While the sales growth in electronic medical record (EMR) systems has been slower than anticipated due to confusion over vendor qualifications and federal guidelines, the EMR market did grow in 2010 and it should see much better years ahead, according to a report from Kalorama Information.
The value of the market for EMRs was about $15.7 billion in 2010, according to the New York-based healthcare market research company in its latest report, “EMR 2011: The Market for Electronic Medical Record Systems.”
The EMR growth rate in 2010 was 13.6 percent–just above the rate in 2009 (10 percent). These rates were less, though, than predicted by Kalorama researchers (it had predicted about a 15 percent growth for both years). However, the rates may be improving as physician adoption improves and more incentive checks for EMR adoption under meaningful use guidelines are sent out.
Kalorama is predicting that adoption and upgrading activities will be “brisk” in coming years. As new systems are sold, companies will earn revenues from existing clients in servicing and consulting–resulting in a market growth rate of 18 to 20 percent for the next two years.
“We think that while progress was made in physician adoption and in vendor sales, there is still a lot more potential,” said Bruce Carlson, publisher of Kalorama Information, in a statement. “There are still a considerable number of physicians who need to be fully functional and hospitals that have to improve their stage ranking.”
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2011/03/emr-market-expected-to-increase-growth/
Showing posts with label emr systems. Show all posts
Showing posts with label emr systems. Show all posts
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Patient-Centered Medical Home Requires an EMR System
Patient-centered medical homes have become all the rage in the healthcare industry these days. The big push is coming from payers who want to cut costs and provider organizations who want primary care physicians to have a bigger say in the care of their patients. No matter who is driving the financial and clinical model, the train isn’t leaving the station, so to speak, without health IT to power it.
At a primary-care practice in St. Louis, Mo., both patients and their families are seeing firsthand how an electronic medical record (EMR) system documents patient treatment and applies clinical decision support and analytics to tailor a patient’s treatment plan.
PCMHs are not all the same, and the Des Peres Internal Medicine office further personalizes treatment by having a nurse practitioner and social worker as part of the PCMH team. One of the Des Peres Internal Medicine physicians said that one of the goals of the PCMH is to increase patient access to care. That could mean access to the social worker via telephone. It also gives patients the extra channel of communicating or completing tasks such as making an appointment, filling a prescription or entering patient vitals via a patient portal.
One of the best benefits of an EMR in a PCMH is the streamlining of care delivery, which includes the elimination of duplicative tests. Most patients in a PCMH likely have multiple chronic conditions that a care team must manage. If patients see multiple specialists on their own, who is coordinating the care? Even if the coordination is done through a primary-care physician, without an EMR to aggregate data and document what happens in every specialist office, the amount of administrative and clinical paperwork would be overwhelming.
Another benefit is empowering patients, which can often translate into taking better care of themselves, especially when they have their up-to-date patient information available to them via the patient portal and clinical decision support and analytics to support their entire care team.
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2011/02/patient-centered-medical-home-requires-an-emr-system/
At a primary-care practice in St. Louis, Mo., both patients and their families are seeing firsthand how an electronic medical record (EMR) system documents patient treatment and applies clinical decision support and analytics to tailor a patient’s treatment plan.
PCMHs are not all the same, and the Des Peres Internal Medicine office further personalizes treatment by having a nurse practitioner and social worker as part of the PCMH team. One of the Des Peres Internal Medicine physicians said that one of the goals of the PCMH is to increase patient access to care. That could mean access to the social worker via telephone. It also gives patients the extra channel of communicating or completing tasks such as making an appointment, filling a prescription or entering patient vitals via a patient portal.
One of the best benefits of an EMR in a PCMH is the streamlining of care delivery, which includes the elimination of duplicative tests. Most patients in a PCMH likely have multiple chronic conditions that a care team must manage. If patients see multiple specialists on their own, who is coordinating the care? Even if the coordination is done through a primary-care physician, without an EMR to aggregate data and document what happens in every specialist office, the amount of administrative and clinical paperwork would be overwhelming.
Another benefit is empowering patients, which can often translate into taking better care of themselves, especially when they have their up-to-date patient information available to them via the patient portal and clinical decision support and analytics to support their entire care team.
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2011/02/patient-centered-medical-home-requires-an-emr-system/
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/
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
New York EMR Network Set To Be The Largest In The Country
NEW YORK – The New York Department of Health (DOH) and the public-private partnership New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) on Tuesday submitted a plan to ONC outlining a proposal to spend $129 million in state and federal funds to build and implement a statewide medical records network.
