Archive: March 2016

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• Inside CHIME: CMIO Boot Camp – Prepare to Get Your Hands Dirty!

  

  3.31.16 by George Reynolds, MD, MMM, FAAP, CPHIMS, CHCIO Retired CIO & CMIO, Children’s Hospital & Medical Center, Omaha, NE

  For the third year in a row, CHIME and AMDIS are partnering to bring the successful Boot Camp program to CMIOs. Given the immense challenges facing CMIOs, there’s never been a more important time for them to grow their skill set and leadership training.

  When I added the CIO role to my CMIO duties in 2010, one of the first things I did was sign up for CHIME’s CIO Boot Camp. That turned out to be a very smart move. The course was an intensive and immersive experience that gave me the tools and skills I needed to hit the ground running.

  For the third year in a row, CHIME is teaming up with AMDIS to offer the CMIO Boot Camp, June 19-21 in Ojai, CA. It precedes the 25^th Annual AMDIS Physician-Computer Connect Symposium. I am both thrilled and humbled to be on the CMIO Boot Camp Faculty.

  The CMIO Boot Camp builds on the success of the CIO program, but its content is geared to the special needs of the CMIO and addresses the challenges inherent in serving the needs of both physicians and administrators. Physicians are increasingly overworked, burnt out and frustrated by the demands of a rapidly changing healthcare system. There has never been a more important time for CMIOs to excel at what they do.

  The CMIO Boot Camp is built around 6 Success Factors: Strategic Alignment & Execution, Making Change Happen, Demonstrating Value, Building Networks & Communities, Team Building and Customer Service as a Core Value. A central part of the curriculum is a series case studies that drive practical application of the Success Factors. The case studies are designed to build on each other; they will engage the course participants in collaborative real-world problem solving. I like to think of the course as a mini-MBA designed for the physician leader.

  The Boot Camp isn’t intended for people who are on the fence about a career in clinical informatics. It isn’t a board prep course, and it isn’t an introduction to informatics. It is focused on the tools and skills needed to engage and lead physicians. If you are a CMIO or associate CMIO who wants to take your career to the next level, or you are mentoring such a person, do yourself a favor and take a hard look at the CMIO Boot Camp. It’s a serious commitment. Participants have a healthy list of required and suggested reading. They’re expected to come prepared. The course size is limited to ensure optimum interaction between the faculty and participants. Prepare to get your hands dirty. Prepare to learn.

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  More Inside CHIME Volume 1, No. 14:

  • Making the Case for OpenNotes: One Organization’s Success Story – Matthew Weinstock
  • This Week’s Washington Debrief (3.28.16)

  Posted 3.31.2016

• Inside CHIME: Making the Case for OpenNotes – One Organization’s Success Story

  

  3.31.16 by Matthew Weinstock Director of Communications and Public Relations, CHIME

  At the University of Colorado Health, C.T. Lin, M.D., has been a passionate advocate for empowering patients through information. He spent more than a decade building support for a program that gives patients access to their records, including clinical notes.

  C.T. Lin, M.D., readily admits to being a bit naïve when tried to convince a room full of physicians that patients should have easy access to their electronic health records, including clinical notes.

  It was 2002 and the University of Colorado Health, where Lin was director of medical informatics, had just completed a study on the effects of letting patients tap into their records. The yearlong study involved eight physicians and 107 cardiology patients. Going into the study, 71 percent of participating physicians believed that granting this level of access would generate more questions from patients. The same percentage said it would lead to more worry and 57 percent thought that that the reports would be confusing. Just 43 percent thought that it would benefit patient empowerment.

  One year later, all of the doctors said that it was a positive for patient empowerment and reported a decline in their negative perceptions — 57 percent said it led to more questions or worries and 43 percent said it resulted in confusion for patients. Nonetheless, Lin was shouted out of the room when he made his case to a broader constituency. “Cardiology patients are easy, mine are much more complicated,” Lin recalls being told.

  As healthcare organizations flesh out a variety of patient engagement and transparency strategies, increasing access to medical information is moving to the forefront. The OpenNotes initiative, launched in 2011, is proving to be one of the nation’s most successful and powerful tools in helping to empower patients. The program urges health systems and clinicians to give patients access to the medical notes that are often hidden within the EHR. In late February, CHIME announced that it will work with OpenNotes to spread the concept across the industry, with the aim of reaching 50 million patients within three years. Currently, more a dozen healthcare organizations have signed onto OpenNotes, reaching more than 5 million patients.

