• Policy Thought Leaders from D.C., CHIME to Speak at Advocacy Summit

    7.27.2018
    Candace Stuart – Director, Communications & Public Relations

    CHIME is lining up a stellar group of thought leaders from Capitol Hill, federal agencies and CHIME who are at the forefront of public policy initiatives for the inaugural CHIME Advocacy Summit on Oct. 3-5 in Washington, D.C.

    “Information technology is now woven into every aspect of patient care,” said Liz Johnson, chair of the CHIME Public Policy Steering Committee. “CHIME and our members have been working closely with federal policymakers to help them understand the potential impact of their decisions on our health organizations and the delivery of care. We now want to share the great connections we’ve made in Washington and the lessons learned with the wider community.”

    Speakers in federal and congressional roles include:

    • Gregory Garcia, executive director of the Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council (HSCC).The HSCC brings together the many subsectors of the healthcare industry in collaboration with the government to develop and implement evolving ways to strengthen the sector’s security and resiliency against cyber and physical threats.
    • Kate Goodrich, MD, MHS, director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) chief medical officer. CCSQ is responsible for over 20 quality measurement and value-based purchasing programs, implementation of the new Quality Payment Program and the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act, quality improvement programs in all 50 states, clinical standards and survey and certification of all providers across the nation, and all coverage decisions for treatments and services for CMS.
    • Matt Quinn, MBA, senior adviser, health technology, at the Health Resources and Services Administration in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). He previously was director of healthcare initiatives for the Federal Communications Commission and held positions at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Agency for Health Research and Quality.
    • Nick Uehlecke, professional staff member for the House Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health majority staff. His portfolio includes Medicare Advantage and Part D policies as well as Medicare fraud and program integrity across the system.

    Several members from the CHIME Public Policy Steering Committee and CHIME’s associations will participate in the summit. They include:

    • Erik Decker, MS, chief security and privacy officer for the University of Chicago Medicine and chair of the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security (AEHIS);
    • Cletis Earle, MS, CHCIO, senior vice president and CIO, information technology, at Kaleida Health and chair of the CHIME Board of Trustees;
    • Liz Johnson, MS, FAAN, FCHIME, FHIMSS, CHCIO, RN-BC, CIO of Acute Care Hospitals & Applied Clinical Informatics at Tenet Healthcare Corporation and chair of the CHIME Foundation Board;
    • John Kravitz, MHA, CHCIO, senior vice president and CIO at Geisinger Health System;
    • Marc Probst, MBA, CHCIO, vice president and CIO at Intermountain Healthcare; and
    • Karl West, MBA, chief information security officer and assistant vice president of information systems at Intermountain Healthcare and an ex officio member of the AEHIS board.

    From CHIME, President and CEO Russell Branzell, Vice President, Congressional Affairs Leslie Krigstein and Vice President, Federal Affairs Mari Savickis will also participate.

    The summit, which is open to the public, will focus on four topics that CHIME members named as priorities for 2018: cybersecurity, interoperability, telehealth and the opioid epidemic. Sessions will address the increasing threat of cyberattacks on healthcare organizations and their patients; updates on interoperability, telehealth and opioid programs and legislation; a press panel with nationally known healthcare IT journalists; a review of medical device cybersecurity, and more. In addition to the educational sessions, CHIME will announce the winner of the annual Federal Public Policy Award for CIO Leadership and results from a CHIME-KLAS survey on medical device security during the summit.

    “The policy changes being proposed in Washington right now are seismic, and health IT will play a huge role in their effectiveness,” Branzell said. “Our members know how important it is to be proactive and to be part of the dialogue, both on the Hill and in their board rooms. The summit will give anyone who attends the knowledge, skills and tools to lead and ensure that these changes benefit patients.”

    The CHIME Advocacy Summit will be held in the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill at 400 New Jersey Ave. SW in Washington, D.C. CHIME has reserved a block of hotel rooms at a special rate on a space-available basis. To learn more about the summit, go here. To register, go here.

    If you have any questions about the program, please email [email protected]. For sponsorship opportunities, email [email protected].

    More Inside CHIME

    Posted 7.27.2018

  • Mission Health President and CEO Ronald Paulus Joins Vocera Board of Directors

    San Jose, CA. – July 26, 2018 – Vocera Communications, Inc. (NYSE:VCRA), a recognized leader in clinical communication and workflow solutions, today announced that Ronald A. Paulus, MD, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Mission Health, joined the Vocera Board of Directors effective July 25, 2018. Since September 2010, Dr. Paulus has been the president and CEO of Mission Health, a $1.9 billion regional integrated delivery system serving western North Carolina.

    Prior to joining Mission Health, Dr. Paulus served as executive vice president of clinical operations at Geisinger Health System, where he was responsible for the operations of its $1.3 billion clinical enterprise, including two hospitals, an 800+ physician multispecialty group practice, and more than 40 ambulatory care facilities. Dr. Paulus also served as Geisinger’s chief innovation officer (CIO), where he was responsible for ensuring system-wide innovation. Before his tenure at Geisinger, Dr. Paulus was co-founder, president and CEO of CareScience, a clinical solutions and data analytics provider now part of Premier health alliance.

