds and over 4,000 outpatient visits per day.
- The Medical Imaging department is fully digitized producing 1.2 terabytes of data per month for 70,000 radiologic exams per month.
- The Closed-Loop Medication Administration (CLMA) process has the highest level of patient safety for bar-coded medications through RFID technology
- The hospital uses clinical data warehousing for developing over 250 quality clinical indicators and 98 critical pathways.
- A Health Information Exchange exists between the hospital and 36 private clinics in its region.
HIMSS Analytics is beginning to collect data on electronic health record implementation from all hospitals in Korea. More information on Stage 7 recognition is available on the HIMSS Analytics website.
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/12/himss-analytics-names-first-korean-stage-7-hospital/
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
The ‘Three-Legged Stool’ Model For EMR Transition
PORTLAND, MAINE – “What do you really hold dear to you that you want to preserve into the future as you transition to an electronic medical record?” That’s the question consulting firm Innovation Partners International posed to Maine providers attending a regional extension center (REC) educational forum this week.
Bernard Mohr, a partner at the firm, said he grew up next to a farm with milking cows. The stools the farmers used to milk the cows were three-legged. He explained that they found that a stool with three legs was actually “much more stable on uneven ground than a four-legged stool.”
The stool, Mohr said, is a metaphor for a different model for managing the transition to an EMR.
According to Mohr and Robert (Bob) Laliberte, who teaches the UNE Project Management Program and is also a partner at Innovation Partners International, the three legs of the “stool” of an EMR implementation are: life-giving properties, hopes and aspirations and first steps. If you can identify those three components then you’ll have a better chance at having a successful transition to your EMR, they said.
Mohr and Laliberte asked the 30 providers in attendance to pair up in groups and identify the life-giving properties or the core values that give their practices vitality and that, “if not retained during the transition to their EMR, would irreparably worsen the situation.”
“Autonomy is important for me,” said one doctor. “And feeling like I am doing something that matters – helping people. If I end up just playing with medical records that would be the pits for me.” I don’t want to spend more time with a machine than the people I am trying to help.”
Laliberte told attendees they had to think of an EMR as a possibility rather than a burden. He asked providers to think about “exciting possibilities” that the technology could bring to their practices.
Providers agreed that improved quality of care and patient satisfaction were at the top of the list. They also said it was important that providers have improved satisfaction as well.
“In the end, the most important thing is that you are making a difference for your patients, that is what it is all about,” said one attendee.
The last question attendees had to answer was, “what is the smallest step you could take in the next week to start moving toward your desired future?”
Attendees said identifying their goals and visions for the technology as well as talking to other providers about their experience could be possible action items for them.
Remember, said Laliberte in closing: “the EMR is at the service of the patient.”
The session was part of regional forum series being held by The Maine Regional Extension Center (MEREC), overseen by HealthInfoNet, and Quality Counts, a regional healthcare collaborative committed to improving health and healthcare for the people of Maine.
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/11/the-three-legged-stool-model-for-emr-transition/
Bernard Mohr, a partner at the firm, said he grew up next to a farm with milking cows. The stools the farmers used to milk the cows were three-legged. He explained that they found that a stool with three legs was actually “much more stable on uneven ground than a four-legged stool.”
The stool, Mohr said, is a metaphor for a different model for managing the transition to an EMR.
According to Mohr and Robert (Bob) Laliberte, who teaches the UNE Project Management Program and is also a partner at Innovation Partners International, the three legs of the “stool” of an EMR implementation are: life-giving properties, hopes and aspirations and first steps. If you can identify those three components then you’ll have a better chance at having a successful transition to your EMR, they said.
Mohr and Laliberte asked the 30 providers in attendance to pair up in groups and identify the life-giving properties or the core values that give their practices vitality and that, “if not retained during the transition to their EMR, would irreparably worsen the situation.”
“Autonomy is important for me,” said one doctor. “And feeling like I am doing something that matters – helping people. If I end up just playing with medical records that would be the pits for me.” I don’t want to spend more time with a machine than the people I am trying to help.”
Laliberte told attendees they had to think of an EMR as a possibility rather than a burden. He asked providers to think about “exciting possibilities” that the technology could bring to their practices.
Providers agreed that improved quality of care and patient satisfaction were at the top of the list. They also said it was important that providers have improved satisfaction as well.