  Most CHIME members can likely relate to Lin’s story when it comes to trying to influence a significant culture change. Lin did not give up on his goal of increasing patient access to their medical information. He kept pounding the pavement and in 2008 there was a groundswell of support to open up greater access to EHRs, including test results.

  As you can imagine, he was excited to be invited to participate in the first national study on OpenNotes in 2011. Unfortunately, the timing couldn’t have been worse.

  “We were switching EHRs and that was a big enough change,” he said. “It killed me to turn it down.”

  Determined to increase transparency, Lin, who is now chief medical information officer at UCHealth, finally brought OpenNotes to UCHealth in 2014. Seven primary practices signed on. A short time later, six specialty practices came on board.

  “We’d touch base monthly and there were zero complaints,” he says. This May, UCHealth will use its EPIC upgrade as an opportunity to push OpenNotes system wide, and it will be mandatory. Clinicians will be able to exclude individual notes from the patient’s view at their discretion. For instance, there may be sensitives around domestic abuse or mental health issues.

  Technologically, adopting OpenNotes isn’t that big of a deal, Lin says. Culture change is where CIOs and CMIOs will have the most difficulty.

  Lin offers a few tips for health IT leaders:

  • Have a clinician lead the charge. This isn’t and can’t be viewed as an IT program.
  • Work with your EHR vendor to make sure it is easy to implement. This shouldn’t create more work for
    physicians UCHealth’s opt out, for instance, is a simple click of a button next to the note.
  • Be smart on how you bring it forward to physicians. Lin learned early on that it only takes one or two vocal
    opponents to sway the crowd. Have strong evidence-based data and get clinical leaders on your side early. Lin
    spent a lot of one-on-one time with influential clinical leaders before presenting big ideas in committee.

  Interestingly, Lin and his team are also working with clinicians to help improve how they communicate with patients. They’ve built a crib sheet of sorts that encourages doctors to record their notes in terms that are less likely to confuse patients or be perceived as an insult. Instead of saying “morbidly obese,” the suggestions are “has BMI >30,” or “obese per medical criteria.” For someone who “clearly stinks of cigarette smoke,” consider noting that “the smell of cigarette smoke is evident on the patient’s clothing. Spell out “short of breath” rather than relying “SOB” as shorthand.

  The balance is making sure that the notes are understandable to patients, but, equally as important, provide valuable information and context for other providers, Lin says.

  Click here and fill out the contact form to get engaged in OpenNotes.

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  More Inside CHIME Volume 1, No. 14:

  • CMIO Boot Camp: Prepare to Get Your Hands Dirty! – George Reynolds
  • This Week’s Washington Debrief (3.28.16)

  Posted 3.31.2016

• Navigant Consulting, Inc. Honored to Join the CHIME Foundation

  CHICAGO, IL –  March 30, 2016 — Navigant (NYSE:NCI) announces today it joined the College of Healthcare Information Management Executive (CHIME) as a foundation partner for 2016. The CHIME Foundation’s mission is to collaborate with other thought leaders in the advancement of strategic and innovative applications within healthcare information technology.

  “As the role of technology continues to drive accelerated improvement in healthcare, we are pleased to partner with an organization that understands and supports this evolution,” said David Burik, Managing Director and Navigant healthcare consulting leader. “As one of the select healthcare vendors in CHIME, we look forward to working collaboratively with the organization’s CIO members in defining the future of technologically-enabled healthcare delivery.”

  The CHIME Foundation provides, and participates in, educational initiatives and programs that serve the professional development needs of both CHIME and CHIME Foundation members. Annually, the CHIME Foundation awards those exploring ways to make a difference in Healthcare with recognitions such as Innovator of the Year and the CHIME Collaboration Award, excellence in innovation demonstrating value and creative use of technology by both individuals and firms are shared.

  “We look forward to collaborating with CIOs with the development of best practices that maximize the investments they made in EMRs,” said James McHugh, a Managing Director in Navigant’s revenue cycle management consulting division. “Through our client interactions, we are able to provide industry insights on what the top priorities are in 2016 for IT and the Revenue Cycle and expect to conduct educational sessions that focus on reducing risks when implementing the revenue cycle portion of an EMR.”

  About Navigant
  Navigant Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: NCI) is a specialized, global professional services firm that helps clients take control of their future. Navigant’s professionals apply deep industry knowledge, substantive technical expertise, and an enterprising approach to help clients build, manage and/or protect their business interests. With a focus on markets and clients facing transformational change and significant regulatory or legal pressures, the Firm primarily serves clients in the healthcare, energy and financial services industries. Across a range of advisory, consulting, outsourcing, and technology/analytics services, Navigant’s practitioners bring sharp insight that pinpoints opportunities and delivers powerful results. More information about Navigant can be found at navigant.com.