The network is being touted by officials as the country’s largest – connecting hundreds of hospitals, thousands of medical practitioners and up to 20 million patients a year. Once completed, New York doctors anywhere in the state will have instant access to critical Electronic Medical Records (EMR) of every patient.
“Better information helps doctors do a better job,” said David Whitlinger, executive director of NYeC. “This statewide network will empower healthcare providers by giving them access to a wealth of patient data that they didn’t always have at their fingertips. While cutting edge technology plays a tremendous role in modern medicine, in many respects medical records are still stuck in the past. We look forward to helping create a system that will greatly improve the quality of medical care and therefore people’s lives.”
The proposed statewide network will link together several existing regional electronic medical records networks with new infrastructure and programming, and state agencies will set policies to govern the system’s implementation and maintenance. Currently, healthcare providers can share some electronic records with certain neighboring medical institutions.
The Statewide Health Information Network for NY (SHIN-NY) will allow patients and healthcare providers to have immediate access to histories, prescriptions, test results, medical analysis and diagnoses, and more, anywhere in the state.
“Having this information can mean the difference between life and death,” said Eugene Heslin, a practicing New York physician who serves on the Board of NYeC. Heslin says having quick access to patients’ information such, as their medication history, can be life-saving in an emergency.
While several other states and the Veterans Administration have set up large networks for medical records, officials say New York’s system will ultimately dwarf them when completed given the scope of the state’s medical facilities. The proposal establishes a preliminary timeline for the implementation of many of the core services the network can provide – ranking them in priority – and foresees new services being added every several months between mid-2011 and 2014.
“New York is once again leading the nation in healthcare initiatives that will provide better treatment to the millions of patients treated in the state every year,” said New York State Department of Health Deputy Commissioner of Health Information Technology Transformation Rachel Block. “We feel it is our responsibility to help all patients and healthcare providers across the state have access to the same vital information that can help save lives. We look forward to working with NYeC and other state programs to create this network and establish rules that will make electronic medical records secure, accessible and helpful to the many stakeholders all around the state.”
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/11/new-york-emr-network-set-to-be-the-largest-in-the-country/
The network is being touted by officials as the country’s largest – connecting hundreds of hospitals, thousands of medical practitioners and up to 20 million patients a year. Once completed, New York doctors anywhere in the state will have instant access to critical Electronic Medical Records (EMR) of every patient.
“Better information helps doctors do a better job,” said David Whitlinger, executive director of NYeC. “This statewide network will empower healthcare providers by giving them access to a wealth of patient data that they didn’t always have at their fingertips. While cutting edge technology plays a tremendous role in modern medicine, in many respects medical records are still stuck in the past. We look forward to helping create a system that will greatly improve the quality of medical care and therefore people’s lives.”
The proposed statewide network will link together several existing regional electronic medical records networks with new infrastructure and programming, and state agencies will set policies to govern the system’s implementation and maintenance. Currently, healthcare providers can share some electronic records with certain neighboring medical institutions.
The Statewide Health Information Network for NY (SHIN-NY) will allow patients and healthcare providers to have immediate access to histories, prescriptions, test results, medical analysis and diagnoses, and more, anywhere in the state.
“Having this information can mean the difference between life and death,” said Eugene Heslin, a practicing New York physician who serves on the Board of NYeC. Heslin says having quick access to patients’ information such, as their medication history, can be life-saving in an emergency.
While several other states and the Veterans Administration have set up large networks for medical records, officials say New York’s system will ultimately dwarf them when completed given the scope of the state’s medical facilities. The proposal establishes a preliminary timeline for the implementation of many of the core services the network can provide – ranking them in priority – and foresees new services being added every several months between mid-2011 and 2014.
“New York is once again leading the nation in healthcare initiatives that will provide better treatment to the millions of patients treated in the state every year,” said New York State Department of Health Deputy Commissioner of Health Information Technology Transformation Rachel Block. “We feel it is our responsibility to help all patients and healthcare providers across the state have access to the same vital information that can help save lives. We look forward to working with NYeC and other state programs to create this network and establish rules that will make electronic medical records secure, accessible and helpful to the many stakeholders all around the state.”
