-
Huntzinger Management Group Appoints New VP Marketing
PLAINS, PA – July 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — The Huntzinger Management Group, Inc. (HMG), a leading healthcare management consulting firm offering advisory and managed services, implementation and staff augmentation services, announces that Craig Kasper has joined its leadership team as Vice President of Marketing. Founding Partner Bob Kitts, Chief Executive Officer of HMG, made the announcement.
As Vice President of Marketing Kasper will provide leadership and strategic direction to HMG’s marketing operations across all sales channels and communications platforms, while guiding the definition and demonstration of HMG’s mission through client experiences to achieve revenue growth targets and continued brand development.
Kasper brings a wealth of marketing and sales experience to HMG. In prior roles, having run national marketing and sales operations for both private and public companies, his experience also includes leading a $250 million professional services division for a fortune 250 company through 12 years of consecutive growth in sales and quality program service delivery.
“Craig’s experience as a marketing strategist and skill in positioning organizations to achieve above average growth are timely for HMG as we are launching new service lines and expanding our capabilities to support the needs of a growing healthcare client base,” said Bob Kitts, CEO of HMG. “His marketing and sales leadership background is a formidable asset for both the HMG team and for our clients as well. We welcome Craig to our leadership team as we continue to distinguish HMG as a preeminent force in helping clients leverage their IT investment and gain maximum value from their IT spend.”
About The Huntzinger Management Group, Inc.
HMG provides advisory and managed services consulting to the healthcare industry. We focus on clinical and operational business performance optimization by ensuring alignment between IT, clinical, and ambulatory areas to position our healthcare clients for the future. For more information, visit www.huntzingergroup.com.About Huntzinger Staffing Solutions, LLC
HSS provides experienced IT resources to healthcare organizations across the country, allowing their clients to address both short-term and long-term IT implementation staffing needs. Working collaboratively with organizations, HSS identifies the required skill sets to meet business objectives. For more information, visit www.huntzingerstaffing.com.Posted 7.16.2015 -
Atlanta’s Piedmont Healthcare to Advance Accountable Care with Health Catalyst Data Warehouse & Analytics Platform
SALT LAKE CITY, UT & ATLANTA, GA – July 14, 2015 — Health Catalyst, a leader in healthcare data warehousing and analytics, and Piedmont Healthcare have partnered on a strategic initiative to improve the health of patients using a new data-driven approach to quality and performance improvement.
Health Catalyst’s Late-Binding™ Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) and Analytics will help leaders and clinicians at Piedmont Healthcare reveal clinical and operational insights from the terabytes of data collected across the organization’s five hospitals and more than 75 primary care and multi-specialty locations. The EDW creates a “single source of truth” with powerful analytics apps that transform its data trove into information that is critical to the success of Piedmont’s accountable care organization (ACO).
An ACO is a network of hospitals and doctors that coordinate patient services on a pre-arranged fee schedule while agreeing to absorb cost overruns.
“Successful ACOs must be able to measure their performance against at-risk contracts, manage and optimize their provider networks, identify and minimize variation in evidence-based practice, and satisfy multiple other data-centric requirements of the accountable care process,” said Ronnie Brownsworth, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Piedmont Clinic. “We are confident that Health Catalyst will enable us to meet these requirements and deliver better healthcare more cost-effectively for our patients inside and outside of the ACO.”
Piedmont’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Leigh Hamby noted that a significant part of the Health Catalyst agreement concerns the company’s proven service offering, based on decades of performance improvement experience in other health systems. Health Catalyst will help Piedmont to organize multidisciplinary teams of physicians, nurses, IT specialists, administrators and finance experts who will “use the new data-driven insights we expect to get from the EDW and analytics applications to enhance the quality and efficiency of care delivery” across the health system, Dr. Hamby said.
“We are grateful to have been selected by Piedmont to help advance the science and process of quality and performance improvement,” said Dan Burton, CEO of Health Catalyst. “Piedmont’s commitment to enhance its quality and drive efficiencies is a clear testament to their devotion to delivering the best outcomes for the patients of their communities.”
Health Catalyst’s healthcare-specific EDW is built using a late-binding architecture proven to deliver quick time-to-value and flexibility for the changing nature of healthcare data. The data warehouse and content-driven analytics applications can be quickly adjusted to answer pressing questions in minutes instead of the days or weeks required for most decision support tools and processes. Once implemented, opportunities for care improvements will be at the fingertips of Piedmont’s clinicians and administrators, leading to better quality at lower cost.
