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Posted September 20, 2006
Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare: e-News
Business News
Aerotel Assists Diabetes Research Project on Native Americans
Aerotel Medical Systems, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based manufacturers of diagnostic telemedicine systems, is playing an important role in a diabetes research project conducted by the eHealth and Telemedicine Division of the Imaging Science and Information Systems Center at Washington D.C.'s Georgetown University.
The study is being conducted in multiple Native American communities across the US — including Alabama, Idaho and Hawaii. It involves diabetic patients using Aerotel's TeleCliniQ modem for transmitting blood glucose readings to the MyCareTeam diabetes management database at the university.
"TeleCliniQ modems enable a fast, simple, direct and accurate method for sending blood glucose readings to a centralized database," explains Betty Levine, who heads the university's eHealth and Telemedicine Division.
Once the readings have been transmitted, patients and health care providers can access them over the web via the MyCareTeam Internet-based diabetes management application developed by the University for analyzing blood sugar readings and identifying blood glucose control issues.
"Aerotel's TeleCliniQ modems are effective even for those without immediate access to a computer or the Internet. Its readings are essential if health care givers are to create a change in a diabetic patient's regimen and improve his/her glucose control," notes Levine.
For further information you can visit Aerotel Medical Systems website at www.aerotel.com.
Eclipsys Partners With athenahealth
Eclipsys Corporation has announced that it is partnering with athenahealth, Inc., a provider of Web-based software, knowledge and services to medical groups, to offer an integrated clinical and financial ambulatory care solution for the outpatient care provider's office that provides the ability to share clinical data with the extended healthcare enterprise while maintaining independent financial records. With this partnership, Eclipsys adds key financial management capabilities to its Sunrise Ambulatory Care solution and takes an important next step in enhancing its industry-leading solution suite to meet more of the needs of the rapidly growing ambulatory market and broader community healthcare market.
Eclipsys' Sunrise Ambulatory Care — now comprised of Sunrise Ambulatory Clinicals and athenahealth's athenaCollector — delivers best-of-breed functionality in an enterprise solution and integrates patients' clinical records between the outpatient care center and the rest of the enterprise. However, since many physicians do not want to share financial data with other groups or facilities, Sunrise Ambulatory Care now gives them the power to share clinical data while maintaining the privacy of their financial information — a unique combination of integration and independence that no other solution provides.
The partnership with athenahealth extends Eclipsys' strategy for improving outcomes by embedding knowledge in its solutions to help prevent errors before they occur. Sunrise Ambulatory Care provides clinical decision support at the point of care so clinicians can make safe, informed decisions about their patients' diagnosis and ongoing treatment. This makes possible such positive clinical outcomes as reduced adverse medical events, improved turnaround times, and reduced morbidity and mortality.
Sunrise Ambulatory Care will now include athenaCollector, the only physician revenue cycle management offering that integrates Web-based practice management software, continually updated payer knowledge, and back-office processing specialists into a single service. The athenaCollector dynamic rules engine is the largest real-time database of payer rules and regulations in the industry. With new payer rules being continuously added, the claims engine helps catch and correct billing errors before they are submitted in claims and lead to denials. The results can include increased collections, faster reimbursement cycles, and reduced administrative headaches for physician practices.
New White Paper on Infection Control During Construction
A new free white paper entitled "Infection Control in the Healthcare Environment During Construction," is available to help hospitals efficiently comply with specific Environment of Care standards of the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).
This paper describes a system designed by EH&E, currently in use at a leading teaching and research hospital in the United States, which both standardizes the construction review process and provides the necessary documentation. It's available for download at: http://www.eheinc.com/infectioncontrol.htm from EH&E, a provider of environmental, health, safety, and engineering consulting services for healthcare institutions.
"Most healthcare institutions are continuously being upgraded to keep up with advances in technology, and must devise policies and procedures to allow construction projects to go forward while simultaneously maintaining critical patient services. This system has been in place for more than two years, and provides standardized, proven procedures for approaching infection control issues in all construction projects," said Jack McCarthy, President and co-founder of EH&E.