“In the end, the most important thing is that you are making a difference for your patients, that is what it is all about,” said one attendee.
The last question attendees had to answer was, “what is the smallest step you could take in the next week to start moving toward your desired future?”
Attendees said identifying their goals and visions for the technology as well as talking to other providers about their experience could be possible action items for them.
Remember, said Laliberte in closing: “the EMR is at the service of the patient.”
The session was part of regional forum series being held by The Maine Regional Extension Center (MEREC), overseen by HealthInfoNet, and Quality Counts, a regional healthcare collaborative committed to improving health and healthcare for the people of Maine.
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/11/the-three-legged-stool-model-for-emr-transition/
Monday, December 6, 2010
EMR-Driven Disease Management Reduces Mortality, Costs
EMRs keep on proving their mettle in the area of care coordination.
The latest evidence comes from Kaiser Permanente Colorado, which improved outcomes by mining its EMR and electronic disease registries to match patients with heart disease to clinical pharmacy specialists and “personalized” nurses. In a study published in the November edition of the journal Pharmacotherapy, Kaiser researchers reported an 89 percent reduction in mortality, as well as cost reductions of $60 per day for cardiac patients enrolled in a disease management program, as compared to a control group.
The program, called the Kaiser Permanente Collaborative Cardiac Care Service, can notify pharmacy specialists if a patient doesn’t pick up a prescription or if a cholesterol test reveals a need to change medications, for example. The pharmacists or nurses then can contact individual patients to help them make the necessary adjustments to their treatment.
Rather than seeing costs increase due to the extra service, healthcare expenditures declined significantly for patients in the program. Hospitalization costs averaged $19 per day for participants, vs. $69 per day for those receiving standard treatment. Kaiser also reported small cost savings on physician office visits and medications due to the better coordination.
“This program works because it is a team approach,” study co-author Dr. John Merenich, medical director of the Clinical Pharmacy Cardiac Risk Service at KP Colorado, tells Healthcare IT News. “Our teams of nurses and clinical pharmacists, as well as our health information technology, require significant investment. We always knew it was the right investment because it saved lives. Now we know it’s also the right investment because it provides the highest quality care at a lower cost. This is the value people have been looking for in health care.”
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/11/emr-driven-disease-management-reduces-mortality-costs/
The latest evidence comes from Kaiser Permanente Colorado, which improved outcomes by mining its EMR and electronic disease registries to match patients with heart disease to clinical pharmacy specialists and “personalized” nurses. In a study published in the November edition of the journal Pharmacotherapy, Kaiser researchers reported an 89 percent reduction in mortality, as well as cost reductions of $60 per day for cardiac patients enrolled in a disease management program, as compared to a control group.
The program, called the Kaiser Permanente Collaborative Cardiac Care Service, can notify pharmacy specialists if a patient doesn’t pick up a prescription or if a cholesterol test reveals a need to change medications, for example. The pharmacists or nurses then can contact individual patients to help them make the necessary adjustments to their treatment.
Rather than seeing costs increase due to the extra service, healthcare expenditures declined significantly for patients in the program. Hospitalization costs averaged $19 per day for participants, vs. $69 per day for those receiving standard treatment. Kaiser also reported small cost savings on physician office visits and medications due to the better coordination.
“This program works because it is a team approach,” study co-author Dr. John Merenich, medical director of the Clinical Pharmacy Cardiac Risk Service at KP Colorado, tells Healthcare IT News. “Our teams of nurses and clinical pharmacists, as well as our health information technology, require significant investment. We always knew it was the right investment because it saved lives. Now we know it’s also the right investment because it provides the highest quality care at a lower cost. This is the value people have been looking for in health care.”
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/11/emr-driven-disease-management-reduces-mortality-costs/
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Making Meaningful Transition To EMR
With the publication of the meaningful use guidelines on July 13, it is now clear what hospitals and doctors must demonstrate in their adoption of electronic medical records to grab a share of the billions of dollars available in federal incentives. Not as obvious, however, are the steps to take in negotiating this transition.
More than just the right technology, there must be a plan for preparing paper records and workflow processes for a “new normal,” where doctors will utilize both paper and electronic records to treat patients. The need for this “EMR enablement” work has been mostly lost amid the discussion of what technology milestones hospitals must hit and by when.