About Piedmont Healthcare
Piedmont Healthcare is a private, not-for-profit organization that serves nearly two million patients primarily in North Georgia communities but also across the State. The five hospitals include Piedmont Atlanta Hospital, a 529-bed general and specialty acute-care hospital Buckhead; Piedmont Fayette Hospital, a 172-bed, acute-care community hospital in Fayetteville and one of the 100 Top Hospitals® in the nation; Piedmont Mountainside Hospital, a 52-bed community hospital in Jasper; Piedmont Newnan Hospital, a 136-bed, acute-care community hospital in Newnan; and Piedmont Henry Hospital, a 215-bed acute-care community hospital in Stockbridge. Piedmont Healthcare also is the parent company of Piedmont Heart Institute, providing integrated cardiovascular healthcare by more than 100 cardiovascular and other specialty physicians with 23 office locations; the Piedmont Physicians Group, with more than 120 primary care physicians and 70 specialty physicians in 55 offices throughout north Georgia; the Piedmont Clinic, a 1,250-member physician network; and Piedmont Healthcare Foundation, the philanthropic entity for private fundraising initiatives. For more information, visit www.piedmont.org.About Health Catalyst
Health Catalyst is a mission-driven data warehousing, analytics and outcomes-improvement company that helps healthcare organizations of all sizes perform the clinical, financial, and operational reporting and analysis needed for population health and accountable care. Our proven enterprise data warehouse (EDW) and analytics platform helps improve quality, add efficiency and lower costs in support of more than 50 million patients for organizations ranging from the largest US health system to forward-thinking physician practices. For more information, visit www.healthcatalyst.com, and follow them on Twitter, LinkedInand Facebook.Media Contact:
Todd Stein
Amendola Communications for Health Catalyst
916.346.4213
[email protected]Posted 7.14.2015 -
Vital’s CT Myocardial Perfusion to Make Its US Debut at SCCT 2015
510(k) Cleared Cardiac Imaging Application featured in expert-led workshops
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – July 13, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Vital Images, Inc. (Vital) will debut its 510(k) FDA-cleared CT Myocardial Perfusion application at the 10th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) in Las Vegas, July 16-19.
Cardiac CT procedures are performed to determine the function of the heart muscle called the myocardium. Vital’s CT Myocardial Perfusion application enables physicians to visualize and analyze the heart’s blood flow using data collected during cardiac CT scans. It provides semi-automatic measurements, segmentation of the myocardium, calculation of perfusion results and detailed perfusion polar maps. CT Myocardial Perfusion evaluation can be combined with cardiac CT angiography (CCTA) in a single examination to assess patients with acute chest pain.
“Cardiologists have been using Vital solutions to help visualize anatomy and determine treatment plans for years,” said Jim Litterer, General Manager at Vital. “We are pleased that we now can offer our global customers technology to aid in myocardial perfusion visualization and analysis.”
Vital’s CT Myocardial Perfusion was developed using feedback gathered from industry experts who also participated in the CORE 320 study, led by Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation, which used Toshiba’s Aquilion™ ONE to determine the effectiveness of 320-detector row dynamic volume CT to single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) technology. It showed that CCTA findings more closely predict whether a patient undergoes revascularization than results generated with SPECT.
Attendees at the SCCT meeting in Las Vegas can experience CT Myocardial Perfusion hands-on during a workshop led by Dr. Richard T. George on Thursday, July 16. It can also be seen in Vital’s booth #501.
About Toshiba
Toshiba Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, channels world-class capabilities in advanced electronic and electrical product and systems into five strategic business domains: Energy & Infrastructure, Community Solutions, Healthcare Systems & Services, Electronic Devices & Components, and Lifestyles Products & Services. Guided by the principles of The Basic Commitment of the Toshiba Group, “Committed to People, Committed to the Future,” Toshiba promotes global operations toward securing “Growth Through Creativity and Innovation,” and is contributing to the achievement of a world in which people everywhere live in safe, secure and comfortable society lives.Founded in Tokyo in 1875, today’s Toshiba is at the heart of a global network of over 590 consolidated companies employing over 200,000 people worldwide, with annual sales surpassing 6.5 trillion yen (US$63 billion). To find out more about Toshiba, visit www.toshiba.co.jp/index.htm
About Vital Images, Inc.