    “As a physician, health system executive, and former CEO of a software analytics company listed on the NASDAQ, Dr. Paulus brings a unique and valuable perspective to Vocera and our board of directors,” said Brent Lang, chairman of the board and president and CEO of Vocera. “Dr. Paulus shares our mission of accelerating the adoption of solutions that address the Quadruple Aim.”

    In 2018, Dr. Paulus co-founded and launched the National Taskforce for Humanity in Healthcare (NTH) with Bridget Duffy, MD, chief medical officer for Vocera, and William Maples, MD, president and CEO of The Institute for Healthcare Excellence. The NTH has convened physicians, nurses, and other leaders from healthcare and social change to explore the crisis of clinician burnout and create a movement to help ensure all care team members can achieve their highest healing potential.

    “I am excited to join Vocera’s board and provide both clinical and operational perspectives that will help the company grow by developing solutions that simplify workflows and improve care team collaboration,” said Dr. Paulus. “Supporting clinician well-being and trusted relationships are essential to improving patient care, safety and experience.”

    Dr. Paulus received his bachelor’s degree, medical degree and MBA in healthcare management from the University of Pennsylvania. He has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and speaks regularly on the topics of healthcare quality and efficiency, human-centered innovation, physician leadership, and new models of care.

    About Vocera
    The mission of Vocera Communications, Inc. is to simplify and improve the lives of healthcare professionals and patients, while enabling hospitals to enhance quality of care and operational efficiency. In 2000, when the company was founded, we began to forever change the way care teams communicate. Today, Vocera continues to offer the leading platform for clinical communication and workflow. More than 1,700 facilities worldwide, including nearly 1,500 hospitals and healthcare facilities, have selected our solutions for team members to text securely using smartphones or make calls with our hands-free, wearable Vocera Badge. Interoperability between Vocera and more than 140 clinical and operational systems helps reduce alarm fatigue, speed up staff response times, and improve patient care, safety and experience. In addition to healthcare, Vocera is at home in luxury hotels, aged care facilities, nuclear facilities, libraries, retail stores and more. Vocera makes a difference in any industry where workers are on the move and need to connect instantly with team members and access resources or information quickly. In 2017, Vocera made the list of Forbes 100 Most Trustworthy Companies in America. Learn more at www.vocera.com, and follow @VoceraComm on Twitter.

    Vocera® and the Vocera logo are trademarks of Vocera Communications, Inc. registered in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other trademarks appearing in this release are the property of their respective owners.

     

    CONTACT
    Shanna Hearon
    Vocera Communications, Inc.
    669.999.3368
    [email protected]

    Posted 7.26.2018

  • Telmediq Introduces Asynchronous Verbal Order System (AVOS)

    Seattle, WA – July 26, 2018 – Telmediq, the #1 KLAS rated vendor for secure communication platforms in healthcare, today released details about healthcare’s only mobile-supported verbal order system. Telmediq’s patent-pending Asynchronous Verbal Order System (AVOS) replaces traditional telephone and verbal order entry workflows with a streamlined mobile solution.

    Clinicians continue to struggle with verbal order workflows as the need to meet in-person or connect via telephone often leads to significant delays in care. As providers become increasingly mobile, non-compliant workarounds to verbal order workflows emerged, including the use of insecure text messaging.

    Despite policies to prohibit insecure communication and a ban on texting of orders by the Joint Commission, one survey found 84% of orders were communicated by insecure text message. In another poll, 97% of physicians were using insecure chat apps to send patient information.

    Telmediq designed a streamlined mobile solution to replace traditional telephone and verbal order entry workflows and protocols. Telmediq’s Asynchronous Verbal Order System (AVOS) supports the verbal order workflows that are in use in the hospital today, leveraging the simplicity and accountability of a mobile platform solution to speed up the communication process and provide critical oversight.

    “For many hospitals, closing the loop on orders is a complex process,” notes Ben Moore, “With AVOS, we simplify that process and provide real time notification of any issues during the order entry and execution process.” The real-time notification system built into AVOS extends the minimum verbal and order telephone entry order requirements set forth by the Joint Commission, helping deliver on the spirit of that requirement with greater oversight to minimize errors.

    AVOS uses a voice dictation from the physician, a voice dictation reply from the nurse, and a form based message with conversation to make verbal orders possible over a texting platform. While not a complete CPOE solution, AVOS greatly improves the current workflow associated with cumbersome telephone and verbal orders. Orders can happen asynchronously, and can also leverage integrated escalation policies to ensure critical care is delivered in a timely fashion for time sensitive orders.

    AVOS is a core capability of Telmediq’s cloud-based platform, integrating with hospital clinical, IT and telecom systems to unify communication and streamline care.