  About the CHIME Foundation
  The CHIME Foundation is a non-profit organization composed of select healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms. CHIME Foundation members benefit from the unique opportunity to partner and collaborate with more than 1,800 CHIME members. The CHIME Foundation provides and participates in educational initiatives and programs that serve the professional development needs of CHIME and CHIME Foundation members. These initiatives and partnerships advance the strategic and innovative applications of healthcare information technology.

  Contact
  Megan Maupin
  Navigant Corporate Communications
  312.583.5703

  Posted 3.30.2016

• New COACH/CHIME Partnership Opens Doors for Canada’s Executive Health Informatics Leaders!

  ANN ARBOR, MI, & TORONTO, ON, March 30, 2016 — The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and COACH: Canada’s Health Informatics Association are pleased to announce a new partnership fostering greater opportunities for senior health informatics leaders in Canada and the United States. This new collaboration focuses on professional development, best practices, networking events and thought leadership exchange opportunities for the CHIEF: Canada’s Health Informatics Executive Forum.

   

  The introduction of the CHIME Health IT Leadership Academy, which builds off CHIME’s highly successful Healthcare CIO Boot Camp, to the 2016 CHIEF Spring Symposium in June will be just the first major benefit of the partnership. This education event, taking place on June 3, will enable CHIEF members to explore an array of engaging topics, including the contemporary provider environment, the evolution of IT governance and client decision-making processes, as well as long-term strategic partnership and trends and opportunities shaping healthcare and health IT.

  “This partnership is a particularly important asset to COACH’s CHIEF members holding a chief information officer (CIO) position, as they will benefit from access to the wide variety of CHIME resources, allowing them to be better informed and positioned in meeting their current challenges, particularly around innovation and transformation in patient care and system sustainability — common challenges that healthcare leaders face across North America, and around the world,” said Mark Casselman, CEO, COACH. “This initiative also opens the door to CHIEF members looking to connect with industry leaders and innovators from across the United States. Through the COACH partnership with CHIME, our CHIEFs can tap into new perspectives, experiences and information about critical issues, leadership capacity building, succession planning and other important areas.”

  The agreement, executed through a memorandum of understanding between COACH and CHIME in late 2015, is part of a growing effort by CHIME to enhance professional development for senior health IT leaders across the globe.

  “CHIME has seen growing interest internationally for its professional development and educational programming,” said Russell Branzell, FCHIME, CHCIO, president and CEO, CHIME. “We know that our colleagues in Canada and around the globe are facing similar challenges to those of health IT leaders in the United States. Through partnerships like the one between CHIME and COACH, we can further elevate the role of health IT leaders as key members of the leadership team. And, we can spread best practices that will better enable them to adopt IT solutions that will advance improvements in patient care.”

  About COACH
  COACH: Canada’s Health Informatics Association is the voice of health informatics (HI) in Canada promoting the adoption, practice and professionalism of HI. COACH represents a diverse community of accomplished, influential professionals who work passionately to make a difference in advancing healthcare through information technology. HI is the intersection of clinical, IM/IT and management practices. Members are dedicated to realizing their full potential as professionals and advancing HI through access to information, talent, credentials, recognition, programs and a broad range of services and specialized resources. www.coachorg.com 

  CHIEF is the primary Canadian forum for Chief Information Officers and senior health informatics executives. The forum addresses critical business issues, builds leadership capacity, forges relationships, enables peer dialogue, supports succession and maximizes professional development time for members. CHIEF is a forum of COACH. 

  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 1,800 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 chimecentral.org. 

  Contact

  Matthew Weinstock Director of Communications and Public Relations CHIME 734.249.8917 [email protected]

  RoseMary MacVicar-Elliott Manager, Communications COACH 416.494.1440, Ext 224 [email protected]

  Posted 3.30.2016

• CloudWave Joins the College of Healthcare Information Executives (CHIME) Cooperative Member Services Program

  New program allows CHIME members to benefit from a variety of preferential industry services, packages & price offerings available exclusively from CHIME Foundation firms

  MARLBOROUGH, MA – March 29, 2016 — CloudWave, a provider of IT solutions for healthcare, is pleased to announce its participation in the CHIME Cooperative Member Services Program, provided by CHIME Technologies. The program is designed to help CHIME members leverage the IT services and solutions offered by CHIME Foundation firms with exclusive members-only packages or incentives.