Vital Images, Inc., a Toshiba Medical Systems Group Company, is a leading provider of health imaging diagnostic, management and business intelligence solutions, to help healthcare organizations deliver exceptional care while optimizing resources across multi-facility organizations. The company’s solutions are scalable to meet the unique needs of hospitals and imaging centers and are accessible throughout the enterprise anytime and anywhere. For more information, visit www.vitalimages.com or join the conversation on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.Contact at Vital Images:
Nichole Gerszewski
952.487.9647
[email protected]
www.vitalimages.comPosted 7.14.2015 -
Nordic earns spot on HCI 100 for second-straight year
For Immediate Release
Madison, WI – July 13, 2015 — Nordic is proud to announce that it is ranked No. 68 on the HCI 100, Healthcare Informatics announced today. This marks the second-consecutive year that Nordic has been recognized on the list. The HCI 100 is a ranking of the 100 companies with the highest revenues derived from healthcare IT products and services earned in the US over the past year. Nordic made its debut on the list in 2014 with a ranking of No. 74.
“Our largest areas of growth at Nordic are directly tied to the feedback we hear from our client partners,” Nordic President Drew Madden said. “The growth we have seen in these areas over the last 12 months continues to give us great pride in those partnerships.”
With the high volume of mergers, acquisitions, and Epic extension projects in the marketplace, Nordic’s Affiliate Solutions has seen tremendous growth. Demand also continues to grow for Nordic’s Optimization Solutions, which provides organizations with an ROI-based approach to leverage and enhance their EHR investment. Another key area of growth, Nordic’s Remote Solutions, has helped many organizations manage the cost of support and maintenance by tapping into the expertise of Nordic consultants from the Remote Solutions center in Madison.
About Nordic
Based in Madison, WI, Nordic is the world’s largest Epic consulting practice. Nordic is ranked #1 by KLAS for providing Epic EHR consulting services to healthcare organizations and is a KLAS Category Leader. Nordic specializes in Implementation, Optimization, Affiliate, Advisory and Remote Solutions. Its 450 consultants average over 10 years HIT experience and five certifications.Posted 7.13.2015 -
CHIME Statement on 21st Century Cures Passage
Statement from CHIME Interim Vice President of Public Policy, Leslie Krigstein
ANN ARBOR, MI, JULY 10, 2015 – The 21st Century Cures Act is a landmark piece of legislation that will move our nation closer to a 21st Century healthcare system. As recognized in this bill, health information technology will serve as the foundation to foster many of the ideologies in delivering lifesaving cures to patients more rapidly.
The Committee’s choice to tackle the complex issue of interoperability is to be commended. Without nationwide interoperability, we will be unable to derive the value promised by the nation’s $30 billion investment in electronic health records (EHRs). Expediting cures to patients will not be possible without a health information highway that allows providers and patients the data they need, when and where they need it.
CHIME appreciates the Committee’s recognition that harmonizing standards adoption will exponentially move interoperability forward. We agree that clear, enforceable standards are necessary to foster nationwide interoperability. The inclusion of increased testing requirements for certified products, including ‘real world’ testing, is a priority for CHIME members as a means to bring value to the certification program.
We appreciate the Committee’s inclusion of the need to ensure the information in one’s EHR belongs to the patient. We hope that this language will begin a sincere dialogue on the need to address the ongoing patient safety and care coordination challenges arbitrarily imposed by the lack of a national approach to patient identification. Without a patient identity matching strategy, patient data matching errors and mismatches will become exponentially more problematic and dangerous.
We view this legislation as a starting point in the conversation on health IT reform. We hope to build on the language in 21st Century Cures Act to ensure the Meaningful Use Program, among other ongoing federal policy initiatives, enable the implementation and use of EHR systems to meaningfully improve patient care.
About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,400 CIO members and over 140 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.chimecentral.org.Contact
Stephanie Fraser
Director of Communications and Corporate Relations, CHIME
734.665.0000
[email protected]Posted 7.10.2015 -
Anthelio Healthcare Solutions Partners with M*Modal, Enhancing Complex Medical Coding & Transcription Services in the Healthcare Industry
Partnership unites two industry leaders, advancing coding & transcription services throughout the industry
Dallas, TX and Franklin, TN – July 8, 2015 — Anthelio Healthcare Solutions, the largest independent provider of technology and services to the healthcare industry, and M*Modal, one of the largest clinical transcription service providers in the US, announced today a strategic partnership to better serve the healthcare industry. The companies will leverage their global talent, resources and technology platforms to deliver high-quality, reliable and scalable coding and transcription services for the healthcare industry.