    About Telmediq
    Telmediq is the #1 KLAS rated vendor for secure communication platforms for large hospital systems, acute-care and ambulatory facilities. Telmediq unifies communication by integrating 20+ clinical systems (EHR, schedules, call center, alarms, nurse call) to improve workflow and connect care team members. www.telmediq.com

    Media Contact
    Gabrielle Eagles
    [email protected]
    206.960.4202

    Posted 7.26.2018

  • CHIME to Feature Leading Policy Experts at Inaugural Advocacy Summit in D.C.

    ANN ARBOR, MI, July 24, 2018 – The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) will host an educational conference dedicated to healthcare IT policy issues on Oct. 3-5 in Washington, D.C. The CHIME Advocacy Summit will feature thought leaders from Capitol Hill, federal agencies and CHIME who are on the forefront of public policy initiatives with a focus on cybersecurity, interoperability, telehealth and the opioid epidemic.

    “Information technology is now woven into every aspect of patient care,” said Liz Johnson, chair of the CHIME Public Policy Steering Committee and CIO of Acute Care Hospitals & Applied Clinical Informatics at Tenet Healthcare Corporation. “CHIME and our members have been working closely with federal policymakers to help them understand the potential impact of their decisions on our health organizations and the delivery of care. We now want to share the great connections we’ve made in Washington and the lessons learned with the wider community.”

    The CHIME Advocacy Summit marks several milestones for CHIME. This will be CHIME’s inaugural public policy summit and will be one of the rare times that CHIME has opened an educational event to the public. The summit coincides with the start of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cyber Security Awareness Month and paves the way for National Health IT Week, which is Oct. 8-12.

    The program will provide an overview of the challenges facing healthcare IT leaders today as they wrestle with sometimes conflicting policy directives. Sessions will include:

    • Cybersecurity experts discussing the increasing threat of cyberattacks on healthcare organizations and their patients;
    • Updates on interoperability, telehealth and opioid programs and legislation from key congressional staffers;
    • Presentations featuring the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Health Resources and Services Administration and more;
    • A press panel with nationally known healthcare IT journalists; and
    • A review of medical device cybersecurity.

     “The policy changes being proposed in Washington right now are seismic, and health IT will play a huge role in their effectiveness,” said Russell Branzell, CHIME president and CEO. “Our members know how important it is to be proactive and to be part of the dialogue, both on the Hill and in their board rooms. The summit will give anyone who attends the knowledge, skills and tools to lead and ensure that these changes benefit patients.”

    In addition to the educational sessions, CHIME will announce the winner of the annual Federal Public Policy Award for CIO Leadership and results from a CHIME-KLAS survey on medical device security during the summit.

    The CHIME Advocacy Summit will be held in the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill at 400 New Jersey Ave. SW in Washington, D.C. CHIME has reserved a block of hotel rooms at a special rate on a space-available basis. To learn more about the summit, go here. To register, go here.         

    About CHIME

    The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers (CIOs), chief medical information officers (CMIOs), chief nursing information officers (CNIOs) and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 2,700 members in 51 countries and over 150 healthcare IT business partners 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
    Candace Stuart
    Director of Communications and Public Relations, CHIME
    734.665.0000
    [email protected]

     

    Posted 7.24.2018

  • Identity Automation Announces Acquisition of HealthCast Inc.

    Leader in identity management combines best-in-class IGA and eSSO to deliver unmatched security, breadth of identity management capabilities, and ease of use to healthcare providers

     

    Houston, TX – July 24, 2018 – (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Identity Automation, a leading provider of Access Management (AM), Identity Governance (IGA), and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) software, today announced its acquisition of HealthCast Inc., provider of award-winning enterprise single sign-on (eSSO) and virtual desktop technology for the healthcare industry.

    Increased regulation and the shift from paper-based to digital records has created new challenges in securing and managing access to personal health data. On one hand, shared workstations and clinicians’ need for ready access to patient information has driven widespread adoption of eSSO products that deliver streamlined, passwordless access. However, fear of PHI disclosures, data theft, and hefty compliance penalties is driving a need for more complete and integrated IGA technologies that strengthen security, while enabling better patient care at a significantly lower cost.

    “IGA provides a means to manage diverse and variable workforce constituencies, and to protect sensitive data and resources. Healthcare providers are entering into mergers and acquisitions that require the ability to consolidate or divest information from other organizations,” according to the research and advisory firm Gartner.*

    “Combining RapidIdentity’s automated lifecycle management, federated SSO, governance, privileged access management, and MFA capabilities with HealthCast’s healthcare expertise and best-in-class eSSO solution, enables us to deliver a fully integrated IAM solution that balances usability and security,” said James Litton, CEO and Co-Founder of Identity Automation. “We’re excited to provide hospitals, clinics, physician networks, and healthcare providers of all sizes with a fresh, new option to help them address their unique regulatory, identity lifecycle, and integration challenges.”

