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Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Posted in Medical Records Retrieval | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Way to go Chicago area hospitals!
The following was taken from EMR Specialists Blog: February 24,2009
“Electronic medical records are the wave of the future, and Chicago area hospitals are already on board.
Hospitals with more advanced record-keeping technology have fewer complications, lower mortality rates, and lower costs, according to a study released last week by Johns Hopkins University. The study looked at more than 40 hospitals with digital record systems and more than 160,000 patients in a six-month period.
“It’s the right thing to do and we’re going to see a lot of studies like this in the next 5-10 years that attempt to measure the benefits of electronic medical records,” said Dr. Mike Kelleher, chief medical information oficer at Children’s Memorial Hospital.
Most of Chicago’s top medical institutions including Northwestern Memorial Hospital, NorthShore University HealthSystem–Evanston Hospital, Glenbrook Hospital, Highland Park Hospital, Skokie Hospital, and 75 doctor’s offices–, University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago, Rush University Medical Center and Children’s Memorial Hospital have either already made the leap to digital records, or are in the process.
Former President George W. Bush laid out the goal of having electronic records nationwide by 2014, a goal that was quickly adopted by President Barack Obama.
Wired In
The study findings are no surprise to Chicago-area hospitals, well versed in digital technology.
“What we did was transformational–it changed the way we do things and the way we think,” says Mark Neaman, president and chief executive officer of NorthShore University HealthSystem.
“Patients can even have a Blackberry conversation with their physician or order a prescription online,” Neaman said.
NorthShore University HealthSystem, one of the pioneers in digital records, went completely digital in 2004.
Digital records can even prevent mistakes from being made.
“We have seen measurable improvements in the quality of our outcomes, reduced medication errors and become generally more efficient,” Neaman said.
The complete transition at NortthShore $took 15 months from launch to finish in April of 2004 and cost an estimated $42 million, according to Neaman.
“We applied the big bang theory,” Neaman said. “We wanted to have everything up and running quickly.”
Almost all Chicago-area hospitals have some digital record keeping system in place or are in the process of implementing one.
Security, however, becomes a major concern with personal information in digital form.
With electronic records, it is much easier to track who has accessed a file—an important security feature—but making sure the right people have access can be time consuming.
“It’s a big concern,” Kelleher said. “You have to make sure that the people you give access to are properly vetted.”
“Before electronic medical records, files were continually being misplaced,” said Dr. David S. Channin, radiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and chief of imaging informatics at Northwestern University Medical School. “We relied on loose pieces of paper with illegible writing, and human memory.”
Northwestern Memorial has used electronic records for more than a decade now for nearly all of their services.
More Benefits
The benefits of digital records aid in many different aspects of patient care.
One key benefit is allowing doctors to find information on patients more easily.
While it may take physicians or nurses more time to enter information into the system, the ability to find it and search for it with ease is invaluable according to Kelleher.
Patients and doctors can also have their information readily available at the touch of a keyboard without having to dig through extensive files.
Digital Divide
Despite the many advantages there are still countless hospitals that are falling behind with this technology.
After years of recording information manually, some doctors are hesitant to change to a new electronic system.
“The older physicians are more likely to be unwilling or uncertain about using the computer system,” said Kelleher.
“The catch is that there are tradeoffs between quality and efficiency and independent tradeoffs within each one,” says Dr. Channin.
There is also a steep cost of investment as far as equipment and training.
NorthShore University HealthSystem invested an estimated $42 million in the new technology, $5 million of which went to training staff, according to Neaman.
They are foreseeing an estimated return of 17 million dollars per year in savings related to the new system, but the return is very long-term and small in comparison.”
Originally Published by Vanessa Handand and Chris Kelly, Northwestern University.
Tags: Chicago Area Hospitals, digital medical records, Health Care Reform, Healthcare system, paper medical records, patient medical records
Posted in Childresn Health CAre, Electronic Health Records, Health Care Industry | No Comments »
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
By Aliza Marcus
Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) – With the economic stimulus package signed, President Barack Obama this week will outline how he plans to provide affordable medical coverage for all Americans, an administration official said.
Obama tomorrow will tell a joint meeting of the House and Senate that revamping the U.S. health system is a priority, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The president will outline how he plans to pay for it when he submits his budget to Congress on Feb. 26, the official said in a telephone interview yesterday.
The president’s readiness to move the week after he signed a $787 billion stimulus measure shows how important health care is to economic growth, said Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat. It also is a sign Obama hasn’t been sidetracked by the delay in naming a Health and Human Services secretary, said Len Nichols, a former Clinton administration official.
Obama’s budget “will help set the table for health reform,” said Wyden, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees U.S. government health programs.