As part of the agreement, Anthelio will provide M*Modal with highly skilled coders and auditors to meet strong demand for coding and health information management (HIM) services in hospitals. In addition, Anthelio will leverage M*Modal’s Fluency for Transcription™ speech recognition and workflow platform – as well as M*Modal’s network of global transcriptionists and editors – to support Anthelio in meeting customer demand for high-quality clinical documentation. Finally, Anthelio will offer M*Modal’s front-end speech recognition solution Fluency Direct™ to its customer base, enabling physicians to verbally capture patient records directly in electronic health record system templates.
Working together, the two firms will provide “end-to-end” solutions and services needed to meet today’s multi-dimensional healthcare reform demands.
“There is a clear need to address the pressures our healthcare providers are facing with ICD-10 conversion, external audits/denials, lack of skilled coding resources and staffing issues,” said Asif Ahmad, CEO, Anthelio Healthcare Solutions. “Partnering with M*Modal not only promotes economies of scale desperately needed in the healthcare industry, it also expands our footprint in the industry to ensure ICD-10 readiness and compliance of other government mandates. Our strategic alliance will afford all our customers access to Anthelio’s world-class coding and auditing services, while at the same time give them the opportunity to utilize M*Modal’s industry-leading state-of-the art transcription and voice recognition solutions,” he concluded.
Together, the two companies bring decades of healthcare experience to the partnership. Anthelio employs over 400 certified healthcare professionals around the globe, coding over two million charts each year. M*Modal services and technology process the clinical documentation of more than 200,000 physicians every day. With innovative technology and a network of more than 8,000 transcriptionists globally, M*Modal delivers clinical documentation solutions to over 3,700 clients, including hospitals, clinics and physician practices.
“We are seeing tremendous growth in coding services, and are very pleased to be working with Anthelio to provide our customers with high-quality coders and auditors,” said Scott MacKenzie, CEO of M*Modal. “Accurate billing begins with accurate and complete clinical documentation. By partnering with M*Modal and Anthelio for transcription, clinical documentation technology, and coding services, HIM departments can ensure strong physician satisfaction, more complete patient information and higher productivity from the revenue cycle process.”
Anthelio is a leading provider of HIM outsourcing, coding, coding audit and transcription services. The company is the recognized leader in coding quality, and its coding services received the highest scores in Coder Quality by the eminent healthcare rating organization, KLAS Enterprises LLC, in their 2014 report. Anthelio employs hundreds of HIM professionals, including medical coders credentialed by AHIMA and/or AAPC. Anthelio has expanded its global footprint over the last three years including the addition of a new location in Mumbai due to significant growth and expansion in various service offerings including but not limited to coding, clinical documentation and revenue optimization services. The company currently codes nearly two million charts annually for healthcare providers from coast to coast, empowering them to provide quality care while Anthelio manages their coding backlogs, staffing issues, spikes in coding volumes and adherence to regulations. The company focuses on improving all aspects of HIM department performance for healthcare organizations and provides a full array of inpatient, outpatient, ED, lab, radiology, observation and clinical coding services.
The strategic alliance is a win-win situation for both companies, as well as healthcare providers. The goal of the partnership is to leverage the power of global collaboration by tapping into the proven strengths of two accomplished health information management service providers, ensuring sustainable value through lower costs, increased quality care and improved efficiencies.
About Anthelio Healthcare Solutions
Anthelio® is a driving force in the healthcare industry and is the largest independent provider of healthcare technology solutions to hospitals, physician practice groups and other healthcare providers. By provisioning hospitals in over 450 counties across the US with innovative solutions in the areas of IT, EHR, HIM, Patient Engagement, Enterprise Interoperability (EI) and Healthcare Analytics & Informatics (HAI) services, Anthelio impacts quality care to over six million patients. Powered by cutting-edge technologies and thousands of healthcare professionals with extensive clinical and operational experience, Anthelio drives high value for over 20,000 physicians and nurses in hundreds of healthcare organizations supporting their annual revenue of over $12 billion. Anthelio is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Visit www.antheliohealth.com for more information.Media Contact:
Pat Douglas
214.257.7000
[email protected]About M*Modal
M*Modal is a leading healthcare technology provider of advanced clinical documentation solutions, enabling hospitals and physicians to enrich the content of patient electronic health records (EHR) for improved healthcare and comprehensive billing integrity. As one of the largest clinical transcription service providers in the US, with a global network of medical editors, M*Modal also provides advanced cloud-based Speech Understanding™ technology and data analytics that enable physicians and clinicians to include the context of their patient narratives into electronic health records in a single step, further enhancing their productivity and the cost-saving efficiency and quality of patient care at the point of care. For more information, please visit www.mmodal.com, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.Media Contact:
Glen Haley
615.798.3511
[email protected]Posted 7.10.2015 -
M*Modal & Preferred Solutions Partner to Provide Hospitals with Adoption Services for Speech-Based Clinical Documentation Platform
Collaboration offers physician training on capturing the patient story efficiently & accurately in electronic medical records
Franklin, TN – June 26, 2015 — M*Modal, a leading provider of clinical documentation and Speech Understanding™ solutions, and Preferred Solutions, a leading healthcare IT consulting, staffing, and training firm, today announced a partnership for increasing physician adoption of electronic medical record (EMR) systems. The companies will offer onsite training at hospitals for using M*Modal’s front-end speech technology platform to improve clinical documentation quality and patient outcomes.
