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The serious lack of infrastructure to support an expansive and meaningful ACO strategy is missing from the healthcare technology toolkit. Some may view this as a non critical issue but with so many organizations engaged in some form of ACO activity, we have to ask, “Have we begged the question?” It seems to me we […]
Federal health care reform has generated immense interest in Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). In theory, improved quality and reduced cost will be gleaned by bundled payment of a health system and the physician. To attain this, however, and to improve quality and reduce cost, there will have to be good communication and a strong relationship, […]
As Lao Tzu, the father of Taoism once said “The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” When I first read the announcement from CCHIT in November that they had a process for Hospitals to self certify their EHR Environment for Meaningful Use, I was thrown back to ancient eastern philosophy […]
Oscar Wilde once wrote that “Everything popular is wrong,” and I think that time has come for healthcare information systems. Now, granted Health information technology (HIT) has come a long way from its infancy as a means to produce a bill. As the use of EHRs expanded beyond basic clinical information and began to encompass […]
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.” Martin Luther King once said. The Healthcare delivery system is on the verge of change. It will take hard work from all of us to us to make it happen. I like to look at it terms of structure and change. Structure being the underlying construct of the healthcare system and change the process by which we struggle to manifest a new delivery model. The federal Government has outlined a structure.
Command and control was the traditional means of management, but it is not well suited for the complex healthcare organizations of the 21st century. Healthcare today demands flexibility, transparency, and quality. Under pressure from increased regulations and declining reimbursements, healthcare needs to grab the attention of the consumer. To do this we must be transparent, […]
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrote, “Build today a firm and ample base and ascending and secure shall tomorrow find its place.” We CIOs in healthcare have been building a firm and ample based over that past decade. Not that many of us thought in terms of building a foundation when dealing with the hazards and […]
I expected this past weekend to be devoted to thinking about final MU changes, however my attention was drawn to the announcement about Verizon’s entry into the HIE arena. It appears Verizon has launched a Web-based health exchange, something of which I have been advocating for the past year or so, and teamed up with several other players to make it work. MedVirginia, a private health exchange operated in Virginia; Medfx, a company knowledgeable in cloud based health care and practice management solutions; and Oracle for its transaction systems, databases and indices. It’s a good model, as it provides knowledge in the practical operation of an exchange and technology necessary to power it across the Web. But it seems to me the new offering — as bold as it is — has missed a critical component. All of this effort is aimed at moving data from one point to another, but where is the skill set to use that data to transform the way providers deliver care, and what metrics will be used to assess quality?
In the Marx Brothers movie “Coconuts,” a customer walks into a real estate office. Real estate agent (Groucho): “Would you like to buy a lot?” Customer (Chico): “No that’s too much!” Over the years I have had thrust upon me many excuses from project teams on the overdue status of projects. Once on a long drive home I took the time to characterize the statements made to me and came to the conclusion that they actually were the great truths about project leadership. Great truths because the play on words contained therein convey a deeper meaning and relate directly to various issues in project management. They always make me smile; first and foremost they are absurdly funny and have that ”Marx Brother” quality to them.
“When exploring uncharted waters or embarking on a great adventure often the final destination is not necessarily that which was first envisioned. An adventure, by definition is a venture or gamble. Christopher Columbus did not expect to discover a new world; his intended adventure upon embarkation is not why he is remembered today. The same […]