This white paper reviews the applicable JCAHO standards and American Institute of Architects guidelines, and describes a field-tested, successful solution for maintaining ICRA documentation. The paper will be interesting and informative to all those responsible for maintaining environmental health and safety compliance in healthcare facilities.
For more information or to download the free white paper, visit http://www.eheinc.com/infectioncontrol.htm.
Streamline Health at
Nassau University Medical
Streamline Health Solutions, Inc. announced that Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, New York will implement Streamline Health's accessANYware, business process management solutions for its Health Information Management workflows and document management requirements. Using Streamline Health's solutions, Nassau University Medical Center will maximize employee productivity, accelerate cash flows and improve operational efficiencies enabling them to focus on quality patient care.
The cornerstone of Streamline Health's enterprise workflow and document management system, accessANYware, offers Nassau University Medical Center immediate and simultaneous viewing of paper-based medical record documents from the same workstation and screen display beginning with the point of care. A single log-on enables quick and convenient access to all forms of patient information, whether electronically generated or paper documents. This allows the healthcare professionals at Nassau to utilize technology without signing in and out of multiple applications. As a Level I Trauma Center in the state of New York, Nassau University Medical Center will continue to offer a high level of service to its patients with the implementation of Streamline Health's workflows and document management solutions while reaching new levels of operational efficiencies that will ultimately improve cash flow.
As part of the implementation, Nassau's current repository of document images will be migrated from its existing vendor through Streamline Health's Document Conversion Services. More importantly, Streamline Health will seamlessly integrate its solutions with Nassau University Medical Center's existing information systems, including their clinical information system, Sunrise Clinical Manager from Eclipsys Corporation, supporting various aspects of interoperability across the enterprise.
"The cost savings are very real and will be achieved through measurable improvements as we gain momentum from the implementation of Streamline Health's solutions," said Christine Forman, vice president and chief information officer at Nassau University Medical Center. "We have real-time access to accurate patient information that is critical in delivering the best possible patient care while realizing the impact of performance excellence throughout our enterprise with increased operational efficiencies."
J. Brian Patsy, president and chief executive officer of Streamline Health, stated, "We are very pleased to deliver enterprise business process solutions to allow access to fragmented health information, to optimize the flow of information throughout Nassau University Medical Center. Our workflows and document management solutions address the challenges for Nassau University Medical Center today and tomorrow, giving them the flexibility to adjust to the changing needs of their business."
For additional information, please visit http://www.streamlinehealth.net/.
Implanted Chips in
Chronic Disease Patients
Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey has announced a pilot in which it will implant microchips in patients with chronic diseases that will provide emergency department staff with access to their medical information in an effort to prevent medical errors, the API reports.
Horizon will partner with Hackensack University Medical Center to implant VeriChip microchips in the arms of 280 patients regularly treated at the hospital. HUMC, which was part of VeriChip's development program, already has the equipment necessary to read the microchips. Horizon hopes the chips will help physicians avoid duplicate medical tests, adverse drug interactions and misdiagnoses.
Horizon within the next month will begin sending letters to patients with chronic diseases describing the voluntary pilot and inviting them to participate in the two-year program at no cost. Dr. Richard Popiel, vice president and chief medical officer at Horizon, said the pilot will help the insurer determine if the program merits expansion.
DementiaGuide Releases Beta Version of SymptomGuide Management of Dementia
DementiaGuide Inc. introduced the beta version of its new interactive web-based tracking and management application, SymptomGuide, for persons with dementia and their care givers. SymptomGuide, currently in beta testing, is an innovative tool for persons with dementia and their caregivers to select and track symptoms over time. They will be able to create reports to assist them in describing how they are coping, and share this with their physicians and other family members. SymptomGuide will be launching publicly in October 2006.
Dr. Kenneth Rockwood, President and CEO, said, "Over a decade of research and conversation with patients and their caregivers has been the foundation for http://www.DementiaGuide.ca and SymptomGuide which aim to offer an easy to use resource about all aspects of dementia." Rockwood, a geriatrician and researcher, continued, "SymptomGuide is the result of extensive development and design to meet our goal — comprehensive, current information about dementia, its symptoms, stages, treatments and an easy to use method of capturing an individual's information and experience in a manner that could be stored and used by their caregivers and health professionals to track progress."