    HealthCast adds award-winning healthcare-based technologies, backed by industry-leading support to Identity Automation’s portfolio, including an eSSO solution that was top-ranked by KLAS Research in 2017 and 2018; proximity badge functionality that allows users to sign-in on a number of devices, including HP thin clients, Dell Wyse, and Chromebooks with a simple tap; and secure MFA for electronic prescriptions for controlled substances (EPCS). The acquisition also enables Identity Automation to leverage HealthCast’s VDI expertise and connections into Epic, Cerner, MEDITECH, and other clinical business and administrative applications used by healthcare providers.

    “Joining forces with Identity Automation is a smart move that aligns with the shift towards solutions that centralize, streamline, and secure access to healthcare records and applications for an increasingly mobile workforce,” explained Joan Mehn, President and CEO of HealthCast Inc. “HealthCast has been delivering award-winning solutions to healthcare organizations for over twenty years, and a driving force behind this success has been our ability to recognize critical needs of the ever-changing healthcare industry. By combining our capabilities, we can deliver unmatched security, breadth of capabilities, and ease of use to our customers that improve clinician efficiency and overall patient care.”

    Stephens Inc. served as exclusive financial advisor to HealthCast in the transaction.

    *Gartner, Healthcare Provider Context: ‘Magic Quadrant for Identity Governance and Administration’, 5 April 2018

    About Identity Automation
    Identity Automation helps organizations embrace security and increase business agility with RapidIdentity, the most complete identity, access, governance, and administration platform available. Identity Automation operates globally, with over 780 discreet customers and tens of millions of identities managed across on-premises and cloud resources. Learn more: www.identityautomation.com.

    About HealthCast Inc.
    HealthCast delivers award-winning eSSO and virtual desktop technology solutions within the healthcare industry for over 20 years. These solutions provide unparalleled speed, secure fast-user switching, automated workflows, and proximity badge features for customers, ranging from large hospital systems to specialty practices.

    Contact
    Scott Kortright
    [email protected]

    Posted 7.24.2018

  • Columbus Regional Healthcare System Selects Avaap to Drive Implementation and Optimization of Cerner Millennium product CommunityWorks

    EDISON, NJ – July 24, 2018 Avaap, the largest provider of IT services and solutions for organizations with electronic health record (EHR) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, today announced that Columbus Regional Healthcare System (CRHS), which serves the community of Whiteville, North Carolina, and the surrounding area, has selected Avaap to partner on the implementation and optimization of the Cerner Millennium® product CommunityWorks℠.

    Cerner CommunityWorks leverages cloud technology to deliver the power of Cerner Millennium, tailored to support the unique needs of community, critical access, and specialty hospitals. CommunityWorks will support CRHS’s 154-bed hospital and 10 clinics as it works to improve the continuum of care for the overall health of the Columbus county community.

    Avaap played a key role in the system selection and evaluation process which included the CRHS Board, key leadership stakeholders, and medical staff. The partnership will deliver services to guide the transition to a new integrated EHR and revenue cycle solution across CRHS’s acute and ambulatory facilities. The move to Cerner is expected to occur over the next 14 months with phase one of the implementation in progress.

    “The Cerner Millennium product CommunityWorks combines all the essential elements of the EHR into a single solution and was selected as the best and most cost-effective solution to meet the needs of the physicians, care givers, and patients of CRHS,” said John Young, Interim CEO, CRHS. “Avaap understands EHR software design and how it works as well as the demands of healthcare organizations and the needs of the caregivers. We appreciate the clinical expertise and EHR knowledge they bring to support the large, complex integration of the new EHR and ensure CRHS takes full advantage of all it has to offer.”

    Avaap Vice President of EHR Healthcare, Michele Behme, RN C, added, “The capabilities of Cerner Millennium CommunityWorks will help CRHS to improve patient safety, patient outcomes, increase provider efficiency entering data, improve clinical collaboration and provide a complete medical record that covers the continuum of care across inpatient and outpatient settings. We are delighted to partner with and support CRHS in making their vision a reality and appreciate the opportunity to do what we do best – help healthcare customers realize the full potential of the EHR for the benefit of patients and the community in which they operate.”

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    Posted 7.24.2018

  • New Partnership with DrFirst ePrescribe Gives Members One Click Access to the Connecticut Prescription Monitoring and Reporting System

    Easy access to more thorough prescribing history boosts members’ clinical decision-making and improves patient health outcomes

     

    Mesa, AZ – July 19, 2008 – The Connecticut State Medical Society (CSMS), representing more than 6,000 physicians in Connecticut, has selected DrFirst, a leading provider of e-prescribing and patient medication management solutions, as the vendor of choice for its robust e-prescribing tool, iPrescribe, for its members.

    iPrescribe, for iOS or Android smartphones, will provide Connecticut physicians with seamless and automatic access to prescription data from the Connecticut Prescription Monitoring and Reporting System (CPMRS) with one click for more informed decision making at the point of care. With trustworthy, patient-level prescribing history, iPrescribe gives physicians insight into a patient’s risk for abuse or addiction to opioids or other controlled substances.