  Through this program, CloudWave is offering special pricing on their OpSus Archive service available only to CHIME members. OpSus Archive is a cloud service designed specifically for healthcare, and delivers the security, reliability, and compliance required by hospitals. The OpSus cloud meets and exceeds the standards for HIPAA and HITECH compliance, and achieves SSAE16 SOC1 Type II attestation.

  “The Cooperative Member Services Program will help forge even closer connections between CHIME members and Foundation partners,” said CHIME President and CEO Russell Branzell, FCHIME, CHCIO. “Those enhanced relationships are especially important in today’s environment as we all wrestle with the need to create a more efficient and effective delivery system, and to do so at a lower cost for patients.”

  Healthcare produces large quantities of digital data which hospitals are required to keep for extended periods of time. Archiving patient data in the cloud provides an economical alternative to local storage, and dramatically reduces the costs associated with maintaining and supporting on-site storage devices.

  “Archiving is a perfect example of why healthcare should leverage the cloud for IT,” says Matthew Donahue, Vice President of Technology Development and CTO at CloudWave. “Hospitals implementing Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) strategies need a secure, economical, and reliable destination for archiving data, with the ability to scale to accommodate data growth over time. The cloud enables healthcare organizations to safely store and retrieve sensitive patient data without having to invest in on-premise IT infrastructure. That’s why we built OpSus Archive.”

  CloudWave’s portfolio of cloud services are built on experience, as healthcare IT end users and as providers of IT to healthcare. Whether it’s Infrastructure as a Service, managed disaster recovery services, remote monitoring and management, or data management services, CloudWave’s portfolio is informed and supported by a long history of designing, delivering, and supporting technology for hospitals. OpSus is the healthcare cloud, designed and delivered by healthcare people for healthcare people.

  About CloudWave
  CloudWave provides on-site private cloud solutions for healthcare organizations as well as the industry-leading OpSus Healthcare Cloud, which acts as a bridge between healthcare legacy Platform 2 client/server applications and emerging Platform 3 web solutions with their greater demands for security, performance, and sustainability. The OpSus Healthcare Cloud provides the flexibility and TCO advantages of Public Cloud solutions while delivering the sustained performance required by clinicians and administrators in healthcare environments with end to end management. For more information, visit www.gocloudwave.com

  About CHIME Technologies
  CHIME Technologies, Inc. is a for-profit entity developed in 2015 under the auspices of CHIME to expand and deepen CHIME member opportunities in support of innovative new products and services from the healthcare industry. This entity allows CHIME to continue to explore new relationships and services that provide value to CHIME members and their organizations. The CHIME Cooperative Member Services Program, housed under CHIME Technologies, creates a new and unique way for CHIME members and CHIME Foundation firms to engage with one another. For more information, please visit chimecentral.org/chime-technologies.

  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. 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 chimecentral.org.

  Contact

  Christine Mellyn
  Director of Marketing, CloudWave
  [email protected]

  Posted 3.29.2016

• Report from DrFirst Reveals the Current State of Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances in the US

  Report shows nation’s pharmacies are mostly enabled while prescribers are slow to catch-up

  ROCKVILLE, MD – March 24, 2016 — DrFirst, a pioneer in electronic prescribing, secure texting and other healthcare SaaS solutions, today released a report providing an overview of one of the most valuable tools we have in the fight against the abuse of opioids and other controlled substances: electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS).

  More than 15 million people in the US abuse prescription drugs regularly and 52 million Americans over the age of 12 have used prescription drugs non-medically in their lifetime. Each day, 44 people in the US die due to an overdose of a prescription painkiller. Accordingly, the US Centers for Disease Control has declared prescription painkiller abuse a “national crisis,” and warns that people who take prescription painkillers can become addicted with just one prescription.

  EPCS may help curb this abuse by increasing prescription security, improving patient safety and reducing the practice of “doctor shopping” to fill unnecessary prescriptions.

  The report, “The Evolving EPCS Landscape 2016: A Prescription for Stopping Opioid Abuse,” reveals that a vast majority of our nation’s pharmacies (over 82 percent of retail pharmacies) are EPCS-enabled and notes that five states – Massachusetts, Michigan, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and New York – now report that more than 90 percent of their pharmacies are EPCS enabled.

  However, the report also shows that while there has been a dramatic increase in number of prescribers who use EPCS, the prescriber community is still far behind their pharmacy counterparts. On average, only 5.8 percent of all US practitioners are currently EPCS-enabled.

  In New York, where the Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing Act (I-STOP) takes effect March 27, requiring all legend drugs and controlled substances to be prescribed electronically, a whopping 96 percent of pharmacies are EPCS enabled—the highest EPCS enablement in the nation—but only 27 percent of the state’s practitioners are enabled to date.

