healthsystemcio.com

With the government piling on its Meaningful Use regulations, healthcare CIOs are under a lot of pressure to bring home the incentive bacon. For some, relaxation takes on traditional forms such as vacationing, biking or running. But Deane Morrison is no regular CIO. When he wants to decompress, it’s time to scale a mountain, perhaps [...]

 

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Concord Hospital CIO Deane Morrison, Chapter 1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Managing 512 interfaces isn’t easy. That’s why Daniel Barchi, SVP and CIO with Carilion Health System, was more than happy to embark on the search for a single integrated EMR a few years ago. After an intensive selection process — which included copious input from clinicians — the health system selected Epic. And from that [...]

 

 PODCAST: One-on-One-w/Carilion Health System SVP and CIO Daniel Barchi, Chapter 3 [11:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (120)

Stage 1 Meaningful Use certification criteria may change even after the “final” regulations are issued sometime this summer, necessitating the ongoing need to certify HIT products for the foreseeable future, according to CHIME’s interpretation of the ONC Temporary Certification Program. In what it found to be a positive development, the authorized testing and certification bodies recognized by ONC (ONC-ATCBs) can not require that integrated bundled EHRs or EHR modules be certified to a higher set of standards than the certification criteria set by the ONC.

While ONC has been moving at a pretty good clip since December when it released the Meaningful Use NPRM and Certification IFR, right up until the announcement this week of its final temporary certification program, it’s apparent just how jammed up its timeline is becoming.
The temporary program seems clear enough, as there is minimal departure [...]

It didn’t take an act of Congress to start Carol Dresser and Hallmark Health implementing advanced clinical technologies. Hallmark — which includes Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Melrose-Wakefield Hospital, Hallmark Health Cancer Center and Hallmark Health Medical Center — is now working to increase adoption of CPOE and perfect its bedside bar coded medication administration processes. What [...]

 

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Hallmark Health VP of IS Carol Dresser, Chapter 3 [10:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (129)

In every industry, there are organizations so pervasive they constitute bellwethers for the entire market segment. In healthcare IT, that company is Meditech. With over 2,200 customers and almost $400 million in software revenues last year, the Westwood, Mass.-based organization’s opinions on national policy — especially the HITECH Act’s Meaningful Use NPRM — should be taken very seriously by D.C.’s policy wonks. Offering those opinions to healthsystemCIO.com editor Anthony Guerra this exclusive interview is President and COO Howard Messing. In the following discussion, Messing — who was recently promoted to CEO subject to a perfunctory confirmation vote — offers his thoughts on the aforementioned HITECH Act, meeting customer demands for the latest software and much more.

 

 One-on-One-w/Meditech President & COO Howard Messing, Part II [17:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (341)

Over the past year, John Glaser, Ph.D., has been eating and breathing Meaningful Use and Certification even more than his HITECH-focused CIO colleagues. That’s because while Glaser has kept up his role as VP & CIO at Partners HealthCare on a part-time basis, he’s also been winging down to D.C. every week to fulfill his duties as Senior Adviser to ONC and its chief, National Coordinator David Blumenthal, M.D. In this — his first extensive interview since the culmination of that role in March — Glaser talks frankly with healthsystemCIO.com editor Anthony Guerra about working in the federal government, the proposed regulations, and what the future may hold for both the industry and himself.

 

 One-on-One w/Former ONC Senior Adviser John Glaser [47:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (664)

Whether a thing is determined to be good or bad depends on perspective. Who does the individual making the judgment represent? What are the criteria they are applying to their evaluation? While I’ve been sitting here for the last six months criticizing the heck out of the HIT Policy Committee, surely the individuals on that [...]

Organizations that are allowed to certify technology in the temporary certification stage should have their certifications carry forward into the permanent phase, thus providing protections to vendors and providers that have installed applications under the temporary process, according to CHIME’s comments on the Permanent portion of the Certification Process NPRM.
CHIME also expressed concerns about the [...]

Earlier this week, Pamela McNutt, SVP and CIO of Methodist Health System in Dallas, gave a presentation entitled “Meeting Stage 1 Meaningful Use: A View from a Healthcare System,” at the AHA’s Annual Membership Meeting in Washington, D.C.  McNutt — chair of CHIME’s Policy Steering Committee and former chair of the organization’s Advocacy Leadership Team [...]