    Additionally, iPrescribe helps clinicians improve patient safety and adherence with its accurate medication history and clinical support from directly within the prescribing workflow.

    “The partnership between CSMS and DrFirst will give our physicians access to reliable, real-time access to important medication history contained in the CPMRS to assure that patients receive the medication most appropriate to their medical needs,” said Matthew Katz, CSMS EVP/CEO.

    “Prior to using iPrescribe, a physician would have to log into the CPMRS site separately, do another set of data entry, check medication history, then go back into his or her EHR to write the prescription and, finally, send it to the pharmacy electronically. iPrescribe brings a new level efficiency to the prescribing process by automatically connecting to and retrieving data from the CPMRS,” said Steven Thornquist, MD, CSMS President. “Once a prescription is written, that information is added to the EMR and in the CPMRS.”

    The partnership of CSMS and DrFirst gives CSMS members free use of iPrescribe for one year with a substantial discount off the retail price in subsequent years.  Connecticut physicians can enroll in iPrescribe at https://drfir.st/csms.

    “iPrescribe will simplify the prescribing process for Connecticut clinicians through access to deeper, dependable data,” said G. Cameron Deemer, president of DrFirst. “We are very pleased to have entered into this close partnership with the Connecticut State Medical Society to give its physicians members better tools that will help them improve the health and safety of their patients.”

    “We’re pleased that DrFirst has been able to make this integration,” said Consumer Protection Commissioner Michelle H. Seagull, “They will join a pharmacy and two hospitals as institutions who have completed this process. DrFirst is a great tool that can support physicians with both electronic prescribing, and compliance with PDMP laws and regulations. We value the partnership of DrFirst and the Connecticut Medical Society and look forward to working together in the future.”

     

    About DrFirst
    DrFirst, the nation’s leading provider of e-prescribing and medication management solutions, enables stakeholders across the healthcare industry to intelligently use comprehensive real-time data and connectivity to increase their patient safety ratings, efficiency, and profitability. Today, more than 170,000 healthcare professionals and more than 60% of electronic health record vendors, depend on DrFirst’s innovative software solutions to improve clinical workflows, expedite secure collaboration across a patient’s care team, and drive better health outcomes. The company’s integrated technologies include its award-winning electronic prescribing platform, the most comprehensive medication history available, clinically specialized secure messaging, as well as patient medication adherence monitoring and benefits checking. In addition, DrFirst was the first to offer e-prescribing for controlled substances (EPCS), which is considered the industry standard for providers nationwide. For more information, please visit www.drfirst.com or connect with us @DrFirst

     

    Posted 7.19.2018

  • SURVEY: Progress on Patient Safety Slowed by Ineffective Technology, Healthcare Professionals Say

    Salt Lake City, UT – July 19, 2018 – Nearly nine out of 10 respondents to a national survey of physicians, nurses and healthcare executives say their organizations are successfully improving the safety of patients. But real problems remain, and to make further improvements, respondents to the Health Catalyst survey said they need better health information technology to warn clinicians of impending patient harm, as well as more resources and greater organizational focus on the problem.

    The need for improvement is compelling. Medical error is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. While mortality grabs the headlines, non-lethal harm events are even more frequent, occurring at a rate 10 to 20 times higher than lethal events, according to The Journal of Patient Safety.

    Despite the dismal statistics, confidence in current patient safety efforts is high, according to the online survey of 462 medical, quality and pharmacy professionals in healthcare organizations of all sizes across the U.S. Seventy-nine percent of survey respondents rated their organizations’ success in improving patient safety either “somewhat good” or “very good.” Only 11 percent rated their patient safety efforts as “poor.” However, on the opposite end of the scale, just 9 percent gave their efforts an “excellent” grade. 

    Top Barriers to Improving Patient Safety
    With 89 percent of survey takers still seeing room for improvement, the survey confirms that serious challenges prevent healthcare organizations from making a significant dent in preventable errors. Respondents identified several key obstacles that prevent them from achieving their patient safety goals, ranked here according to the percentage of respondents that selected them:

    • “Ineffective information technology (data quality, patient matching, reporting)” and the related “lack of real-time warnings for possible harm events,” which requires technology – 30 percent
    • “Lack of resources” including staffing and budget – 27 percent
    • “Organization structure, culture or priorities” – 19 percent
    • “Lack of reimbursement for safety initiatives” – 10 percent
    • “Changes in patient population and practice setting” – 9 percent
    • “Other” – 6 percent

    Over-reliance on voluntary, manual reporting
    Organizations’ lack of effective information technology for patient safety is tied to a related finding from the survey – that healthcare organizations of all types are almost completely dependent on manual methods of tracking and reporting safety events. According to the survey, the four most common sources of data used for patient safety initiatives are voluntary reporting (selected by 82 percent of respondents), hospital-acquired infection surveys (67 percent), manual audits (58 percent), and retrospective coding (29 percent).  Nearly one-third of respondents (28 percent) reported also using trigger tools as a data source for patient safety, which could mean either the manual process of chart review that relies on Institute for Healthcare Improvement methodology, or home grown reports that also follow the IHI methodology. 