  The DrFirst report shows that there has been some positive movement by prescribers over the last year to adopt EPCS. Based on information culled from the more than 250 electronic health record and hospital information system vendors to which DrFirst provides EPCS functionality, along with the thousands of practices and physicians who use stand-alone versions of DrFirst’s software, Rcopia and EPCS Gold, DrFirst calculated there has been a 274 percent increase in the volume of EPCS prescriptions in 2015.

  Not surprisingly, the state with the largest increase was New York, which saw a massive 3,225 percent increase in volume of electronic prescriptions, ahead of the e-prescribing mandate deadline.

  “Education for prescribers is key to moving the industry from paper to electronic prescriptions for controlled substances,” says Peter Kaufman, MD, a board-certified gastroenterologist who also serves as DrFirst’s chief medical o­fficer. “For example, credible EPCS technology vendors can guide doctors through the DEA’s required identity-proofing process so that EPCS enrollment can be completed in just a few days.”

  For more information and to download the white paper, visit www.drfirst.com/resources/downloads.

  About DrFirst
  DrFirst (www.DrFirst.com) pioneers electronic prescribing, secure text messaging and other healthcare SaaS solutions that inform the doctor-patient point of encounter, optimize provider access to patient information, enhance the physician’s clinical view of the patient, and improve care delivery and clinical outcomes. Their growth is driven by a commitment to innovation, security and reliability across a wide array of electronic medication management and HIPAA-compliant, secure communication and collaboration services. They are proud of their track record of service to more than 330 EMR/EHR/HIS partners and an extensive network of hospitals, post-acute care facilities, ambulatory practices and pharmacies nationwide.

  Posted 3.25.2016

• Survey Reveals Data Analytics Stays Top of Mind for Health IT Leaders

  PITTSBURGH, PA – March 24, 2016 (Marketwired) — In the fourth annual Health IT Industry Outlook Survey conducted by Stoltenberg Consulting Inc., a leading healthcare information technology (HIT) consulting firm, for the second year in a row, a majority of respondents (33 percent) pointed to data analytics and business intelligence as the biggest topic in health IT. However, most (37 percent) said their organizations’ data analytics programs are well underway but lack resources to complete requested initiatives. The survey was conducted at the 2016 Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) annual conference held recently in Las Vegas.

  “Healthcare providers are flooded with piles and piles of EHR data each day,” Sheri Stoltenberg, founder and CEO, Stoltenberg Consulting, said. “It has now become imperative to learn to sift through the large quantities of complex information to leverage data insights through data analytics for improved clinical care and compliance and operational effectiveness.”

  Completed by project managers, CIOs, CMIOs, IT directors and consultants, the survey also revealed that a majority (32 percent) felt that correlating data from diverse and dissimilar sources is the biggest hurdle to data analytics.

  “Data cannot support decision making or provoke cultural change if it’s out of date, but harmonizing data across the enterprise is essential for giving providers and administrators a meaningful view of a healthcare organization’s performance,” Stoltenberg said.

  For a complete look at the survey results, please click here or visit www.stoltenberg.com.

  About Stoltenberg Consulting
  Founded in 1995, Pittsburgh-based Stoltenberg Consulting, Inc., a seven-time Inc. 5000 list of US fastest-growing private companies honoree, provides healthcare organizations with a variety of services including system selection, project management, implementation support, optimization and integration between systems. Stoltenberg consultants hold skills in both financial and clinical systems, offering expertise for Cerner, Siemens, Epic, Meditech, NextGen, Allscripts, McKesson and Qlik customers. For more information call 412.854.5688 or visit www.stoltenberg.com.

  Media Contact

  Shana Tachikawa

  Stoltenberg Consulting

  [email protected]

  419.617.8341

  Posted 3.24.2016

• Nordic named one of Becker’s “150 Great Places to Work in Healthcare”

  CHICAGO, IL – March 23, 2016 — Nordic has been named to Becker’s Healthcare’s 2016 edition of its list, “150 Great Places to Work in Healthcare,” which was released this week.

  This is the first year that Nordic has been featured on the list. Nordic is one of only 12 consulting firms on the list, which features a wide array of organizations including healthcare providers and vendors. Organizations that submitted nominations were considered, as were organizations that previously received recognition for workplace excellence, as well as benefits offerings, wellness initiatives, and efforts to improve professional development, diversity and inclusion, work-life balance, and a sense of community among employees.

  In addition to this latest honor, Nordic has also been recognized by Modern Healthcare in each of the past two years as one of its 100 Best Places to Work in Healthcare.