Preferred Solutions will provide training and adoption services for M*Modal’s Fluency Direct software, which enables doctors to conversationally create and edit clinical data directly within existing EMR systems. The partnership leverages each company’s capabilities to provide healthcare organizations with the technology and skills needed to streamline physician workflows, increase productivity and enhance clinical documentation improvement (CDI) programs.
In addition to Fluency Direct, physicians will receive training on M*Modal’s computer-assisted physician documentation (CAPD) module, which provides real-time feedback to physicians on common documentation deficiencies to help eliminate costly and time-consuming queries later in the care cycle.
“Physicians need to work at their best, and this collaboration is about teaching them better ways to document, to be more efficient and productive,” said Scott MacKenzie, CEO of M*Modal. “The combination of M*Modal’s flexible, clinical documentation platform with Preferred Solutions adoption services supports hospitals in their documentation improvement programs and getting the most out of their electronic medical record systems.”
Preferred Solutions brings over 120 experienced, clinical consultants and a proven track record of successfully delivering implementation projects on time and under budget using The Preferred Approach.
“The partnership between Preferred Solutions and M*Modal delivers excellent value to our customers,” said Marie Seipenko, CEO of Preferred Solutions. “The two companies have worked together at multiple hospitals and are excited by the prospect of bringing this know-how to more clients.”
About M*Modal
M*Modal is a leading healthcare technology provider of advanced clinical documentation solutions, enabling hospitals and physicians to enrich the content of patient electronic health records (EHR) for improved healthcare and comprehensive billing integrity. As one of the largest clinical transcription service providers in the U.S., with a global network of medical editors, M*Modal also provides advanced cloud-based Speech Understanding™ technology and data analytics that enable physicians and clinicians to include the context of their patient narratives into electronic health records in a single step, further enhancing their productivity and the cost-saving efficiency and quality of patient care at the point of care. For more information, please visit www.mmodal.com, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.About Preferred Solutions
Preferred Solutions is a 22 year old leading information technology staffing, training, and consulting firm delivering deeply skilled project-based resources to clients throughout the United States. A significant portion of their business is focused on healthcare IT staffing, training and consulting. They have extensive history rapidly building and deploying SWAT teams to provide the right skill to the right place at the right time. Their consultants complete their exclusive Preferred Solutions soft skills curriculum specifically designed to prepare them to navigate today’s unique cultural and change management challenges. They add value to projects by leveraging their proven process – The Preferred Approach – and proprietary technology to drive maximum utilization of their teams. For more information please visit them at www.prefsol.com.Media Contacts:
Glen Haley
M*Modal
[email protected]
615.798.3511Jim Ruthven
Preferred Solutions
[email protected]
248.679.0130Posted 7.10.2015 -
Most Wired Hospitals Focus on Security and Patient Engagement
ANN ARBOR, MI and CHICAGO, July 9, 2015— Health data security and patient engagement are top priorities for the nation’s hospitals, according to results of the 17th annual HealthCare’s Most Wired™ Survey, released today by the American Hospital Association’s Health Forum and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME).
The 2015 Most Wired™ survey and benchmarking study, in partnership with CHIME and sponsored by VMware, is a leading industry barometer measuring information technology (IT) use and adoption among hospitals nationwide. The survey of more than 741 participants, representing more than 2,213 hospitals, examined how organizations are leveraging IT to improve performance for value-based healthcare in the areas of infrastructure, business and administrative management, quality and safety, and clinical integration.