    These standard approaches to manual reporting of hospital safety events have been shown to find less than 5 percent of all-cause harm. Manual reporting is based on data that is at least 30 days old, and it requires extensive time and resources for data extraction, aggregation, and reporting, resulting in limited root-cause analyses.

    “As these survey results confirm, the current approach to using voluntary reporting to monitor patient safety gives health care organizations a false sense of tackling the ever-present danger of patient harm,” said Stanley Pestotnik, MS, RPh, Health Catalyst’s Vice President of Patient Safety Products and one of the foremost experts at the intersection of patient safety and harm-reduction technology. “Recent evidence continues to demonstrate that the majority of patient harm goes undetected and that medical injury is the third leading cause of death in the US—evidence that challenges voluntary reporting as an effective patient safety management strategy.”

    Regulatory reporting requirements help
    When asked to name all of the factors that are most influential in driving their patient safety efforts, a majority of survey respondents (51 percent) named regulatory reporting as an influencing factor.  Coming in second at 39 percent was “financial considerations” such as malpractice claims, value-based contracts and reduced reimbursement. Most of the other choices fell in the mid-range:

    • Published accreditations and designations – 34 percent
    • Patient satisfaction scores – 33 percent
    • Data-driven organizational priorities – 29 percent
    • Performance against safety measures – 27 percent
    • Brand recognition, market competition – 16 percent
    • Stakeholder interests – 11 percent
    • Other – 5 percent

     Areas most in need of improvement: All of them
    Determining exactly where to focus patient improvement efforts seems to be a difficult decision for most organizations. When asked to identify the areas where patient safety most needs improvement, survey takers rated four of the six choices within 3 points of each other. “Inpatient clinical” areas of focus such as length-of-stay, mortality and readmissions came out on top at 21.6 percent, barely ahead of “operations” (21.1 percent), an area that includes ED wait times and patient instructions at discharge. Two other areas most in need of improvement, according to survey takers, were “severity of illness” (19.5 percent), “outpatient/ambulatory clinical” (18.6 percent). 

    Only “regulatory reporting,” including reporting of hospital-acquired conditions, seemed to require slightly less improvement than other areas, with 15.5 percent of respondents citing it.  “Other” captured the remaining 3.7 percent of respondents.  

    “The big picture takeaway from this survey is that although a small portion of respondents felt they have a good handle on their patient safety efforts, the largest portion of respondents still believe that they have room for improvement,” said Valere Lemon, RN, MBA, a senior subject matter expert for Health Catalyst. “Surveilling all-cause harm will aid healthcare organizations in bridging the gap from niche focused improvements to proactive harm identification and broader patient safety improvement interventions.”

    New Patient Safety Technology Introduced
    Health Catalyst last week announced the release of the Patient Safety Monitor™ Suite: Surveillance Module, the industry’s first comprehensive patient safety application to use predictive and text analytics combined with concurrent clinician review of data to monitor, detect, predict and prevent threats to patient safety before harm can occur. 

    The Surveillance Module quickly identifies patterns of harm and proposes strategies to eliminate patient safety risks and hazards for current and future patients. This potent combination of predictive analytics, text analytics and near real-time data from multiple sources enables the Patient Safety Monitor Suite to predict harm events and trigger a response while the patient is still in the hospital.

    Survey Methods
    Survey results reflect the opinions of 462 healthcare professionals who responded to an online survey in May and June, 2018. Respondents included 240 physicians, 99 nurses including 19 chief nursing officers, 38 pharmacists, 14 chief quality officers or directors of quality, and a number of other roles. They work for organizations ranging from some of the nation’s largest academic medical centers to national health insurers and independent physician practices.

    About Health Catalyst
    Health Catalyst is a next-generation data, analytics, and decision-support company, committed to being a catalyst for massive, sustained improvements in healthcare outcomes. We are the leaders in a new era of advanced predictive analytics for population health and value-based care with a suite of machine learning-driven solutions, decades of outcomes improvement expertise, and an unparalleled ability to unleash and integrate data from across the healthcare ecosystem. Our Health Catalyst Data Operating System (DOS™)—a next-generation data warehouse and application development platform powered by data from more than 100 million patients, and encompassing over 1 trillion facts—helps improve quality, add efficiency and lower costs for organizations ranging from the largest US health system to forward-thinking physician practices. Our technology and professional services can help you keep patients engaged and healthy in their homes, communities, and workplaces, and we can help you optimize care delivery to those patients when it becomes necessary. We are grateful to be recognized by Fortune, Gallup, Glassdoor, Modern Healthcare and a host of others as a Best Place to Work in technology and healthcare. Visit www.healthcatalyst.com and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

     Media Contact:
    Todd Stein
    Amendola Communications
    916-346-4213
    [email protected]

    Posted 7.19.2018

  • CMS Unveils Proposed Rule with Changes to Telehealth, Other Programs

    7.19.2018
    Leslie Krigstein – VP, Congressional Affairs
    Mari Savickis – VP, Federal Affairs

    The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a proposed rule on July 12 with changes to the Physician Fee Schedule and the Quality Payment Program (QPP). Traditionally, these rules have been separate, however, CMS has combined them this year.

