Weekend Document Imaging Notes

Gathered from Print4Pay Hotel Members from around the world and a few moles in very good places!

- Cintas Corp. of Cincinnati, Ohio, best known as a provider of commercial uniforms, announced that it has expanded its document management division. It opened a new data storage facility in Chicago, which it hopes will allow it to serve 160,000 customers.

- The Department of Health & Human Services announced it has published the “meaningful use” rules for medical practices to use EHR so they can qualify for reimbursement through Medicaid and Medicare, under the ARRA program. With ARRA, physicians serving Medicare patients can be eligible for up to $44,000 in funding to adopt EHRs, and up to $63,500 from Medicaid.

- Healthcare IT acronyms and their definitions:
- ECM = Electronic Content Management is a set of technologies used to capture, store and deliver content and documents and content related to organizational processes.
- EMR = Electronic Medical Records is a medical record in a digital format.
- EHR = Electronic Health Records, of which EMR is one type
- PMS = Practice Management Software that deals with day to day operations of a medical practice
- DMS = Document Management System is a computer system used to track and store electronic documents and/or images of paper documents.

- The Top 10 trends to drive healthcare IT market in 2010, according to Healthcare Technology Online:
- Electronic Medical Records (EMR) adoption will gain momentum
- Personal Health Records (PHR) will become recognized as a viable method to transport patient data to complement EMRs and EHRs. Advances in secure personal storage, smart cards, and software technology will help drive this trend.
- Cost Containment Will Be Paramount. The U.S. currently spends $2.5 trillion per year on healthcare, and this is expected to climb to $4 trillion by 2015.
- Alternative Care Delivery Models Will Emerge. Expect to increase in worksite and health clinics, as well as home health services.
- War Waged On Medicare Fraud. Document management will be instrumental in reducing the estimated $60 billion per year in fraud.
- Increased Focus On Outbreak Preparedness. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies can help plan for potential emergencies.
- Patient Safety Initiatives Intensify. Bedside medication administration systems, diagnosis support software and patient tracking systems will be used.
- Healthcare Professionals In Short Supply. Demand for healthcare services will begin to outpace supply of healthcare professionals. Workforce management and advanced scheduling technology will be needed.
- Storage and Business Continuity Concerns Abound. Nearly 30% of data stored on world’s computers today are medical images, and this will increase. Institutions consistently need to upgrade their storage systems, with ease of replication and restoration.
- Physician Groups Join Healthcare Systems. Many physicians don’t want to deal with headache that comes with installing an HER system. By joining a healthcare system that already has an HER established, the physician group can quickly become eligible for ARRA incentives.

-=Cheers=-