According to the survey, hospitals are taking more aggressive privacy and security measures to protect and safeguard patient data. Top growth areas in security among this year’s Most Wired organizations include privacy audit systems, provisioning systems, data loss prevention, single sign-on and identity management. The survey also found:
- 96 percent of Most Wired organizations use intrusion detection systems compared to 85 percent of the all respondents. Privacy audit systems (94 percent) and security incident event management (93 percent) are also widely used.
- 79 percent of Most Wired organizations conduct incident response exercises or tabletop tests annually, a high-level estimate of the current potential for success of a cybersecurity incident response plan, compared to 37 percent of all responding hospitals.
- 83 percent of Most Wired organizations report that hospital board oversight of risk management and reduction includes cybersecurity risk.
“With the rising number of patient data breaches and cybersecurity attacks threatening the healthcare industry, protecting patient health information is a top priority for hospital customers,” said Frank Nydam, Senior Director of Healthcare at VMware. “Coupled with the incredible technology innovation taking place today, healthcare organizations need to have security as a foundational component of their mobility, cloud and networking strategy and incorporated into the very fabric of the organization”
As hospitals and health systems begin to transition away from volume-based care to more integrated, value-based care delivery, hospitals are utilizing IT to better facilitate information exchange across the care settings. This includes greater alignment between hospitals and physicians. According to the survey, the physician portal is a key factor in strengthening physician-hospital alignment:
-
- In 84 percent of Most Wired organizations, physicians can view and exchange other facilities’ results in the portal compared with 63 percent of hospitals surveyed.
- 76 percent use the portal and electronic health record (EHR) to exchange results with other EHRs and health information exchanges compared to 56 percent of those surveyed.
- 81 percent can communicate with patients via email or alerts in contrast to 63 percent of all respondents.
Driven beyond the requirements of Meaningful Use Stage 2, this year’s Most Wired hospitals are utilizing the benefits of a patient portal to get patients actively involved in their health and healthcare. For instance, 89 percent of Most Wired organizations offer access to the patient portal through a mobile application. Other key findings include:
- 67 percent of Most Wired hospitals offer the ability to incorporate patient-generated data.
- 63 percent offer self-management tools for chronic conditions.
- 60 percent offer patient-specific education in multiple languages.
“We commend and congratulate this year’s Most Wired hospitals and their CIOs for improving care delivery and outcomes in our nation’s hospitals through their creative and revolutionary uses of technology,” said CHIME CEO and President Russell P. Branzell, FCHIME CHCIO. “These Most Wired organizations represent excellence in IT leadership on the frontlines of healthcare transformation.”
“Congratulations to our nation’s Most Wired hospitals for harnessing the potential of information technology to improve quality care and patient safety and lower health care costs,” said Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the AHA. “At the forefront of the field, these hospitals are setting the bar for protection of patient data through discerning security measures.”
HealthCare’s Most Wired™ Survey, conducted between Jan. 15 and March 15, 2015, is published annually by Health & Hospitals Network. Respondents completed 741 surveys, representing more than 39 percent of all U.S. hospitals. Last October, the AHA/Health Forum and CHIME announced the formation of a Most Wired partnership to enhance collaboration between the two organizations in the development and sustainability of the survey, and to collectively help meet the growing demand for useful data on health IT integration.
Detailed results of the survey and study can be found in the July issue of H&HN. For a full list of winners visit www.hhnmag.com.
About the American Hospital Association
The American Hospital Association (AHA) is the national organization that represents and serves all types of hospitals, health care networks, and their patients and communities. Nearly 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks, other providers of care and 43,000 individual members come together to form the AHA. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. For more information, please visit www.aha.org.About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,500 CIO members and over 150 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.chimecentral.org.About Health Forum
Health Forum is a strategic business enterprise of the American Hospital Association, creatively partnering to develop and deliver essential information and innovative services to help health care leaders achieve organizational performance excellence and sustainability. For more information, please visit www.healthforum.comAbout our Sponsor
VMware is a global leader in cloud infrastructure and business mobility. Built on VMware’s industry-leading virtualization technology, our solutions deliver a brave new model of IT that is fluid, instant and more secure. Customers can innovate faster by rapidly developing, automatically delivering and more safely consuming any application. With 2014 revenues of $6 billion, VMware has more than 500,000 customers and 75,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and other jurisdictions. The use of the word “partner” or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.