    This edition of the proposed rule includes some meaningful updates for CHIME members. On telehealth, CMS says they will be:

    • “Paying clinicians for virtual check-ins – brief, non-face-to-face appointments via communications technology;
    • Paying clinicians for evaluation of patient-submitted photos; and
    • Expanding Medicare-covered telehealth services to include prolonged preventive services.”

    The program also continues to attempt to embrace CMS’ “patients over paperwork” initiative by removing Medicare Incentive-based Payment System (MIPS) process-based quality measures that clinicians have said are low value or low priority, to focus on meaningful measures that have a greater impact on health outcomes.

    CMS also has proposed to amend the MIPS “Promoting Interoperability” performance category to support greater EHR interoperability and patient access to their health information, as well as to align this performance category for clinicians with the proposed new Promoting Interoperability Program for hospitals.

    The proposed rule also includes significant changes to evaluation and management (E/M) payment guidelines. CMS has proposed to reduce administrative burden and improve payment accuracy for E/M visits by blending payment rates for new and established patients for office/outpatient E/M level 2 through 5 visits and a series of add-on codes to reflect resources involved in furnishing primary care and non-procedural specialty generally recognized services. The proposed revision is the first since 1997.

    CHIME Public Policy Steering Committee Chair Liz Johnson, MS, RN-BC, and CIO, Acute Hospitals and Applied Clinical Informatics at Tenet Healthcare, praised some of the proposed changes in a statement.

    “CMS is certainly heeding calls from the provider community to reduce administrative burdens,” she said. “We support efforts to reduce these burdens on clinicians, whether they were created by paper or electronic processes, and to give physicians more time to care for patients. We also applaud the discussion of expanded telehealth reimbursement, something that has been a priority for CIOs, and we commend efforts to incent use of PDMPs (Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs) as we seek ways to leverage technology in our ongoing efforts to combat the nation’s opioid crisis.”

    CHIME’s public policy team is assessing the 1,473-page proposed rule and will provide a detailed synopsis for members soon. We also plan to work with the Public Policy Steering Committee and interested members to provide comments to CMS. Please email us at [email protected] if you would like to participate. The deadline for submitting comments is Sept. 10.   

    CMS issued a proposed rule fact sheet and a press release. The full proposed rule can be found here.

    More Inside CHIME

    Posted 7.19.2018

  • Opioid Task Force Building Off Foundation Established in First Half Year

    7.19.2018
    Ed Kopetsky
    Jim Turnbull

    CHIME launched the Opioid Task Force nearly six months ago, and in that short span we have accomplished several near-term goals and made progress on some of our longer-term projects. We are especially heartened by the support we have received from the CHIME and CHIME Foundation membership and CHIME staff as we worked to get this initiative off the ground.

    The task force held its first face-to-face meeting on Jan. 24-25 in Washington, D.C., followed by two other face-to-face gatherings: one on March 6 after the CHIME-HIMSS CIO Forum in Las Vegas and another on May 20-22 in Chicago. In between we have held numerous conference calls to stay focused on our mission, which is to use the knowledge and expertise of our members to stem the tide on our nation’s devastating opioid epidemic.

    We are pleased to share that at our midyear point we have several achievements to report. Our educational efforts include:

    • Our first opioid-themed webinar on April 25, presented by task force and CHIME Board member John Kravitz and his colleagues at Geisinger, CMIO Richard Taylor, M.D., and Chief Pharmacy Officer Michael Evans. This was the first webinar that CHIME has made free and open to the public. It was a resounding success, with more than 180 participants. Several members of the press attended the webinar, too, which helped us amplify our message to a larger community. The Geisinger webinar was also the catalyst for the launch of the CHIME Knowledge Hub and has been posted here.
    • As task force co-chairs, we participated on June 26 in another webinar hosted by healthsystemCIO.com in collaboration with CHIME. The webinar is archived here. This event also drew a large audience and received positive comments from attendees, including a response that “the CHIME task force is a great use of our organization.”
    • Our second CHIME webinar is scheduled for noon EDT on July 25. Task force member and Anne Arundel Health System CIO Dave Lehr will present “A Journey to Opioid Prescribing Reduction,” which will highlight the clinical and technological steps the system took to reduce opioid prescribing by more than 50 percent. We encourage you to register for the webinar here. It is free and open to the public so please share this with your colleagues and others in your community.
    • CHIME’s public policy team and the Public Policy Steering Committee have been very active, identifying federal bills and initiatives related to opioids that are relevant for our membership. Since the task force formed, they have contributed two letters to the administration, submitted six comments, statements and letters to Congress and signed onto two other multi-stakeholder letters. They also published a cheat sheet for CIOs that provides a legislative update and funding opportunities, which you can find here. In addition, John Kravitz testified on behalf of Geisinger before a House subcommittee earlier this year.