Company Announces the Formation of Hypercosm Medical Group
Hypercosm LLC announces the formation of Hypercosm Medical Group. Led by Chief Medical Officer Dr. Gerry Higgins, HMG offers innovative web-based 3D interactive modeling and simulation software tools and content production which are used in medical publishing, distance learning courseware or curriculum execution, procedural training, and anatomical visualization. Applications include simulations for use in: interactive medical publication visualization, traditional and minimally invasive surgical procedural training, interactive digital surgical tools, mobile distributed military field training, telemedicine, emergency disaster preparedness scenarios, and Continuing Medical Education. Dr. Higgins will also oversee a well recognized Medical Advisory Board consisting of experts in a range of fields. The Advisory Board contains experts from clinical, scientific domains and the learning sciences to help guide the strategy of Hypercosm. They include bioinformatics experts such as Dr. Brian Athey and Dr. Bruce Jarrell.
St. Croix Systems Enables
WakeMed to Automate Management
of Safety Incidents
St. Croix Systems announced that WakeMed Health & Hospitals, a 775-bed health care system located in Raleigh, N.C., has completed a pilot of St. Croix's Safety Manager Solution as a single-source for collecting hospital safety issues and incidents.
Using Safety Manager, WakeMed can centralize the reporting of hospital safety issues and incidents, including those found during environment of care tours. Information collected at the time of reporting including type, source, and urgency will instantly create issues, alerts and notifications for designated hospital personnel. Using workflow processes, reported issues are assigned to department personnel for corrective action or issue verification and all actions taken to resolve are documented and communicated.
"Ensuring the safety of our patients, staff, and visitors is a top organizational priority. We are committed to continuously seeking better solutions to help identify, track and resolve potential safety issues," commented Gary Evans, director of WakeMed Biomedical Engineering. "We now have a single-source to systematically manage the entire closed-loop process associated with every reported issue. We anticipate saving significant time in the areas of documenting and tracking by always knowing what issues might still be open, including important manufacturer alerts and recalls, and who has been assigned to resolve."
A comprehensive user dashboard provides a real-time view into reported and open issues, reminders, and corrective action confirmations, and is set up to display according to user roles and responsibilities. This automated data collection tool helps to standardize procedures to quickly discover, address and resolve safety issues equipping healthcare providers for more pro-active quality and safety management versus reactive.
"In healthcare where standardized processes and procedures are critical, Safety Manager keeps key hospital environment of care personnel consistently informed and better prepared to respond to and resolve safety issues, including those required to be monitored and reported on by such governing bodies as JCAHO and the FDA", says Sam Adams, President and CEO of St. Croix Systems. "We are proud to have WakeMed, a facility known for their leading edge care and operations, implement our Safety Manager Solution."
For more information, visit www.wakemed.org.
Research Uncovers One Possible Culprit in Drug Errors
A recent report proclaimed that over 1 million people per year are harmed by medication errors. Reasons ranged from pharmacists misinterpreting physician's handwriting to consumers themselves taking the wrong doses. However, research conducted by Dr. Scott Strayer, assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Virginia Health System, suggests that drug databases commonly used by physicians could be partly to blame. His research appears in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association and reports that only two of 15 popular databases reported the recall of a once often prescribed pain killer on the same day the recall was announced.
"Although patients would not be able to obtain a recalled drug from the pharmacy, if these databases are missing this type of information, they are likely to be out-of-date on other important information such as new contraindications or adverse reactions," said Strayer.
Strayer believes that the better upkeep of databases commonly used by physicians to look up drug dosing, interactions and adverse reactions are crucial to helping physicians make the best medication choices for their patients. Several of the prominent, nationally-known drug reference databases took an average of more than three months to update the withdrawal of valdecoxib from the market.
"As the prevalence of prescription medicines grows coupled with information that changes daily, it is very important that there be a coordinated warning and reference system for prescription awareness," Strayer said.
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