Contacts
Stephanie Fraser
Director of Communications and Corporate Relations, CHIME
734.665.0000
[email protected]Marie Watteau
VP Media Relations
202.626.2351
[email protected]Posted 7.9.2015 -
Large Virginia Health Provider Selects Sectra for PACS Replacement
International medical imaging IT company Sectra(STO: SECT B) announces that Carilion Clinic has invested in Sectra Picture Archiving & Communication System (PACS) & Sectra DoseTrack to be installed throughout the enterprise.
Shelton, CT – July 9, 2015 — Carilion Clinic, headquartered in Roanoke, VA, consists of seven hospitals and provides health care services for one million people in western Virginia. “Every decision we make at Carilion comes down to how it will positively impact our patients and their care,” says Evelyn Garcia, MD, chair of Carilion’s radiology department. “With the Sectra solution, we are looking forward to increased efficiency, better access to clinical tools and better integration across our system. And that’s just the beginning.”
The multi-year order includes Sectra PACS for handling radiology images and Sectra Breast Imaging PACS for mammography workflow; including advanced visualization and 3D orthopaedic templating tools. Carilion Clinic also invested in Sectra DoseTrack for monitoring and recording radiation dose information. Sectra’s PACS is optimized for a high production environment with stability and usability in focus. It is designed to shorten report turnaround times, enhance result distribution workflows, and improve communication and dialogue between radiology and referring units.
For two consecutive years, Sectra PACS has been awarded top customer satisfaction and “Best in KLAS”, from the research firm with the same name, with hospitals over 200 beds. This year, also winning “Category Leader” for Community PACS (hospitals under 200 beds)and Ambulatory PACS (imaging centers and radiology groups) gives Sectra the distinction to have swept all the PACS honors in the US market. Sectra was also named “Best in KLAS” for Global PACS (hospitals outside of the United States).
“Sectra’s strong customer satisfaction, as confirmed through the Best in KLAS awards, aligns well with Carilion Clinic and their similar focus on providing excellent care in the markets they serve.” says Mikael Anden, president of Sectra, North America.
About Sectra’s Solutions
Sectra works toward a vision of patient-centred care. A healthcare delivery where images and data follow the patient rather than allowing organizational silos and IT systems to hinder a smooth and efficient care process. Sectra’s product portfolio is designed to support patient pathways with an emphasis on the cancer care pathway. Sectra Breast Imaging PACS, Sectra DoseTrack and Sectra PACS, with tools that increase the efficiency of oncology workflow, represent key solutions needed to accomplish efficient patient-centered care.About Sectra
With more than 20 years in the business, Sectra develops and sells IT systems and services for radiology, pathology, women’s health and orthopedics. More than 1,700 hospitals, clinics and imaging centers worldwide use the systems daily, making Sectra one of the world-leading companies for handling digital images. For more information, visit www.sectra.com.About Carilion Clinic
Carilion Clinic is a not-for-profit healthcare organization serving nearly one million people in Virginia through hospitals, outpatient specialty centers and advanced primary care practices. Led by multi specialty physician teams with a shared philosophy that puts the patient first, Carilion is committed to improving outcomes for every patient while advancing the quality of care through medical education and research.For more information visit www.carilionclinic.org/about.
Posted 7.9.2015 -
Summa Health Collaborates with Merge Healthcare to Drive Population Health Initiatives
Cardiology solutions enable better access to images & data, & improved workflows to support population health improvements
Chicago, IL – July 9, 2015 — Merge Healthcare Incorporated (NASDAQ: MRGE), a leading provider of innovative enterprise imaging, interoperability, and clinical systems that seek to advance healthcare, today announced Summa Health, one of the largest integrated healthcare delivery systems in Ohio, will integrate Merge’s cardiology solutions to support population health initiatives. The solutions will support Summa’s overarching coordinated care goals, as well as provide better access to images and data to enhance workflows and reporting.
“By partnering with Merge, we are replacing disparate standalone cardiology applications and improving our ability to analyze data to drive process improvement,” said Kellie Nace, system director for clinical imaging and document archive solutions. ”Our goal is to have an all-in-one patient view, consolidate workflow for our clinicians, and enable an efficient structured reporting environment for all of our cardiology modalities.”
Summa will leverage Merge cardiology and hemodynamic solutions, including:
- Merge Hemo™, Merge’s real-time documentation tool for the cardiac cath lab, which easily automates cath lab documentation into the patient’s electronic health record for efficient workflow.
- Merge Cardio™, a web-enabled enterprise-level image and information system that provides a single point of entry to the patient’s complete cardio record spanning all cardiac modalities.