    Next on the horizon is a call for content to members to contribute real-world success stories and leading practices to prevent addiction and treat people at risk of or experiencing opioid addiction. CHIME will roll out this program in stages, beginning with those who have reached out to the task force already. This fall CHIME will unveil the CHIME Advocacy Summit, CHIME’s newest educational program, which will include sessions on the opioid crisis. The summit will be Oct. 3-5 in Washington, D.C., and many task force members plan to attend.

    The CHIME Opioid Task Force also is developing a CIO Playbook to help senior healthcare IT executives navigate the challenges created by the opioid epidemic. The CHIME Opioid Playbook is being created by CIOs and CMIOs for CIOs and CMIOs to help them build programs that will help their providers and healthcare organizations learn about and adopt leading practices in opioid management. We know this will be a useful resource for our members and the healthcare industry.

    Thank you for your support. We look forward to sharing more about the task force later this year.

    More Inside CHIME

    Posted 7.19.2018

  • News of Note

    7.19.2018
    Candace Stuart – Director, Communications & Public Relations

    Here is a roundup from CHIME of recent news and upcoming events:

    Author Daniel Pink to speak at CHIME18: Daniel H. Pink, the author of six provocative books on work, business and behavior, will be a keynote speaker at the 2018 CHIME Fall CIO Forum. His New York Times bestsellers include When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, A Whole New Mind, Drive and To Sell is Human. His TED Talk on the science of motivation has had more 20 million views. You can learn more about him and access the talk here.

    CHIME accepting board nominations through July 31: CHIME is accepting nominations for members interested in serving on the CHIME Board of Trustees. Nominations and all documentation are due no later than July 31. The CHIME Election Committee will review the submissions and determine the final pool of candidates to appear on the August 2018 CHIME Board ballot. For more information, go here.

    More Inside CHIME

    Posted 7.19.2018

  • Protenus CEO to Present at CISO Executive Summit

    Nick Culbertson, CEO of Protenus, to speak on how AI-powered analytics reduces organizational risk and drives cultural transformation

     

    Philadelphia, PA – July 18, 2018 – (Newswire.com) – ​The ability to audit every access to patient data will help healthcare use AI-powered analytics to solve the industry’s biggest challenges. Nick Culbertson, CEO and Co-founder of Protenus, the world’s leading healthcare compliance analytics platform, will present at the CISO Executive Summit alongside Hussein Syed, Chief Information Security Officer for RWJBarnabas, and Daniel Wilt, Chief Information Security Officer for the HealthShare Exchange of Southeastern Pennsylvania, on how insights gained from health data analytics can drive cultural transformation and reduce organizational risk.

    The presentation, titled “How Data Insights Affect Cultural Transformation,” will be an interactive panel, where panelists will discuss how health systems can drive policy awareness, reduce privacy violations and breach incidents, and demonstrate a reduction in overall risk with the adoption of an AI-powered user behavior analytics strategy.

    “Healthcare organizations continue to suffer an average of at least one data breach a day,” said Culbertson. “These disclosed breaches are just the tip of the iceberg of the actual risk health systems routinely carry. The adoption of AI-powered analytics is crucial to begin the prevention of privacy violations and breach incidents which expose organizations to substantial risk. With artificial intelligence, health systems can demonstrate a real return on investment and overall reduction in that risk through cultural change.”

    Technological advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning have made it possible to audit every access to health data, giving organizations the ability to share health data safely and securely across their systems. For the first time, health systems can demonstrate that access to health data is being accessed appropriately and stop inappropriate accesses in their tracks.

    “For even well-structured healthcare organizations, security has been purely reactive and tactical,” said Syed. “As the value of healthcare security has increased, the need for security has begun to evolve as well as be seen as a strategic objective for health systems.”

    The CISO Executive Network builds connections between information security, IT risk management, privacy and compliance executives in a peer-to-peer organization in order to enable continued success in the field. To accomplish this mission, CISO Executive Network provides opportunities periodically for these professionals to meet, share with one another and hear from industry experts.

    To register or learn more about the presentation, please visit the CISO Executive website.

    Presentation details:
    Wednesday, July 25, 2018
    11:15 a.m. – 12 p.m.
    Cooper University Hospital

    About Protenus
    The Protenus healthcare compliance analytics platform uses artificial intelligence to audit every access to patient records for the nation’s leading health systems. Providing healthcare leaders full insight into how health data is being used and alerting privacy, security and compliance teams to inappropriate activity, Protenus helps our partner hospitals make decisions about how to better protect their data, their patients and their institutions. Learn more at Protenus.com and follow us on Twitter @Protenus.

    Contact
    Kira Caban
    Director, Public Relations
    [email protected]
    410-913-0274

    Posted 7.18.2018
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