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/11/new-york-emr-network-set-to-be-the-largest-in-the-country/
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/
Monday, October 11, 2010
Mayo Clinic Using EMRs To Reveal Genetic Predisposition To Disease
EMRs are moving into genomics, at least at the Mayo Clinic.
In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Mayo physicians showed how EMRs were able to help them determine the genetic variants that make certain people more likely to develop peripheral artery disease.
With consent of patients, researchers tapped the Mayo database of more than 8 million Electronic Medical Records to pinpoint clinical variables that could indicate a predisposition to PAD, a task that would be difficult if not impossible with paper records, Healthcare IT News reports. The physicians were able to confirm several cases of the disease and to identify phenocopies–traits found in confirmed cases–of atherosclerotic PAD.
“Although manual abstraction of medical records can provide high-quality data, for large studies such as genetic association studies, manual review of medical records can be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming,” the study says. “Our study demonstrates … several significant advantages over traditional approaches to genomic medicine research by simplifying logistics, reducing timelines and overall costs through efficient data acquisition.”
The team, from Mayo’s Divisions of Cardiovascular Diseases and Biomedical Informatics and Statistics, said that structured EMR data from large institutions “offer great potential for diverse research studies, including those related to understanding the genetic bases of common diseases.”
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/09/mayo-clinic-using-emrs-to-reveal-genetic-predisposition-to-disease/
In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Mayo physicians showed how EMRs were able to help them determine the genetic variants that make certain people more likely to develop peripheral artery disease.
With consent of patients, researchers tapped the Mayo database of more than 8 million Electronic Medical Records to pinpoint clinical variables that could indicate a predisposition to PAD, a task that would be difficult if not impossible with paper records, Healthcare IT News reports. The physicians were able to confirm several cases of the disease and to identify phenocopies–traits found in confirmed cases–of atherosclerotic PAD.
“Although manual abstraction of medical records can provide high-quality data, for large studies such as genetic association studies, manual review of medical records can be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming,” the study says. “Our study demonstrates … several significant advantages over traditional approaches to genomic medicine research by simplifying logistics, reducing timelines and overall costs through efficient data acquisition.”
The team, from Mayo’s Divisions of Cardiovascular Diseases and Biomedical Informatics and Statistics, said that structured EMR data from large institutions “offer great potential for diverse research studies, including those related to understanding the genetic bases of common diseases.”
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/09/mayo-clinic-using-emrs-to-reveal-genetic-predisposition-to-disease/
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
HIMSS Analytics Europe to award wired hospitals
BRUSSELS – HIMSS Analytics Europe will introduce awards for European Hospitals that have achieved the highest scores on the EMR Adoption Model (EMRAM). They’ll be unveiled at the upcoming HIMSS Europe Health IT Leadership Summit in Rome from September 29 to October 1.
HIMSS Analytics Europe recently launched the European EMR Adoption Model and is currently surveying hospitals across 12 European countries. Initial findings will be presented at the upcoming Leadership Summit, alongside the announcement of the criteria needed to achieve the highest level of EMR adoption.
HIMSS officials explained that the European EMR Adoption Model has been adapted to meet the unique needs of European Healthcare Institutions and draws on the HIMSS Analytics US EMR Adoption Model which was developed in 2005 as a methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of electronic medical record systems for hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics Database. Tracking their progress in completing eight stages (0-7), hospitals can review the implementation and utilization of information technology applications with the intent of reaching Stage 7, which represents an advanced electronic patient record environment.
Stage 7 hospitals:
* Deliver patient care without the use of paper charts
* Are able to share patient information by sending secure standardized summary record transactions to other care providers
* Use their vast database of clinical information to drive improved care delivery performance, patient safety clinical decision support, and outcomes using business intelligence solutions
* Are best practice examples of how to implement sophisticated EMR environments that fully engage their clinicians.
The validation process that confirms a hospital has reached Stage 7 includes a site visit conducted by an executive from HIMSS Analytics Europe and two current chief information officers to ensure an unbiased evaluation of the Stage 7 environments.
“Stage 7 hospitals provide best practices that other healthcare organizations can study and emulate as they strive to use EMR applications to improve patient safety, clinical outcomes and patient care delivery efficiency,” said Uwe Buddrus, General Manager, HIMSS Analytics Europe. “The accomplishments of Stage 7 hospitals serve as important indicators of high quality patient care with the interoperable electronic medical record in place.”
