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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

While pleased with some aspects of the final Meaningful Use Stage 1 rule, CHIME still views it as “an aggressive target for the majority of the nation’s hospitals,” according to an early analysis by the organization. Additionally, CHIME is predicting that many hospitals will have a difficult time qualifying for stimulus funding in subsequent stages of the incentive program, “as objectives increase in number and become harder to meet, and as other aspects of the stimulus program become more challenging.”

Though there are thousands of Meditech hospitals, only a handful are in the in the process of migrating from the Magic to 6.0 platform. Of course, those hospitals (and their CIOs) are being watched very closely by the Meditech community. One of those CIOs is Ed Ricks of Beaufort Memorial Hospital. Ricks is not only [...]

 

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Beaufort Memorial Hospital VP of IS & CIO Ed Ricks, Chapter 2 [10:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (214)

It’s a debate as old as IT itself — best of breed versus enterprise. In healthcare, that timeless decision usually surfaces in the emergency department, where workflow is incredibly specialized and applications from core clinical vendors usually don’t make the grade. But if niche solutions carry the day, it’s the CIO’s job to make sure [...]

As my hospital converts to more corporate applications, my Meditech system has become more interoperable. The folks at Meditech have been incredibly supportive of a very complex systems agenda at our site. A few weeks ago we went live with Siemens Soarian Financials and Scheduling, feeding our Meditech clinical systems. This two-year implementation was part of a corporate Soarian project and our hospital was the first site. The design is simple. Soarian Financials generates a “master” ADT feed to a “submerged” Meditech admissions module.

With a healthcare IT career that started in January 1973 — and has since covered the vendor, consultant and provider sides of the business — there isn’t much that’s going to surprise Eastern Connecticut Health Network (ECHN) VP and CIO Charlie Covin. But the HITECH Act, which he describes as close to revolutionary, comes darn [...]

While meeting Stage 1 requirements of the Meaningful Use NPRM is a daunting challenge to most, a few are just about there. One such institution is University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics, a HIMSS Analytics Stage 7 facility. And though VP and CIO Mike Sauk has just a few odds and ends to deal with, [...]

My question has to do with the 2010 requirements for “Meaningful Use.” I have heard conflicting stories about Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) adoption requirements for 2010. I know we have to have 10% of our orders completed via CPOE. The question is whether or not we can use the Emergency Department (ED) orders to comply with the 10% requirement?

Medhost has launched OpCenter — executive decision-support solutions that provide real time information on incoming admissions, patient acuity and hospital bed saturation levels.    According to Medhost, much of the backlog in the ED is not related to ED patient flow, but is caused by systemic issues that delay moving patients from the ED to [...]

Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Bergen County, N.J., is replacing its existing clinical and financial systems with McKesson. The 520-bed medical center will replace its clinical systems with an array of McKesson Horizon Clinicals solutions. These include CPOE, point-of-care bar-code medication administration, and interdisciplinary clinical documentation for nurses and physicians. On the financial side, [...]

In a move that further broadens its expanding product suite, HealthTech Holdings — parent of Nashville, Tenn.-based Healthcare Management Systems Inc. (HMS) — has acquired Addison, Texas-based MEDHOST, a provider of emergency department (ED) systems.
The companies will develop an integrated ED system to be used with the HMS health information system (HIS) for community hospitals.
“We [...]

Renton, Wash.-based Valley Medical Center has licensed Sunquest Collection Manager to improve labeling of specimens coming to the lab from the ED. The software will be expanded throughout the organization in 2010. Valley Medical Center is the largest nonprofit healthcare provider between Seattle and Tacoma, serving over 400,000 residents. In addition to the hospital, [...]

An increasing number of hospitals are replacing standalone, best-of-breed emergency department software with enterprise solutions that foster better integration —but many of those enterprise solutions are leaving ED clinicians far less satisfied, according to a KLAS report.
Among several key findings, the report notes that, for study respondents who are planning to replace or buy an [...]