  “It’s an honor to be included on this list,” Nordic Chief Consulting Officer Vivek Swaminathan said. “We’re proud, not only of Nordic’s continued success, but that we’ve been able to grow while maintaining the best environment for our employees. We’re thankful to the Nordic team who continually embodies our values and delivers excellent results for our client partners.”

  The full “150 Great Places to Work in Healthcare” 2016 list includes individual profiles of all organizations and can be viewed here: bit.ly/1OZ1UGZ.

  About Becker’s Hospital Review
  Becker’s Hospital Review is a monthly publication offering up-to-date business and legal news and analysis relating to hospitals and health systems. Content is geared toward high-level hospital leaders, and they work to provide valuable content, including hospital and health system news, best practices and legal guidance specifically for these decision-makers. Each issue of Becker’s Hospital Review reaches more than 18,000 people, primarily acute-care hospital CEOs, CFOs and CIOs.

  About Nordic
  Nordic is a trusted advisor to healthcare systems, connecting strategy through to IT execution. Nordic has worked with over 160 clients and offers advisory services, EHR implementation, optimization, managed services, and affiliate extension solutions. Renowned for excellence, Nordic helps clients improve the health of their patients and businesses while shaping the future of healthcare. From 2012-14, KLAS ranked Nordic #1 in Epic Staffing and Implementation Support.

   

  Posted 3.23.2016

• Sunquest Information Systems Engages Amendola Communications for PR and Content Creation Services

  SCOTTSDALE, AZ – March 22, 2016 — Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized, award-winning public relations, content creation and marketing firm specializing in healthcare and health information technology (HIT), is pleased to announce that Sunquest Information Systems has engaged Amendola for public relations and content creation services.

  “Sunquest needed an agency that understood our market and had the ability to produce quality results,” said Connie Tso, vice president of marketing for Sunquest. “Having worked with Amendola in the past, I knew they could meet our needs. After our first month of engagement I’m further impressed by the firm’s expanded pool of talent.”

  Tucson-based Sunquest is a developer of software solutions to automate laboratory operations and diagnostic processes across the continuum of care. The company has more than 30 years of experience providing comprehensive solutions that make healthcare smarter and patients safer by bringing highly reliable, timely, and relevant diagnostic information to the point of care.

  “We are honored to partner with Sunquest at this particularly exciting time in their history,” said Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola. “After building a solid reputation for delivering quality solutions over the last 30 years, Sunquest is now expanding its traditional focus and introducing several innovative new products that advance interoperability, integration and connectivity within the diagnostic community. We look forward to working with Sunquest as they launch these new solutions over the next several months, introduce their new headquarters and innovation center, and debut new branding that reflects their expanded market focus.”

  Under the terms of their agreement, Amendola Communications will provide Sunquest with broad PR services, including media research and aggressive media relations, and secure top-tier awards and speaking opportunities. The agency will also be responsible for delivering a range of content demonstrating the thought leadership and expertise of Sunquest ‘s subject matter experts including bylined articles, blog posts, press releases, and other materials.

  About Sunquest Information Systems
  Sunquest Information Systems Inc. provides diagnostic and laboratory information systems to more than 1,700 laboratories. For the past 30 years, Sunquest has delivered solutions that optimize financial results, enhance efficiency and improve the quality of patient care. The company’s pathology-focused mission, outreach awareness and point of care solutions establish Sunquest as a leader in the healthcare technology industry. Headquartered in Tucson, AZ, Sunquest also has offices in the United Kingdom and India.

  About Amendola Communications
  Amendola Communications is an award-winning national public relations, marketing communications, social media and content marketing firm. Named one of the best information technology (IT) PR firms in the nation four times running by PRSourceCode, Amendola represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups in the healthcare and HIT industries. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros delivers strategic guidance and effective solutions to help organizations boost their reputation and drive market share. For more information about the PR industry’s “A Team,” visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow Amendola on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

  Media Contact
  Michelle Ronan Noteboom
  Amendola Communications
  512.426.2870
  [email protected]

  Posted 3.22.2016

• Futura Mobility & Pursuit Healthcare Advisors Announce “New” Partnership with the Industry’s First End-to-End Provider of Healthcare Communication & Collaboration Solutions

  PHILADELPHIA, PA – March 22, 2016 — Futura Mobility (Futura) and Pursuit Healthcare Advisors (Pursuit) congratulate partner Practice Unite, an innovative mobile-first healthcare communications solutions provider, on their merger with Uniphy Health, a breakthrough physician engagement firm. Their merger will create the new Uniphy Health which provides healthcare organizations with transformative, HIPAA- compliant, mobile-first solutions that deliver a positive return on investment and help transition those organizations to value-based care for tomorrow.