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/09/himss-analytics-europe-to-award-wired-hospitals/
HIMSS Analytics Europe recently launched the European EMR Adoption Model and is currently surveying hospitals across 12 European countries. Initial findings will be presented at the upcoming Leadership Summit, alongside the announcement of the criteria needed to achieve the highest level of EMR adoption.
HIMSS officials explained that the European EMR Adoption Model has been adapted to meet the unique needs of European Healthcare Institutions and draws on the HIMSS Analytics US EMR Adoption Model which was developed in 2005 as a methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of electronic medical record systems for hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics Database. Tracking their progress in completing eight stages (0-7), hospitals can review the implementation and utilization of information technology applications with the intent of reaching Stage 7, which represents an advanced electronic patient record environment.
Stage 7 hospitals:
* Deliver patient care without the use of paper charts
* Are able to share patient information by sending secure standardized summary record transactions to other care providers
* Use their vast database of clinical information to drive improved care delivery performance, patient safety clinical decision support, and outcomes using business intelligence solutions
* Are best practice examples of how to implement sophisticated EMR environments that fully engage their clinicians.
The validation process that confirms a hospital has reached Stage 7 includes a site visit conducted by an executive from HIMSS Analytics Europe and two current chief information officers to ensure an unbiased evaluation of the Stage 7 environments.
“Stage 7 hospitals provide best practices that other healthcare organizations can study and emulate as they strive to use EMR applications to improve patient safety, clinical outcomes and patient care delivery efficiency,” said Uwe Buddrus, General Manager, HIMSS Analytics Europe. “The accomplishments of Stage 7 hospitals serve as important indicators of high quality patient care with the interoperable electronic medical record in place.”
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/09/himss-analytics-europe-to-award-wired-hospitals/
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Detroit Medical Center pegs EMR savings at $5M a year
DETROIT – Detroit Medical Center executives say they have achieved improved patient safety and saved $5 million to boot, thanks to DMC’s system-wide electronic medical system.
It is the second year in a row in which computer-based healthcare information processing created major improvements in quality of care and cost-savings for DMC’s eight hospitals, officials said.
The windfall in savings - triggered by highly effective electronic monitoring of critical tasks such as treating pressure ulcers and preventing medication errors - resulted in a healthy return on investment, they said.
The $50 million system powered by Kansas City, Mo-based Cerner Corp, has gone online throughout the DMC in gradual stages over a 12-year period, starting in 1998.
“The latest numbers are in, and we continue to see great strides in improving quality, treating patients more quickly and preventing error, which translates to dollar savings as well,” said Chief Nursing Officer Patricia Natale. “This work with these results is very exciting.”
“The savings are only part of the story,” she added, “because EMR is also a major step forward on the road to better quality of patient care. Thanks to EMR, we’re now seeing a dramatic reduction in the length of hospital stays due to pressure sores, along with a dramatic reduction of drug errors through EMR-enabled medication scanning.”
“The latest surveys show that EMR has helped to reduce medication errors by up to 75 percent,” said DMC Chief Medical Information Officer Leland Babitch, MD. “Obviously, that’s a major gain for patients - especially given the fact that medication errors account for the majority of accidental deaths and injuries at U.S. hospitals.”
The U.S. Institute of Medicine has estimated that up to 100,000 patients die as a result of hospital errors annually.
Treating pressure ulcers
The impact of the electronic medical record system on the treatment of pressure ulcers was especially noticeable, said DMC quality-of-care administrators.
They noted that the chronic sores often require extended hospital stays and thus drive up costs. But the most recent DMC Patient Care Services study of severe pressure ulcer cases showed that close EMR monitoring of bedsores reduced the average length of stay required to treat them by nearly three full days last year, compared with the average length of ulcer-triggered stays before EMR monitoring began in 2008.
The DMC study concluded that the reduction in the length of pressure ulcer-related hospital stays - in a system that admits more than 75,000 patients each year - was now helping to generate more than $4.5 million in yearly cost savings.
“The data on electronic medical records and patient safety and quality of care are clear and convincing by now,” said DMC Vice President for Quality and Safety Michelle Schreiber, MD. “Those data demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that EMR is an extremely powerful tool when it comes to protecting patients from hospital errors.
“But EMR is also proving to be an effective method for promoting quality of care - and the new numbers on bedsores and length of stays show how computer-based recordkeeping helps caregivers to take better care of patients day in and day out.”
