Client News Coverage

How ACOs can leverage data to reduce readmissions, reap shared savings

Posted in Client News Coverage on Thursday, December 27, 2012.

Hospital readmissions are costly and often preventable events. Yet intense efforts to decrease readmissions rates and avoid penalties under the 2010 federal healthcare reform law have yet to have a significant impact, as one in five hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries are still being readmitted within 30 days of discharge.

Government Health IT»

Multi-Tasking Metrics

Posted in Client News Coverage on Thursday, December 20, 2012.

An Accountable Care Organization (ACO) is only as successful as the sum of its fundamental parts. Failure by just one participating provider to achieve a successful outcome on any of the 33 required quality measures could ultimately stand between the ACO and its eligibility for incentives under the Medicare Fee-for-Service Shared Savings Program.

HISTalk»

How ASCs Can Effectively Handle CMS Quality Reporting: Q&A With Allison Errickson of ProVation

Posted in Client News Coverage on Tuesday, December 18, 2012.

Allison Errickson, CPC-H, director of coding compliance for ProVation Medical, part of Wolters Kluwer Health, discusses the biggest challenges for ambulatory surgery centers with quality reporting for The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and what to watch for in the future.

Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control»

ICD-10 Readiness and the CAC Advantage

Posted in Client News Coverage on Friday, November 16, 2012.

s healthcare organizations plan their ICD-10 transition strategy, many are discovering that the effort will touch nearly every area of operations. It’s an overwhelming proposition for many providers in light of the sheer number of regulatory initiatives vying for staff resources and budget line items.

For the Record»

Change management, technology and CDS: a holistic approach to HAI

Posted in Client News Coverage on Tuesday, October 30, 2012.

The recent death of 12-year-old Rory Stauton generated a firestorm of media coverage that thrust sepsis and the challenges it presents to the healthcare system into the national spotlight. The missed diagnosis in the emergency department that resulted in a fatal treatment delay served as a devastating reminder of the often tragic – and usually preventable – outcome of sepsis.

Health Management Technology»

Record-Matching Integrity: An Algorithm Primer

Posted in Client News Coverage on Tuesday, October 23, 2012.

When hospitals are sharing information internally or externally, accurately linking patient records from multiple disparate databases and information systems is critical to ensuring clinicians are making decisions based on the correct and accurate patient records and avoiding the creation of system-clogging duplicates and overlays.

HealthData Management»

Record Matching Algorithms: Close Isn’t Good Enough

Posted in Client News Coverage on Thursday, October 11, 2012.

From the Medicare/Medicaid EHR incentive program to ACOs and HIEs, information exchange is the centerpiece of nearly every initiative designed to bend the health care quality and cost curves. The ability to access real-time clinical data wherever a patient encounter takes place drives these improvements by informing care decisions, avoiding preventable adverse events, eliminating diagnostic and therapeutic duplications and shortening lengths of stay.

HealthData Management»

Improving Efficiency: 4 Best Practices for Surgery Centers

Posted in Client News Coverage on Wednesday, October 10, 2012.

Here are four best practices to improve efficiency at ASCs.

Becker's ASC Review»

Beyond EHRs: Positioning hospitals for the pay-for-performance era

Posted in Client News Coverage on Tuesday, October 09, 2012.

Fierce competition ahead. That’s what hospitals can expect in the pay-for-performance landscape that is already unfolding on the national regulatory scene. Medicare’s Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) and Readmissions Reduction programs officially began on October 1, while the Hospital-Acquired Conditions program will follow in a few short years. Similar programs are already being launched by commercial payers.

Government Health IT»

Weaknesses Revealed: Secrets Exposed by Data Integrity Summary Reports

Posted in Client News Coverage on Wednesday, September 26, 2012.

The data integrity summary report is one of the most powerful – yet underutilized – tools hospitals have at their disposal for maintaining the integrity of the data within their MPI. Digging deeper into the statistics provided in these reports reveals far more than the volume of overlaid or duplicate records within the system. It can also reveal areas of weaknesses that, left unchecked, could threaten the long-term integrity of the MPI, limit its usefulness in achieving quality and safety goals and Meaningful Use, and hamper participation in ACOs and HIEs.

HISTalk»

Fixing one of healthcare's multi-billion dollar ills: The imperative need to address the cost of sepsis

Posted in Client News Coverage on Wednesday, September 19, 2012.

Hospital-acquired infections (HAI) have taken center stage as a focal point of Medicare's push for more accountability from the healthcare industry. Pay-for-performance strategies across the board point to a movement that is emphatically and systematically aimed at improving performance through a no-tolerance policy for these costly and preventable events.

Healthcare Finance News»

Maximizing REMS potential

Posted in Client News Coverage on Saturday, September 15, 2012.

Standardization, streamlined processes, and technology — all three are fundamental strategies for eliminating many of the complexities that plague the healthcare industry today. The Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) program is one FDA initiative that has taken center stage recently because of its inherent flaws in each of these areas.

Drug Topics»

Paperless Profits

Posted in Client News Coverage on Wednesday, September 05, 2012.

On the cusp of achieving CPOE, a regional medical center in Alabama looks ahead.

In their methodical march from paper to digital, IT personnel at Southeast Alabama Medical Center (SAMC) have moved carefully, deliberately, vowing to get it right the first time.

ExecutiveInsight»

'EHR within an EHR' accelerates workflows

Posted in Client News Coverage on Friday, August 31, 2012.

The momentum surrounding adoption of electronic health records (EHR) systems in the Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) setting is accelerating as more examples emerge of their far-reaching benefits, in particular improved patient care and revenue cycle management.

Health Management Technology»

Data Mining's Impact on Research

Posted in Client News Coverage on Thursday, August 30, 2012.

Secondary use of patient data has formed the basis of critical medical research for years.  And with the rise of EHR use across the nation, the far-reaching benefits of data mining are expected to take research efforts to a whole new level for improving healthcare delivery.

ExecutiveInsight»