  As partners Futura, Pursuit, and Uniphy Health offer 360 degrees of Enterprise Health Information services and solutions. Otherwise known as EHi360°. Uniphy Health rounds out their already robust service offerings with Uniphy Care Platform™ a mobile-first solution that streamlines communication and simplifies workflow. The full suite includes:

  • Acute care solutions that feature secure text, VOIP calling, critical lab, consult delivery and on call schedules;
  • Physician engagement solutions that utilize a social media-like approach to delivering targeted content;
  • Home care solutions that improve remote patient monitoring and automate documentation;
  • Patient engagement solutions that create a secure channel between the patient and care team.

  Those are in addition to offerings from Futura, a prominent mobile solutions provider, and Pursuit, a leading strategic services consulting firm. “Together, EHi360° is impacting our industry by aligning with forward thinking healthcare organizations to transform the way providers are able to care for their patients,” says Cyndi Cahill, Managing Partner of Pursuit. “We are excited about increasing our reach and driving more innovation, leading to increased efficiency and productivity while meeting mandated regulations.”

  Today’s rapidly changing healthcare industry requires collaboration between partners, physicians, and technology experts. “Healthcare executives face a bewildering array of point solutions that do one or two things,” said Adam Turinas, chief executive officer of Uniphy Health. “Our mission is more ambitious. We have seen firsthand the power of creating care team networks of physicians, clinicians, home care aides, and patients. These connected solutions have made a dramatic impact on our clients’ operations. They also put these organizations in a stronger position to transition to the new world of population health.”

  About Futura Mobility
  Based in Philadelphia, Futura Mobility is a privately-held IT services organization specializing in mobile technology solutions for the healthcare industry. Founded in 1992, the company has evolved from a technology reseller and service organization to a strategic partner by combining mobility and clinical expertise. Through collaborations with some of the most forward-thinking technology companies, Futura offers healthcare providers an innovative, cohesive solution to address health IT challenges. Futura Mobility has been recognized nationally for year-over-year growth on the INC 5000 and Deloitte Fast 500 lists. For more information, please visit www.futuramobility.com

  Posted 3.22.2016

• Impact Advisors’ Named to Becker’s Healthcare “150 Great Places to Work in Healthcare” List

  Firm earns spot on list for second year in a row

  Chicago, IL – March 21, 2016 — Impact Advisors, LLC, a leading provider of healthcare information technology services, is pleased to announce that it has been named as a Becker’s Healthcare “150 Great Places to Work in Healthcare.” This is the second year in a row the firm has been included on the list.

  “We are honored to be selected as a Becker’s Healthcare ‘150 Great Places to Work in Healthcare’ for the second year in a row,” said Michael Nutter, Vice President. “We are dedicated to providing a high-energy, rewarding and collaborative place to work and being named to this list validates our commitment to our Associates.”

  Impact Advisors is dedicated to providing a culture of unmatched caring and collaboration and is committed to displaying integrity in all interactions with Associates and clients. The firm also takes pride in being a very rewarding place to work. Leadership encourages and supports mentorship and professional development opportunities as well as community involvement. Additionally, Impact Advisors offers a number of culture enhancing events and meetings, including an annual associate retreat, 90-Day Happy Checks and VIP Calls.

  The Becker’s Healthcare editorial team determined the organizations included on this year’s list. Organizations that submitted nominations were considered, as were organizations that received national, state or local recognition previously earned for workplace excellence, benefits offerings, wellness initiatives and efforts to improve professional development, diversity and inclusion, work-life balance and a sense of community among employees.

  The “150 Great Places to Work in Healthcare” list features both US healthcare provider organizations, such as hospitals, health systems, ambulatory surgical centers and home health agencies, as well as other types of healthcare-specific companies, like consulting firms, health IT vendors and medical societies. A version of this list has been published every year since 2011. To view the complete list, which includes individual organization profiles, click here.

  Impact Advisors adds this latest honor to a growing list of workplace awards that includes being named to Modern Healthcare’s “Best Places to Work in Healthcare,” Consulting magazine’s “Best Small Firms to Work For” and Achiever’s “50 Most Engaged Workplaces.”