Hospitals that correctly complete this preparatory stage will realize three benefits: a more efficient records management program that returns cost savings to apply toward EMR; a better-organized records system that makes EMR implementation easier; and improved workflows for treating patients with hardcopy and digital records. Below are key EMR-enablement steps:
Centralize paper records for better access and lower costs
Today, most hospitals have patient records and films bottled up in specific departments, with no ability to share this information across the entire organization. In many cases, this produces unnecessary duplication of records and inconsistent management processes. Consolidating hardcopy patient records and films and then re-engineering how the organization stores and uses them can save time, cut costs and improve the quality of care through faster access to patient data. These new workflows need to account for how organizations archive, use and protect patient records in paper and electronic form. Stop saving – and paying for – outdated and duplicate records
Going digital does not mean digitizing every patient record. A thoughtful approach – what to digitize versus what can remain paper-based or securely destroyed – is required to reduce costs and improve care. A study from the American Health Information Management Association found that more than half of U.S. hospitals keep medical records forever, a behavior driven by the twin forces of industry regulations like HIPPA and state retention laws. Hospitals should comb through their records and destroy duplicates as well as those records past state-mandated retention periods. Destroying these outdated files and redundant copies cuts storage costs and makes digitization more cost-effective. Begin your EMR journey with the right records
Make no mistake: paper records are not going to disappear any time soon. A portion of the physical patient record will continue to exist and grow at least in the near term. Information technology will certainly change how records are accessed and stored, but paper will continue to coexist with electronic information in a so-called “hybrid” record environment for many years to come. An intelligent approach to digitizing records will control costs and change how documents are shared and protected, improving workflow-based functions like billing, coding, and chart completion. Records can be shared simultaneously by many different departments instead of being handed off piece-by-piece to complete these functions. Scanning only what is needed as it is needed – and not just scanning every record, or even the entire record – ensures that the investment in an EMR is on par with treatment requirements, using patient history and clinical needs as criteria for conversion.
The opportunities of moving to the EMR are great. By addressing the core issues of what (and how) information needs to be stored, accessed and protected, healthcare providers can develop a more efficient pathway to the EMR and, in the process, deliver the patient care and cost savings benefits promised by this transition.
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/10/making-meaningful-transition-to-emr/
Hospitals that correctly complete this preparatory stage will realize three benefits: a more efficient records management program that returns cost savings to apply toward EMR; a better-organized records system that makes EMR implementation easier; and improved workflows for treating patients with hardcopy and digital records. Below are key EMR-enablement steps:
Centralize paper records for better access and lower costs
Today, most hospitals have patient records and films bottled up in specific departments, with no ability to share this information across the entire organization. In many cases, this produces unnecessary duplication of records and inconsistent management processes. Consolidating hardcopy patient records and films and then re-engineering how the organization stores and uses them can save time, cut costs and improve the quality of care through faster access to patient data. These new workflows need to account for how organizations archive, use and protect patient records in paper and electronic form. Stop saving – and paying for – outdated and duplicate records
Going digital does not mean digitizing every patient record. A thoughtful approach – what to digitize versus what can remain paper-based or securely destroyed – is required to reduce costs and improve care. A study from the American Health Information Management Association found that more than half of U.S. hospitals keep medical records forever, a behavior driven by the twin forces of industry regulations like HIPPA and state retention laws. Hospitals should comb through their records and destroy duplicates as well as those records past state-mandated retention periods. Destroying these outdated files and redundant copies cuts storage costs and makes digitization more cost-effective. Begin your EMR journey with the right records
Make no mistake: paper records are not going to disappear any time soon. A portion of the physical patient record will continue to exist and grow at least in the near term. Information technology will certainly change how records are accessed and stored, but paper will continue to coexist with electronic information in a so-called “hybrid” record environment for many years to come. An intelligent approach to digitizing records will control costs and change how documents are shared and protected, improving workflow-based functions like billing, coding, and chart completion. Records can be shared simultaneously by many different departments instead of being handed off piece-by-piece to complete these functions. Scanning only what is needed as it is needed – and not just scanning every record, or even the entire record – ensures that the investment in an EMR is on par with treatment requirements, using patient history and clinical needs as criteria for conversion.
The opportunities of moving to the EMR are great. By addressing the core issues of what (and how) information needs to be stored, accessed and protected, healthcare providers can develop a more efficient pathway to the EMR and, in the process, deliver the patient care and cost savings benefits promised by this transition.
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/10/making-meaningful-transition-to-emr/
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