“We’re excited to support Summa in their population health and wellness initiatives. With the trend toward value-based reimbursement, we know organizations are striving to provide better access to healthcare,” said Justin Dearborn, chief executive officer at Merge Healthcare. “Through solutions that provide enterprise support, Summa’s physicians will have a consolidated view of their patient’s information, enabling quicker and more efficient patient care. Population health organizations, like Summa, are leading the charge in this arena to embrace greater collaboration, reduced costs and better patient outcomes. ”
To learn more about Merge’s full suite of solutions, visit www.merge.com/Solutions.aspx.
About Merge
Merge is a leading provider of innovative enterprise imaging, interoperability and clinical systems that seek to advance healthcare. Merge’s enterprise and cloud-based technologies for image intensive specialties provide access to any image, anywhere, any time. Merge also provides clinical trials software with end-to-end study support in a single platform and other intelligent health data and analytics solutions. With solutions that have been used by providers for more than 25 years, Merge is helping to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and enhance the quality of healthcare worldwide. For more information, visit merge.com and follow them @MergeHealthcare.Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
The matters discussed in this news release may include forward-looking statements, which could involve a number of risks and uncertainties. When used in this press release, the words “will,” “believes,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “expects” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, such forward-looking statements. Except as expressly required by the federal securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update such factors or to publicly announce the results of any of the forward-looking statements.Posted 7.9.2015 -
Over Fifty MEDITECH Customers Earn Five Stars from New CMS Survey
Westwood, MA — MEDITECH is pleased to see over 50 of its customers receive a five-star rating from The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). A total of 3,553 hospitals received HCAHPS Star Ratings; only 251 hospitals were acknowledged with five stars.
CMS is making it easier for patients to explore their healthcare options with this new five-star quality rating system, based on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey results. Star Ratings are published on Hospital Compare, Medicare’s consumer-oriented website. Learn more about the new rating system and see the full list of hospitals in this Healthcare Finance article.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Jessica Crawford
Senior Writer, Public Relations
781.774.3979
[email protected]Posted 7.7.2015 -
CHIME’s 23rd Annual Fall CIO Forum Comes to Orlando
Four-day education event will assemble more than 800 healthcare CIOs and IT executives
ANN ARBOR, MI, July 6, 2015 – The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) will welcome more than 800 of the healthcare IT industry’s most experienced professionals from around the country, October 14-17, at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes Resort in Orlando for the CHIME15 Fall CIO Forum.
Now in its 23rd year, the organization’s largest annual event features a prolific lineup of speakers and education sessions, and offers an array of networking opportunities for senior healthcare IT executives to collaborate, exchange best practices, and strengthen partnerships with government agencies and vendor services firms that share a professional interest in improving the quality, safety, and cost effectiveness of healthcare.
This year’s roster includes prominent keynote speakers Shawn Achor, New York Times bestselling author and happiness expert; Fareed Zakaria, political analyst, Washington Post columnist and host of CNN’s Global Public Square (GPS); and Pamela Meyer, certified fraud examiner and bestselling author of LieSpotting. Dr. Leana Wen, physician and patient advocate and author of When Doctors Don’t Listen, has also been confirmed as a plenary session speaker.
The four-day conference also includes 16 innovative track sessions led by chief information officers and other industry luminaries sharing real-world experiences and case studies from the field. Returning this year is CHIME’s Performance Institute (formerly known as the Best Practices Institute) Solutions Showcase, a collection of over 30 best-practice collaborations between healthcare providers and their vendor partners.
“As the healthcare industry’s leading professional organization for CIOs and senior IT executives, we are committed to providing health IT professionals in-depth education and support to nurture their leadership skills and respond to the industry’s rapidly changing environment,” said CEO and President of CHIME, Russell P. Branzell, FCHIME, CHCIO. “The Fall CIO Forum is an opportunity to bring many of our industry’s key stakeholders together and address the pressing issues that impact the nation’s hospital IT leaders.”
For the full CHIME15 program, including registration information, visit www.chimecentral.org/chime15 or call 1.734.665.000. Be sure to follow @CIOCHIME for updates. Official Twitter hashtag of this year’s CHIME Fall CIO Forum is #CHIME15.
About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,500 CIO members and over 150 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.chimecentral.org.Contact:
Stephanie Fraser
Director of Communications and Corporate Relations
734.665.000
[email protected]Updated: 7/30/2015
Posted 7.6.2015