  About Impact Advisors, LLC
  Impact Advisors is a nationally recognized healthcare information technology consulting firm that is solving some of the toughest challenges in the industry by delivering strategic advisory, implementation and optimization services. Their comprehensive suite of patient access, clinical and revenue cycle services span the lifecycle of their clients’ needs. Their experienced team has a powerful combination of clinical, revenue, operations, consulting and IT experience. The firm has earned a number of prestigious industry and workplace awards including Best in KLAS® for eight consecutive years, Healthcare Informatics HCI 100, Crain’s Chicago Business Fast Fifty, as well as “best place to work” awards from: Modern Healthcare, Consulting Magazine, Becker’s Hospital Review and Achievers. For more information about Impact Advisors, visit www.impact-advisors.com.

  Media Contact

  Karli Smith

  Chartwell Agency

  815.977.5343

  [email protected]

  Posted 3.21.2016

• Trilogy of Comedy Videos Spotlight the Healthcare Industry’s Stubborn Reliance on Pagers, Fax Machines

  “The Pager Menace,” “The Clone Wards” & “Revenge of the Fax” are sponsored by DrFirst and produced by healthcare satirist Zubin Damania, MD

  ROCKVILLE, MD – March 16, 2016 — DrFirst, a leading provider of electronic prescribing, secure texting and other SaaS software and services for healthcare, has teamed-up with physician and medical satirist Dr. Zubin Damania to release a series of comedy videos that highlight the healthcare industry’s continued reliance on outdated communication tools.

  Each humorous episode addresses a serious issue—the communication breakdowns that occur throughout hospitals every day and which are often exacerbated by the industry’s stubborn reliance on pagers, faxes and other outdated communication technologies.

  “It’s the 21st Century and yet we’re still using pagers. It’s as if we’re still trying to practice medicine a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away,” says Damania, a former hospitalist who has produced dozens of satirical healthcare videos under the name of his online alter-ego, ZDoggMD. Damania’s collection of videos have amassed more than 8.5 million views.

  The “Doc Vader” trilogy of videos can be accessed at www.PagerMenace.com.

  Each two- to three-minute video features Doc Vader, played by Damania, as an egotistical, burned-out physician routinely frustrated by roadblocks that impede his efforts to quickly and effectively share patient information with other physicians within the hospital, including his nemesis, O.B. Gyn Kenobi. As a result, Vader often resorts to endless rounds of phone tag, sending overhead pages and tussling with the fax machine—often with hilarious results.

  Daminia scripted, shot and produced the three video installments, titled “The Pager Menace,” The Clone Wards” and “Revenge of the Fax.”

  “We wanted to create a series of funny videos that capture the frustration doctors experience every day when trying to get in touch with other doctors,” Damania said. “We need to communicate much more efficiently and more effectively in healthcare, and traditional means such as pagers and faxes are simply ill-advised at this point.”

  Studies have shown that poor communication is often a root cause of treatment errors and delays that can result in patient harm, adverse events or even death. DrFirst sponsored the project to help shine a light on this particular physician pain-point–and to call attention to Backline®, the company’s HIPAA-compliant, secure texting solution built specifically for healthcare professionals.

  Backline® offers the ease of text messaging with colleagues and patients, without the risk of sending protected health information over common, non-secure channels.

  “As a provider of secure texting and care team collaboration software, Zubin’s commentary on this subject really resonated with us,” said Stu Ballatt, vice president of marketing at DrFirst. “Amidst the din of interoperability debates, the need to foster communications interoperability during care-in-progress and care-in-transition frequently gets lost. In a humorous way, the “Doc Vader” series reminds us that secure care collaboration and coordination drives productivity, efficiency and better patient care.”

  About DrFirst
  DrFirst pioneers healthcare SaaS solutions that inform the doctor-patient point of encounter, optimize provider access to patient information, enhance the doctor’s clinical view of the patient, and improve care delivery and clinical outcomes. Our growth is driven by a commitment to innovation, security and reliability across a wide array of e-medication management and secure communication and collaboration services. We are proud of our track record of service to over 330 EMR/EHR/HIS partners and an extensive network of hospitals, post-acute care facilities, ambulatory practices and pharmacies nationwide.

  About Zubin “ZDoggMD” Damania
  Zubin Damania, MD, is the founder and CEO of Turntable Health, a primary care clinic in Downtown Las Vegas that was funded by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. During his 10-year hospitalist career at Stanford, Zubin received clinical teaching awards while maintaining a shadow career performing stand-up comedy for medical audiences worldwide. Under the name ZDoggMD, he produces and stars in music videos, parodies and comedy sketches about contemporary medical issues that have amassed more than 8.5 million views on YouTube. Damania is a frequent public speaker, including at TEDMED, and has been featured in The Atlantic, Huffington Post and The Guardian.

  Contact 

  Wendy Johnson

  Media Relations

  301.231.9510 ext 1921

  [email protected]

  Posted 3.21.2016