Christina's Considerations

EHR Readiness in Rural CA: An RFP

The Rural Health Information Technology Consortium released an RFP to assist with conducting EHR readiness assessments of our CA rural and Critical Access Hospitals. If you are a health information technology service provider experienced with small rural healthcare providers in California, I encourage you to submit a proposal.

It is a wonderful project designed by a wonderful group of healthcare and health information leaders in rural CA and beyond!

Remote Patient Monitoring and Telehealth

I've done a little research this week and have a few papers I'd like to share (and keep the links handy for future reference.)  They are all on remote monitoring, telehealth and other related technologies.  I've scanned them, but look forward to reading them over the weekend.  I'm especially interested in the value/benefits they identify.  And. in the case of the CITL paper, appreciate the cost-benefit analysis.

Technologies for Remote Patient Monitoring in Older Adults by Center for Technology and Aging  

Technologies to Help Older Adults Maintain Independence: Advancing Technology Adoption by Center for Technology and Aging

Vital Signs Via Broadband: Remote Health Monitoring Transmits Savings, Enhances Lives by Better Healthcare Together

The Value of Provider-to-Provider Telehealth Technologies by Center for Information Technology Leadership

Aging in Place - with a little help from telehealth

Healthcare IT News and Federal Telemedicine News had great articles on the Senate Special Committee on Aging last week. 

Senators heard about the important role that remote/home monitoring, telemedicine and others forms of telehealth can play in improving care and reducing costs.  They also heard about the barriers that stand in the way of broader adoption, such as, licensing and credentialing, Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement limitations, connectivity gap, misaligned economic incentives, and regulations restricting patient locations.

It has been a while since I first posted on the subject of Aging in Place, so I'm happy to see the term is still going strong.

Telehealth: A solution for the future!

Our healthcare system is undergoing a huge shift and transformation and I'm really seeing some significant indicators that telehealth,  remote patient monitoring and mHealthwill become routine in the care delivery system.  The recent healthcare reform legislation is probably the biggest indicator that payors and providers will turn to telehealth and remote monitoring to help them avoid penalties and comply with the new regulations.

Now, the government has a little more work to do.  They need to address the regulations that were put into place pre-healthcare reform and remove those that prevent payers and providers from being successful as they try to comply with the new legislation.  To ignore these barriers will only weaken the effectiveness of the legislation and our ability to truly improve access to needed care.

If you would like to learn more about telehealth, including telemedicine and remote patient monitoring visit the Telehealth Resource Center site in your area.  If you need assistance and a TRC doesn't exist for your area of the country, feel free to contact the Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center.

Monday Morning Hustle - Detroit Medical Center

The ladies (I didn't see any gentlemen) of the Detroit Medical Center Patient Accounting Office have a great way to get started for their work week.  The short video of them doing the Monday Morning Hustle is beautiful!

 

 

An App for That: Jewish Hospital

Marty at Hospital Life has an app for Jewish Hospital And Frazier Rehab.  Way cool!

Project Legacy: A New VA Hospital for New Orleans

Louisiana will have a new VA hospital in New Orleansand it is much needed.  The new facility is in the same neighborhood and close to the rest of the medical school/inner city healthcare hub.

It looks to be a beautiful and well designed facility.

Can Electronic Clinical Documentation Help Prevent Diagnostic Errors?

The New England Journal of Medicine addressed the subject of electronic clinical documentation helping to prevent diagnostic errors in the current issue.  There is a great table that summarizes the types of clinical documentation and their associated goals and features.

Download Electronic Clinical Documentation Help Prevent Diagnostic Errors

I'm struck by the sincerity of is commentary, especially:

• the reference to how existing documentation practices have largely been dictated by billing and legal requirements
• the plea for policy makers to adopt a more rational approach and
• the request to have physicians, members of their support staff and patients engaged in re-engineering electronic documentation.

Employing Social Media to Build Customer Satisfaction and Community Outreach

I just participated in a Washington State Healthcare Executive Forum educational program via teleconferencing.  WSHEF is a local chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives and I'm really impressed by how they were able to engage healthcare executives across the state and miles to participate in this event.  It was really cool and I can't wait to share the story with my telehealth and HCE friends.

The program was titled Employing Social Media to Build Customer Satisfaction and Community Outreach and the panel represented hospitals and public health in the State of Washington.  When I heard about it, I wanted to just listen in to see if I had really addressed what people what to know in the book.  But, I was also given an opportunity to introduce the book.  The panelist really covered the key topics for engaging customers and the community and they also talked about a few of the other applications.

To emphasis a few of the points made:

• It really isn't just about promoting our organizations.  Social media is also about how we will accomplish our work.
• The best way to grow is to build upon your past efforts.
• There are examples of social media improving outcomes.
• Written policies for social media use are vital.

One of the panelist also mentioned a quote by William Shakespeare and I'm going to end with it because it really does speak to the real power of social media.

"We are advertised by our loving friends"

Doc EHR Talk

DocEHRtalk.org is a site built to help docs learn about EHRs and connect.  It is based on research around diffusion of innovation theories and was created by one of the pioneering RHIO/HIE organizations - Rhode Island Quality Institute.

Visit, and more importantly, let your docs know it exists.

Mobile Health

I addressed the topic of mobile health in my book on social media in healthcare, because I feel this is one of the disruptive forces we can expect and great leaders need to be prepared.  In my new telehealth world, there is also discussion about mobile health and how our networks can support use of this new technology.

Well, I had to miss the last mHealth Networking Conference and the offer to view the the keynote presentation is really appreciate, but I need to be there.  So, I'm really happy to have the opportunity to stay on the west coast and drive down the PCH to San Diego for the September 8-9 mHealth Networking Conference.  One of my board members (a physician) has submitted a proposal on how he is using mobile health technologies to care for patients, so I'm really hoping I can see his presentation.

For those of you who don't remember, mHealth Initiative is lead by the people who made TEPR so great.  I'm sure this conference will be great too.  If you will be there and want to connect, send me a message or leave a post.