One American in seven lacks health insurance, according to the Census Bureau. For those with coverage, the price rose an average of 5 percent last year, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation in Menlo Park, California, reported in September. Obama said during his campaign that covering everyone might cost at least $65 billion a year.
By proposing how to pay for health changes in his budget plan, Obama is showing that he is committed to providing the necessary money, said Nichols, now head of the health policy center at the New America Foundation in Washington, in a telephone interview.
‘Can’t be Put Off’
“This is a president who knows that fixing health care can’t be put off any longer,” Wyden said in a telephone interview.
Obama’s first HHS nominee, former Senator Thomas A. Daschle, pulled out amid questions about his taxes, and no one else has been named. Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius is a leading contender for the job, an administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said last week.
Obama campaigned on a promise to expand government health programs and give people subsidies to help them afford coverage. He also proposed creating a public plan to compete with private health insurers and taking steps, such as putting more health records in digital form, to help reduce costs.
The president may look to reduce payments to private Medicare Advantage plans to help pay for health-care changes, the administration official who spoke yesterday said.
$15 Billion in Cuts
Obama said during his campaign that he wanted to cut $15 billion in government payments to the plans, which private insurers such as UnitedHealth Group Inc., of Minnetonka, Minnesota, offer to seniors in place of the government’s Medicare insurance program for the elderly.
David Sloane, a lobbyist with AARP, the advocacy group for older people, said determining how to pay to get everyone covered is critical.
“Given all other spending priorities and economic peril, there’s a lot of uncertainty whether they can find savings elsewhere to offset this,” Sloane said in a telephone interview on Feb. 19.
Obama’s plans were boosted in the stimulus package, which he signed Feb. 17. The measure allocates $20 billion to encourage adoption of computerized records and gives $1 billion to research the comparative effectiveness of medical treatments. Both may save money later on, according to the Congressional Budget Office, an arm of Congress.
Bush’s Footsteps
President George W. Bush successfully used his budget to push a new health program. He devoted two sentences in his fiscal year 2002 budget proposal to create a program to subsidize prescription drug coverage for people in Medicare, the U.S. health insurance plan for the elderly and disabled. Congress approved it in 2003.
Obama’s plan isn’t expected to reach the level of detail that then-President Bill Clinton had in his 1,300-plus page health plan that he presented to Congress in 1993.
This is a good thing, said Sara Rosenbaum, who worked on Clinton’s failed health-care plan. Clinton tried to dictate to Congress.
“The point is to get the ball rolling and that’s where the president is needed,” said Rosenbaum, chair of the health policy department at George Washington University in Washington, said in a telephone interview on Feb. 19. “People don’t want to act until they have broad outline.”
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and Senator Max Baucus, chairman of the Finance Committee, have been working on legislation to overhaul the health system
Tags: Barack Obama, bloomberg.com, digital medical records, Obama's Stimulus Package
Posted in Electronic Health Records, Health Care Industry | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
Dawn Lauer raised her opinion on medical records going digital, and why she thinks this will be a good idea. She blogged the following:
February 17, 2009
Healthcare Reform? Go Digital, Dummy!
By Dawn Lauer, PepperDigital
 “Nothing disturbs me more than wasting time when there is an efficient alternate answer. That’s exactly how I spent my “day off” yesterday, as I sat in a waiting room for several hours filling out endless reams of the same healthcare information I’ve completed countless times before. I checked into the facility at 8am, before the doors even opened, in hopes that I would be among the first to get started on a nuclear stress test. The first thing I was handed was a clipboard of healthcare forms, HIPAA documents, etc., that could easily rival War and Peace. This happened despite the fact that I had already gone through the same exact exercise at home and was told to mail back the forms in order to be “pre-registered” for the test. And the fun didn’t end there. As if going through a battery of tests with an IV in my arm wasn’t enough, now I was expected to repeat the same answers to the same list of health-related family history question to each and every P.A. I met with throughout the day. In short, thanks to the whole inefficient process, what was supposed to be a four-hour test, turned out to be a seven hour ordeal. Everyone reading this blog has had a similar experience. I know, because in addition to the sheer inefficiency of filling out paper forms, I’ve been burned numerous times by insurance claims mistakes, “lost” forms and the list goes on.
What really irks me, though, is how can we live in a world where an individual can book an entire trip, pay for it and check in from their iPhone from a boat, car, etc. yet we haven’t transitioned to electronic medical records! I know Obama has made this a large part of his healthcare reform push, but in my opinion, it can’t happen quickly enough. We need to invest immediately in a digital system that saves time, money and mistakes that the process of repetitively filling out paper forms is responsible for. William Yasnoff, M.D., PhD published an article in BusinessWeek this past December, and he makes a compelling argument for universal electronic medical records, with a logical solution: health record banks. These banks would provide individuals with a “health bank account” where copies of all their medical records could be deposited, stored, and retrieved. Imagine a world where you enter a doctor’s office or emergency room, and with an account number, your records are instantly pulled up, history is known and accounted for, and what you really need – care – is what you receive.