In spite of the savings to be had from hospital-based EMR, however, recent studies show that the majority of U.S. hospitals have either failed to implement top-to-bottom EMR systems - or are cutting back on information technology (IT) programs already in place.
As of August 2010, fewer than 4 percent of U.S. hospitals had implemented the level of system-wide electronic patient recordkeeping that is now in place at the DMC. In addition, a recent study at the University of Michigan School of Medicine showed that more than one-fourth of the nation’s recession-affected hospitals have been cutting back on their already existing IT programs.
The cash-strapped hospitals were slashing IT budgets, reported the study in the Journal of Hospital Medicine, in spite of the fact that the Obama administration has recently made available more than $2.73 billion in Medicare/Medicaid bonuses for clinicians and hospitals that spend to improve their electronic medical records systems.
“The DMC has spent $50 million on building a powerful EMR system over the past five or six years, said Michael Duggan, president and CEO of the Detroit Medical Center, “and we did it because we like to think of ourselves as the ‘hospital of the future’ - as a state-of-the-art healing center where patients know they can get the best healthcare available anywhere today. ”
“At the same time, the ability to greatly reduce healthcare costs via electronic medical records is an added bonus - which makes implementing EMR a win-win situation for everyone involved.”
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/09/detroit-medical-center-pegs-emr-savings-at-5m-a-year/
It is the second year in a row in which computer-based healthcare information processing created major improvements in quality of care and cost-savings for DMC’s eight hospitals, officials said.
The windfall in savings - triggered by highly effective electronic monitoring of critical tasks such as treating pressure ulcers and preventing medication errors - resulted in a healthy return on investment, they said.
The $50 million system powered by Kansas City, Mo-based Cerner Corp, has gone online throughout the DMC in gradual stages over a 12-year period, starting in 1998.
“The latest numbers are in, and we continue to see great strides in improving quality, treating patients more quickly and preventing error, which translates to dollar savings as well,” said Chief Nursing Officer Patricia Natale. “This work with these results is very exciting.”
“The savings are only part of the story,” she added, “because EMR is also a major step forward on the road to better quality of patient care. Thanks to EMR, we’re now seeing a dramatic reduction in the length of hospital stays due to pressure sores, along with a dramatic reduction of drug errors through EMR-enabled medication scanning.”
“The latest surveys show that EMR has helped to reduce medication errors by up to 75 percent,” said DMC Chief Medical Information Officer Leland Babitch, MD. “Obviously, that’s a major gain for patients - especially given the fact that medication errors account for the majority of accidental deaths and injuries at U.S. hospitals.”
The U.S. Institute of Medicine has estimated that up to 100,000 patients die as a result of hospital errors annually.
Treating pressure ulcers
The impact of the electronic medical record system on the treatment of pressure ulcers was especially noticeable, said DMC quality-of-care administrators.
They noted that the chronic sores often require extended hospital stays and thus drive up costs. But the most recent DMC Patient Care Services study of severe pressure ulcer cases showed that close EMR monitoring of bedsores reduced the average length of stay required to treat them by nearly three full days last year, compared with the average length of ulcer-triggered stays before EMR monitoring began in 2008.
The DMC study concluded that the reduction in the length of pressure ulcer-related hospital stays - in a system that admits more than 75,000 patients each year - was now helping to generate more than $4.5 million in yearly cost savings.
“The data on electronic medical records and patient safety and quality of care are clear and convincing by now,” said DMC Vice President for Quality and Safety Michelle Schreiber, MD. “Those data demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that EMR is an extremely powerful tool when it comes to protecting patients from hospital errors.
“But EMR is also proving to be an effective method for promoting quality of care - and the new numbers on bedsores and length of stays show how computer-based recordkeeping helps caregivers to take better care of patients day in and day out.”
In spite of the savings to be had from hospital-based EMR, however, recent studies show that the majority of U.S. hospitals have either failed to implement top-to-bottom EMR systems - or are cutting back on information technology (IT) programs already in place.
As of August 2010, fewer than 4 percent of U.S. hospitals had implemented the level of system-wide electronic patient recordkeeping that is now in place at the DMC. In addition, a recent study at the University of Michigan School of Medicine showed that more than one-fourth of the nation’s recession-affected hospitals have been cutting back on their already existing IT programs.
