Hospital readmission is a growing problem within our health system. Many Medicare patients discharged from an inpatient stay find themselves back in the hospital within 30 days1. Jenny Minott, from Academy Health, states that “some of these readmissions are planned, and others may be part of the natural course of treatment for specific conditions; but, […]
Regulatory Compliance
EMR adoption doesn’t have to hurt a bit
I have blogged about change a few times already. This is a pretty important topic as it relates to healthcare reform and technology adoption. It can be summed up in a single sentence: Change is coming. Physicians don’t have time for change. Nurses don’t have time for change. Administrators don’t have time. Everyone in the […]
Value Based Purchasing 101
Ah, October. What is not to like? The nice brisk autumn air, pumpkins everywhere and Halloween to give us a scare (yup, I’m also a poet!!). But this October we have yet another thing to look forward to. This October, Medicare will begin to reward hospitals that provide high quality care for their patients through […]
Cornerstones for an Effective Information Risk Management Program
What is the threat? Aside from competition and operating efficiency, securing customer data is the one of the key priorities facing Financial Services today. From the regulatory perspective, protecting the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of your customer is a must while continuing to secure their related account information! From the payments industry perspective, operating agreements […]
MU stage 1 is the cornerstone of a much larger change
In their WSJ article, Stephen Soumerai and Ross Koppel point out that physicians and hospitals have spent billions of dollars on costly healthcare information technologies and have not realized benefits of these expenses. While everything they are saying is mostly accurate, I believe they are missing the bigger picture. Meaningful Use stage one is not […]
Are you ready for the Mandated (ACA) Healthcare Operating Rules?
The 2010 passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its Section 1104 establishes a national healthcare operating rule mandate in support of the industry’s ongoing administrative simplification efforts. The first healthcare operating rule set, issued by CMS in July 2011, mandates the adoption of CAQH CORE Operating Rules for Eligibility and […]
Creating a Lean Mean Healthcare Machine: Part 4
Through this blog series, I have introduced the basic purpose and goals of the process improvement methodology known as Lean Healthcare. We took a look at Lean’s 5 basic principles and its 7 deadly wastes in an effort to help readers begin to understand the key concepts and tools of Lean thinking and how it […]
Is the Economy Stalling Health Innovation?
CMS has paid out more than $4 billion in Meaningful Use incentive money. I believe this is the catalyst to start healing our healthcare system. Let me explain. The healthcare industry is lagging behind the banking industry about 30 years. When I was in college, I had a checking account with a local bank. It […]
Health IT: The Solution to Healthcare CIO Challenges
A recent article addressed some of the top challenges facing CIOs in the healthcare industry. Many of these challenges are created by the need to keep up with constantly changing regulations as well as addressing HIPAA security concerns. Here are a few of the top concerns of healthcare CIOs, and how health information technology can […]
CDS Tools: Should we pile them on?
A 2008 study on CDS (clinical decision support) tools found that while the benefits of CDS technologies are widely understood and accepted by providers, there is still a lack of proactivity in its adoption. An article summarizing the study stated: “For example, Chang said that while CPOE with CDS is now already widely accepted, it […]
From Little Data to BIG Data – One Step at a Time
The Journey of a thousand miles towards an ACO begins with one step. Healthcare organizations are coming to realize that the programs stimulated by the ARRA – HITECH Act, Meaningful Use (MU) and Accountable Care Organizations (ACO), require something that they don’t have in sufficient quantities, the desired type or in the right format: “Data”. […]
ICD-10: Potential Financial Benefits and Issues
Some healthcare solutions experts foresee the following five financial benefits of ICD-10:[1] Providers can establish or strengthen CDIs by conducting thorough reviews of clinical documentation and implementing improvements, such as a CDI “Lite” program. Development of patient preferences due to new procedures being performed based on more thorough and detailed ICD codes. Patient preference will […]