Here’s to hoping we can get our act together in the next couple of years, otherwise I’ll be registering for another stress test. ”
Who hasn’t felt the same way before? Dawn raises some vaild points. Digitizing medical records, will not only reduce medical errors and save money, but also save time- which is a valuable thing. Just ask Dawn.
To see the original article just click here.
Tags: Add new tag, digital medical records, Electronic Health Records, Health Care Reform, HIPAA, paper medical records
Posted in Medical Records Retrieval | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
The Following is an excerpt from Jack Huntress’s blog: Common Ground
Thanks for using MediConnect and for mentioning us on your blog.
“Summary: I took the next step with digital records by using the MediConnect service.
My foray into digital health records continues. Recently I paid MediConnect to aggregate my records from three different hosptials (childhood, college and current) and put them in a digital format that could be consumed by Google Health. Even then I’m sure I am missing about 25% of my overall records that are scattered at different hospitals. I also went in and filled out my profile on Google Health.
While many are concerned about privacy and certainly that is worrisome, I have the general feeling that not knowing my history (immunizations, shots, xrays, MRIs, blood work etc) is much worse so I’m taking some steps forward.
The Google Health service is linked to CVS, Walgreens, BC/BS and a couple dozen other providers with more being added all the time.
My feeling is that unless you have a great system for keeping and filing information you should at least consider this as something worth doing.”
Tags: Common Groung Blog, Health Care Industry, medical record retrieval, medical records, MediConnect Global
Posted in Medical Records Retrieval | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
Posted in Medical Records Retrieval | No Comments »
Thursday, February 5th, 2009
Related Links
Electronic medical records are the wave of the future, and Chicago area hospitals are already on board.
Hospitals with more advanced record-keeping technology have fewer complications, lower mortality rates, and lower costs, according to a study released last week by Johns Hopkins University. The study looked at more than 40 hospitals with digital record systems and more than 160,000 patients in a six-month period.
“It’s the right thing to do and we’re going to see a lot of studies like this in the next 5-10 years that attempt to measure the benefits of electronic medical records,” said Dr. Mike Kelleher, chief medical information oficer at Children’s Memorial Hospital.
Most of Chicago’s top medical institutions including Northwestern Memorial Hospital, NorthShore University HealthSystem–Evanston Hospital, Glenbrook Hospital, Highland Park Hospital, Skokie Hospital, and 75 doctor’s offices–, University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago, Rush University Medical Center and Children’s Memorial Hospital have either already made the leap to digital records, or are in the process.
Former President George W. Bush laid out the goal of having electronic records nationwide by 2014, a goal that was quickly adopted by President Barack Obama.
Wired In
The study findings are no surprise to Chicago-area hospitals, well versed in digital technology.
“What we did was transformational–it changed the way we do things and the way we think,” says Mark Neaman, president and chief executive officer of NorthShore University HealthSystem.
“Patients can even have a Blackberry conversation with their physician or order a prescription online,” Neaman said.
NorthShore University HealthSystem, one of the pioneers in digital records, went completely digital in 2004.
Digital records can even prevent mistakes from being made.
“We have seen measurable improvements in the quality of our outcomes, reduced medication errors and become generally more efficient,” Neaman said.
The complete transition at NortthShore $took 15 months from launch to finish in April of 2004 and cost an estimated $42 million, according to Neaman.
“We applied the big bang theory,” Neaman said. “We wanted to have everything up and running quickly.”
Almost all Chicago-area hospitals have some digital record keeping system in place or are in the process of implementing one.
Security, however, becomes a major concern with personal information in digital form.
With electronic records, it is much easier to track who has accessed a file—an important security feature—but making sure the right people have access can be time consuming.
“It’s a big concern,” Kelleher said. “You have to make sure that the people you give access to are properly vetted.”
“Before electronic medical records, files were continually being misplaced,” said Dr. David S. Channin, radiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and chief of imaging informatics at Northwestern University Medical School. “We relied on loose pieces of paper with illegible writing, and human memory.”
Northwestern Memorial has used electronic records for more than a decade now for nearly all of their services.
More Benefits
The benefits of digital records aid in many different aspects of patient care.
One key benefit is allowing doctors to find information on patients more easily.
While it may take physicians or nurses more time to enter information into the system, the ability to find it and search for it with ease is invaluable according to Kelleher.