In what makes for a disturbing combination, CIOs are both doubtful that the federal government (HHS/CMS/ONC) will have the HITECH program fully operational by the time incentives are to be paid out, and pessimistic about their chances of qualifying for those payments, according to the healthsystemCIO.com April SnapSurvey.
A full three quarters of CIOs doubt that [...]

The FDA has been receiving a great deal of criticism from the clinical community about a variety of issues, but probably none is as contentious as the ongoing patient safety issues regarding harmful drug-drug interactions and drug-gene interactions, estimated by the Institute of Medicine to cause 250,000 deaths each year in the U.S.
The current generation [...]

As chair of CHIME’s certification committee, St. Vincent’s Health System SVP & CIO Tim Stettheimer, PhD, has been instrumental in developing the CIO-focused organization’s new CHCIO program. And as chair of CHIME’s Board of Trustees, he’s also been at the forefront of crafting the organization’s comment letters on the Meaningful Use and Certification NPRMs. But [...]

Working as CIO in one of the most renowned health systems in the country gives Newton-Wellesley Hospital’s Scott Maclean — also a Corporate Director in the overarching Partners HealthCare superstructure — a unique perspective from which to evaluate the HITECH landscape. And though some might think organizations like Partners are ready to meet Stage 1 [...]

“My work here is done.”If something is worth doing, it is worth doing badly. Mistakes are inevitable—don’t be afraid to make them. However, pick your mistakes—let them be mistakes of your choosing, not mistakes born out of the hubristic approach of others. Permit me to explain. Hospital CIOs have a goal or set of goals they must meet to help drive the mission, vision, or strategy of their organization.

Karen Bell, M.D. — most recently SVP, Health Information Technology Services with Masspro — has been named chair of CCHIT, effective April 26. Prior to her tenure at Masspro, the federally-contracted QIO within Massachusetts, Bell was director, Office of Health Information Technology Adoption and acting deputy at ONC, and was ONC’s representative on CCHIT’s board of commissioners from 2006 to 2008. She also has served as division director for the quality improvement group, office of standards and quality for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and medical director, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island, among other positions.

While everyone tries to create a sensation at the annual HIMSS conference, few actually achieve it. But with the release of its open-architecture Helios platform, Eclipsys managed to surmount that bar. The iPhone-esque vision of an open platform which independent application designers can build on seems to many a refreshing proposition. And some see it [...]

The Medical Group Management Association wants ONC to deem electronic health record software certified by CCHIT in 2008 or later as meeting the requirements for Meaningful Use Stage 1, according to the organization’s comment letter on the Certification Process NPRM. “MGMA representatives will continue to advocate for simplified EHR incentive program requirements, logistics and software certification processes. MGMA representatives believe that stringent program requirements will exclude a large percentage of physician practices from participating, which undermines the intention of the legislation,” the organization stated.

CHIME is “ … very concerned that the introduction of a two-stage approach for certification will prolong the current instability in the health IT marketplace, which exists because of the unfinalized status of meaningful use and certification regulations,” stated the organization in its comment letter to ONC regarding the Certification process NPRM.
“Above all else, providers [...]

At HIMSS 2010, GE Healthcare IT tried to make a splash with the release of its Qualibria clinical knowledge management platform. While it’s unclear how the industry has received that new application, it is clear the vendor has one thing going for it — outstanding development partners in the likes of Intermountain Healthcare and the [...]

The merits of working with the FDA to help ONC craft an EMR certification program that addresses both pre- and post-market HIT patient safety issues were discussed at the HIT Policy Committee Workgroup on Certification and Adoption meeting held this week. On one side of the debate, HIT Software Entrepreneur and Workgroup Co-Chair Paul Egerman argued that the FDA could bring some significant value to the table in crafting a program.

In early February, I gave my “State of the Industry” presentation at the annual meeting of US Oncology. The Vice President of Informatics Development, Aaron Kaufman, had come across some of my columns and was intrigued by my politically incorrect take on the industry-transforming program. The video below is an honest evaluation of what’s happening [...]

I had a brief chat with Dr. David Blumenthal last week that basically covered four areas: Transparency at the ONC; HITREC and communities of shared learning; Personal Health Records and possible certification; Rural practices and Critical Access Hospitals. Regarding transparency, which is something I’m fairly passionate about and have seen some improvements on at the ONC, Dr. Blumenthal said, “Trust is such an important factor in the management of sensitive information that it has to be attended to in everything we do. I think that being open is one way to create trust.”