How Proprietary HIT Vendors May Demolish Health Reform

Top Five Issues from the Longman Report

By Staff ReportersNetwork

Here are the top five quotes from the Longman Report. The author, Phillip Longman, is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of: “Best Care Anywhere: Why VA Health Care Is Better than Yours as well as The Next Progressive Era: A Blueprint for Broad Prosperity.

http://www.newamerica.net/people/phillip_longman

The List 

1. Twenty years after the digital revolution, only an astonishing 1.5 percent of hospitals have integrated information technology systems. Almost all experts agree that in order to begin to deal with the problems of the health care system, this has to change. 

2. Done right, digitized health care could help save the nation from insolvency while improving and extending millions of lives at the same time. Done wrong, it could reconfirm Americans’ deepest suspicions of government and set back the cause of health care reform for yet another generation. 

3. Thanks to the stimulus bill, $20 billion is about to be poured into buggy, expensive, proprietary software that will not bring the benefits the Obama administration hopes for. Rather, it will amount to a giant bailout of a health IT industry whose business model has never really worked. 

4. The VA’s open-source software allowed a nurse in Topeka, Kansas, to adapt for her own work a bar-code scanner she saw used at a rental-car agency. Her innovation cut the number of medication-dispensing errors in half at some facilities, and saved thousands of lives. 

5. While a few large institutions have managed to make meaningful use of proprietary health IT, these systems have just as often been expensive failures. In 2003, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles tore out a “state-of-the-art” $34 million proprietary system after doctors rebelled and refused to use it.

Assessment 

http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2004/the_best_care_anywhere 

Conclusion

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Take the Hospital eHR Implementation Challenge!

Illustrative Case Model – Are You CMP™ Worthy?

By Staff Reporters Washington DC

The fictitional Washington Hospital is embroiled in the healthcare reform debate and interested in implementing an electronic health record (EHR) for its major clinic areas. The flagship hospital currently utilizes a legacy-based system and several of the clinics have independently purchased software programs to provide a more inclusive electronic data base particular to that clinic.

Scenario

In addition, each of the software programs purchased in specific clinics has been modified to serve their own needs. The other satellite hospitals and clinics are not linked to the flagship hospital and have independent systems, applications and software in place. The hospital is interested in obtaining one EHR system that can be used in a standardized and uniform methodology and process throughout all of its hospitals and clinics.

Key Issues

Should the Washington Hospital?

1) Abandon the clinic’s software programs in lieu of a more centralized EHR?

2) Assess various EHR systems for healthcare providers available in the marketplace, comparing a series of hospital and clinic developed requirements against vendor capabilities?

3) Obtain an EHR product that provides interface to the existing clinic software products?

4) Assess whether the EHR vendors totally comply with HIPAA and privacy regulations as well as update their systems automatically with HIPAA changes?

5) Have the vendors assess the existing system/applications/software programs currently in use at each of the hospitals and clinics and determine the best application configuration?

6) Utilize the internal Information Technology staff to develop an interface solution?

Assessment

Medical management consultants, are you up to answering this challenge? We dare you to respond! Visit: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this Medical Executive-Post are appreciated. Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, be sure to subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

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Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com 

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Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Healthcare Projections and the US Budget 2007-09

Issues and Challenges for Obama Administration Reform

By Staff ReportersUS Capitol

Read the complete testimony and statement of Peter R. Orzag, OMB Director, to the US Senate, dated June 21, 2007.

For more information:

Congressional Budget Office

Second and D Streets; SW

Washington, DC 20515

Link: 06-21-healthcarereform

Assessment

Now, almost two years later, and with the new Obama Administration, has your opinion changed on the potential of healthcare reform; why or why not?

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this Medical Executive-Post are appreciated?

Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com  or Bio: www.stpub.com/pubs/authors/MARCINKO.htm

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Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

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