Patients and doctors can also have their information readily available at the touch of a keyboard without having to dig through extensive files.
Digital Divide
Despite the many advantages there are still countless hospitals that are falling behind with this technology.
After years of recording information manually, some doctors are hesitant to change to a new electronic system.
“The older physicians are more likely to be unwilling or uncertain about using the computer system,” said Kelleher.
“The catch is that there are tradeoffs between quality and efficiency and independent tradeoffs within each one,” says Dr. Channin.
There is also a steep cost of investment as far as equipment and training.
NorthShore University HealthSystem invested an estimated $42 million in the new technology, $5 million of which went to training staff, according to Neaman.
They are foreseeing an estimated return of 17 million dollars per year in savings related to the new system, but the return is very long-term and small in comparison.
Tags: Chicago Area Hospitals, Electronic Health Records, Johns Hopkins University
Posted in Electronic Health Records, Health Care Industry, Health Care Reform, Healthcare system, Obama | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama signed a law on Wednesday expanding a health insurance program for children and raising tobacco taxes to pay for it, a big legislative victory a day after his pick to lead a healthcare industry overhaul stepped aside.
Obama signed the law just hours after the House of Representatives voted 290-135 for the $32.8 billion expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, which was approved by the Senate last week.
Tags: Barack Obama, children's Health care, new laws
Posted in Childresn Health CAre, Health Care Industry, Health Care Reform, Healthcare system, Obama | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
Tags: Add new tag, Barack Obama, Chinese Drywall Lawsuits, Florida Tobacco Lawsuits, gardasil, Kids Health Bill, out patient surgery, peanut buter salmonella outbreak, Tom Daschle, Xigris
Posted in Electronic Health Records, Health Care Industry, Health Care Reform, Healthcare system, Insurance Industry, Obama | 1 Comment »
Monday, February 2nd, 2009
By CALVIN WOODWARD –
WASHINGTON (AP) — It will get vastly cheaper for most people to keep health insurance after losing a job if the government’s stimulus plan becomes law. Some nickel and dime cuts in health coverage for the poor will be reversed, too. Geek jobs in medicine will grow.
The billions to be poured into health care from the economic stimulus package will do little if anything about the chronic conditions behind the nation’s stubbornly large ranks of uninsured.
Instead the plan is a temporary lifeline, hasty measures for nearly desperate times.
Jobs aren’t the central point of the package sought by President Barack Obama, passed by the House and steered to the Senate.
The point is to cushion the blow from losing one.
For those who qualify, relief would be substantial.
Under a dramatic, temporary expansion of COBRA, the law that lets the unemployed keep health insurance from their old job for up to 18 months if they pay for it in full, costs would drop by about two-thirds for a year.
Moreover, people who lose a job they’ve had for 10 years could stay on COBRA at their expense all the way to age 65, when Medicare takes over, if they don’t get another job with insurance first. People 55 and over could do the same without meeting the 10-year requirement.
It’s so expensive for people to extend that insurance now that many don’t do it. It can quickly eat up a majority of unemployment benefits.
That’s just one of the steps to maintain health access in the worst economic conditions Americans have lived through in generations. And that’s the key — maintenance more than advancement.
People who lose jobs at businesses that employ fewer than 20 people don’t qualify for COBRA. For them, the government would bring many more jobless people under Medicaid’s wing. The feds would pay for this, plus give states much more money to run cost-shared part of the program.
In return, states taking the extra money would have to back down on some of the cuts they’ve made to the program recently.
Altogether it’s a pricey lifeline: $40 billion to subsidize health insurance for the unemployed and more than twice that to support Medicaid.
Budget hawks, whose voices are practically lost in the wind these days, wonder whether the relief really will be temporary. They know it’s politically tough for the government to take something back once people get a taste of it.
Witness the expiring tax cuts that former President George W. Bush won from Congress. Obama promised to continue most of those cuts while raising taxes back up on the rich. But with the recession so deep, it’s less likely he’ll seek to raise those tax rates after all.
The recovery plan also sets aside $20 billion for medical record-keeping, a sum likely to grow jobs in information technology.
Four in five doctors still rely on old-fashioned paper files. Digital records are bound to cut administrative costs and improve care by making it easy to share patient information. But conversion is a huge task, for which Obama wants to spend $50 billion over five years.
The economic recovery plan isn’t the only game in town when it comes to health care, although it’s the most expensive. The Senate has voted to extend government-sponsored health insurance to about 4 million of the estimated 9 million uninsured children. The House acts on that next.
Tags: Barack Obama, Electronic Health Records, Health Care Reform, Job Lay-offs, medical records
Posted in Electronic Health Records | No Comments »
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