Client News Coverage

Part One of this two-part series on patient identity management best practices looked at strategies for mitigating errors during data conversion. In Part Two, we examine the factors that are critical to successfully achieving clinical data interoperability.

While the debate underway at the national level focuses on a national patient identifier and what it will take to achieve nationwide interoperability, closer to home healthcare organizations need to keep accurate patient identity and data exchange within their own walls at the forefront.

Healthcare Business Today»

An often-overlooked aspect of merger, acquisition or affiliation arrangements between healthcare organizations is the need to combine master patient index (MPI) databases. When improperly managed, data conversions can have serious short and long-term implications for impacted organizations and their patients.

Healthcare Buisness Today»

Thrive Behavioral Sciences, a leading provider of behavioral health services to skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, has launched its Furry Palz Program at select Avante Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Centers across Central Florida.

Furry Palz provides dementia patients a cuddly robot puppy or kitten that simulates a breathing pet and can rest on the patient’s lap.

McKnight's Longterm Care News»

In this edition of Harlow On Healthcare, Mirabelle Cabiling, VP – Clinical Operations of VirtualHealth (@virtualhealth_), discusses HELIOS, her company’s communications hub for care managers to coordinate diverse care teams. The platform accommodates multiple types of data regarding medical issues and social determinants of health and enables improved communications with patients. The workflow is designed to optimize quality care delivery.

HealthBlawg»

The past decade has ushered in notable changes to the way nurses care for patients. In tandem with increased clinical responsibility to address higher acuity patients, today’s nurses are on the frontlines of the industry’s shift from “sick care” to sustainable wellness models. It’s an evolution that demands they move outside the four walls of the traditional acute care centers and into the community to deliver care to all, ensuring the underserved and most vulnerable populations have access to quality, proactive healthcare as well.

Outsourcing is far from a foreign concept to health information management (HIM) leaders who have long relied on vendor organizations to reduce costs associated with transcription, coding and release of information (ROI). Today, forward-thinking HIM directors are looking toward outsourcing to help maintain the integrity of their master patient index (MPI) systems by significantly reducing or even eliminating duplicate and overlay task backlogs.

As the delivery of healthcare transforms from disease-based episodic care to patient and population health-centric models of wellness care, nurses are facing new pressures and priorities to deliver high quality, safer and more consistent care both at bedside and in the community. That’s based on a recent survey by Wolters Kluwer, Health in which nearly all nurse respondents indicated that more access to information that drives evidence-based decisions at the point of care would result in a significant improvement in patient outcomes.

Unsustainable healthcare costs are driving seismic changes to the way payers do business. All healthcare stakeholders face significant pressure within the framework of value-based care to cut costs while simultaneously improving clinical outcomes and populations health. Consequently, forward-looking operational and clinical leaders recognize that they must invest in innovative approaches and technology such as automation, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) to stay relevant and competitive in a dynamic marketplace.

Sepsis affects 1.5 million people in the U.S. annually, and it is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, attributing over $20 billion in annual hospital fees. As hospitals and health systems focus on this deadly and preventable condition during Sepsis Awareness Month, it’s important to reflect on the state of the industry and how the nation is performing following increased regulatory attention in recent years.

Artificial intelligence (AI) success stories are beginning to flood the health care industry as stakeholders attempt to accelerate labor-intensive processes and realize the promise of advanced technology. Data are central to these initiatives, yet health care organizations are all too familiar with the challenges associated with getting maximum value from the rapidly expanding repositories of information now housed in EHRs and other clinical systems.

For The Record»

Sepsis is one of the leading causes of hospital mortality, present in more than half of the hospital deaths in the U.S. It is also one of the costliest diagnoses in the U.S. with a healthcare spend of over $20 billion dollars annually (Rhee, et al., 2017).

Sepsis affects over 1.5 million people annually in the U.S. and is the leading cause of hospital mortality and critical illness worldwide(1).  Sepsis is not a new diagnosis. It’s one we have been battling for years. Although guidelines for managing sepsis have changed over time as new research has become available, one thing that has not changed is the knowledge that early recognition of sepsis is critical and improves patient outcomes.

Elite Healthcare»

Artificial intelligence (AI) success stories are beginning to flood the healthcare industry as stakeholders attempt to accelerate labor-intensive processes and realize the promise of advanced technology. Data are central to these initiatives, yet healthcare organizations are all too familiar with the challenges associate with getting maximum value from the rapidly expanding repositories of information now housed in EHRs and other clinical systems.

Mandate clear interoperability requirements and a simple format that all healthcare technology vendors could use to securely exchange patient information among authorized providers of care. Every healthcare organization we have worked with has to operate with a mind-boggling array of differing systems, formats, data types, and so forth. This is the byproduct of a highly siloed, specialized industry with conflicting interests and makes access to the full spectrum of needed patient information at the point of care difficult to impossible.

Duplicate records remain one of healthcare’s most vexing—and costly—problems. Consider that the average master patient index (MPI) system has a duplicate rate of between 8 percent and 12 percent—the equivalent of 80,000 to 120,000 duplicate records for a hospital system serving 1 million patients. Each pair of duplicate records costs the facility approximately $96 to resolve. (Some say the average rate is even higher, with Black Book Market Research putting it at 18 percent in its 2018 Mid-Year EHR Consumer Satisfaction Report.)

Journal of AHIMA»