The cash-strapped hospitals were slashing IT budgets, reported the study in the Journal of Hospital Medicine, in spite of the fact that the Obama administration has recently made available more than $2.73 billion in Medicare/Medicaid bonuses for clinicians and hospitals that spend to improve their electronic medical records systems.
“The DMC has spent $50 million on building a powerful EMR system over the past five or six years, said Michael Duggan, president and CEO of the Detroit Medical Center, “and we did it because we like to think of ourselves as the ‘hospital of the future’ - as a state-of-the-art healing center where patients know they can get the best healthcare available anywhere today. ”
“At the same time, the ability to greatly reduce healthcare costs via electronic medical records is an added bonus - which makes implementing EMR a win-win situation for everyone involved.”
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/09/detroit-medical-center-pegs-emr-savings-at-5m-a-year/
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
EMR retrieval tool full of potential
BOSTON – Radiologists’ use of an advanced search tool that aims at improving the way they retrieve and sort data from an electronic medical record has the potential to benefit many other departments, according to one of the authors of a new study.
The Queriable Patient Inference Dossier (QPID) search engine was initially developed in 2005 in response to the need for radiologists at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to quickly have access to information about their patients.
Michael Zalis, MD, lead author of the study, which was published in the August issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology, says the system serves as an adjunct to the hospital’s EMR system.
“Even in its simplest implementation, the presence of an EMR system presents considerable challenges to the radiologist,” he explains. “For example, radiologists commonly encounter each patient with little prior familiarity with the patient’s clinical situation. As a result, the time and effort required to retrieve, review, and assimilate EMR data relevant for the case at hand becomes an important consideration for use of EMR in busy clinical practice.”
The QPID system currently serves 500 registered users at Massachusetts General Hospital and posts 7,000 to 10,000 thousand pages of medical record data daily, according to hospital officials.
“[QPID] It was developed separately from the EMR and operates in a read-only fashion in relation to it,” Zalis says. “Thus QPID is not a source of new EMR data, but serves as a method to extract useful patterns of EMR data from the separately curated clinical data repositories at our institution,”
He says this tool has the ability to extend the radiologist’s awareness of a patient’s clinical history and care record, which he says can lead to better value, quality, and safety of practice.
“The potential impact of advanced EMR search tools is by no means limited to radiology and in fact many departments in the hospital and outpatient clinic may benefit from these capabilities,” Zalis says. “In our own institution, with the QPID search system, we have catalyzed a growing base of enthusiastic users, many of whom have contributed their own insights and content to the system’s catalogue of search modules, each of which is potentially applicable at more than one site. The future for advanced search of the EMR looks to be exciting and full of potential.”
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/08/emr-retrieval-tool-full-of-potential/
The Queriable Patient Inference Dossier (QPID) search engine was initially developed in 2005 in response to the need for radiologists at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to quickly have access to information about their patients.
Michael Zalis, MD, lead author of the study, which was published in the August issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology, says the system serves as an adjunct to the hospital’s EMR system.
“Even in its simplest implementation, the presence of an EMR system presents considerable challenges to the radiologist,” he explains. “For example, radiologists commonly encounter each patient with little prior familiarity with the patient’s clinical situation. As a result, the time and effort required to retrieve, review, and assimilate EMR data relevant for the case at hand becomes an important consideration for use of EMR in busy clinical practice.”
The QPID system currently serves 500 registered users at Massachusetts General Hospital and posts 7,000 to 10,000 thousand pages of medical record data daily, according to hospital officials.
“[QPID] It was developed separately from the EMR and operates in a read-only fashion in relation to it,” Zalis says. “Thus QPID is not a source of new EMR data, but serves as a method to extract useful patterns of EMR data from the separately curated clinical data repositories at our institution,”
He says this tool has the ability to extend the radiologist’s awareness of a patient’s clinical history and care record, which he says can lead to better value, quality, and safety of practice.
“The potential impact of advanced EMR search tools is by no means limited to radiology and in fact many departments in the hospital and outpatient clinic may benefit from these capabilities,” Zalis says. “In our own institution, with the QPID search system, we have catalyzed a growing base of enthusiastic users, many of whom have contributed their own insights and content to the system’s catalogue of search modules, each of which is potentially applicable at more than one site. The future for advanced search of the EMR looks to be exciting and full of potential.”
Source : http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/08/emr-retrieval-tool-full-of-potential/
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