Thursday, February 24, 2011

Weekend Document Imaging Notes 2/20/2011

- In the recent budget submitted by President Obama, it includes adding 1,054 agents to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to enforce new healthcare regulations. (this is first part of original plan to add 11,000 agents to IRS)


- HIPAA Data Breach Update:

o Charleston Area Medical Center of West Virginia announced that it inadvertently exposed personal protected patient information on its website. The breach impacted 3,655 patients and exposed them to potential identity theft, as the info included their social security numbers. Patient data on the website had been accessed more than 90 times, with some of the site’s hits formcing from Indian and Germany.

o St. Francis Health System of Tulsa, Oklahoma announced that its HIPAA breach impacted 84,000 patients, after a computer was stolen from one of its outpatient facilities.

- More HIPAA oversight? Senator Stuart Smalley (aka Al Franken of Saturday Night Live fame) of Minnesota was named the ranking member of a new U.S. Senate committee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. His duties will include; “oversight of laws and policies governing the collection, protection, use and dissemination of commercial information…”

- In new statistics released by RedSpin Inc., and IT security audit firm regarding HIPAA breaches:

o Private health information of more than 6 million people has been compromised since 8/2009

o Breaches occurred in all but 7 states in the U.S.

o Average breach affected about 27,000 people

o Average of 82 days passed between discovery of breach, and when it was reported to federal government (law requires notification within 60 days)

o 6 out 10 breaches were intentional and malicious

- Imprivata released EHR survey results of hospital executives:

o 75% claim meaningful use (investing in EHR systems that qualify for federal stimulus dollars) is the top budget priority in 2011

o 54% cite physician adoption of EHR to be greatest challenge to meeting meaningful use rules

o 48% believe that password management issues will slow physician adoption of EHR systems

o 87% say that the time it takes for an EHR system to access a patient record affects physician satisfaction

o 73% say that EHR access time impacts patient care

o 50% report that at least 26% of physicians are accessing EHR remotely

o 65% have deployed personal devices for physicians, or have plans to deploy by end of 2012

o 49% have virtual desktop infrastructure or have plans to implement by 2012

- Canon now shipping a new option that allows it to sell one of its color copiers as an output device for MRI reports, radiology reports and CT scans:

o Option is called the Canon imagePRESS Server T1 V2 Controller

o Works with Canon imagePRESS C1+ color copier (single drum 14ppm unit) that is already equipped a Canon CYPHER PS Print Server

o The T1 V2 processes DICOM (digital imaging and communication in medicine) data, which is used in radiology systems (instead of traditional PCL or PS)


- Does healthcare vertical really buy biometric units? Genesis Healthcare of Zanesville, Ohio announced it is investing in biometric finger vein readers from Lumidigm. Reasons:

o Coupled with BIO-key software, it integrates into most EHR software, including Epic, Allscripts and others.

o Helps compliancy with new HIPAA regulations

o “Because skin dryness is so prevalent in the healthcare industry, due in part to constant hand washing, traditional fingerprint sensors can produce up to a 20% failure rate” according to Bill Spence, VP of Lumidigm

- Sutter Health gives out more details on its Epic EHR implementation:

o Chain of 26 hospitals in California

o Originally had systems from IBM (MedSeriesIV) and Siemens, awarded a contract to Epic in 2007 for $500 million

o After originally putting the brakes on the project, it announced it would spend an additional $400 million to complete Epic EHR project by 2015.

- University Hospitals of Ohio announced it awarded its EHR project to Allscripts, for its Sunrise Enterprise Acute Care EHR version 5.5, in all 7 of its hospitals.

- Siemens Healthcare announced it won more Soarian EHR contracts:

o Baptist St. Anthony’s Health System of Amarillo, Texas

o Peconic Bay Medical Center of Riverhead, New York

o Children’s Hospital of New Orleans, LA

o MaineGeneral Health of Maine

- McKesson, an EHR vendor, announced it won a contract from Parrish Medical Center of Titusville, FL.

- eClinicalWorks announced it won an EHR contract from Riverside HealthCare of Chicago, Illinois.

- ImageSoft, a dealer in Michigan, announced it has won document management contracts (with Hyland OnBase software) from Duke University and Henry Ford Hospital.

- According to a survey on EHRs conducted by the University of Chicago, 78% of Americans favor the use of electronic medical records systems. Other data:

o 59% believe it will reduce costs

o 72% support sharing of data between providers

o 80% favor electronic prescriptions

o 79% believe that access to their personal health records (PHR) on-line would keep them better informed

o 48% are concerned about privacy of records

o 64% believe that the benefits outweigh privacy concerns

o 44% are not willing to pay more to get benefits of electronic records

o 57% do not believe that use of electronic records would impact their choice of physician


- Record Nations, a national network of document scanning service provider, published results of survey:

o Rate of medical record scanning grew 22% in 2010

o Scanning requests to get space back grew 11%

o Requests to scan from businesses that were closing was up 8%

o Requests to scan due to “green” concerns up 4%


- Survey conducted by Oce’ reveals the following about document management systems:

o 30% were only managing paper records

o 81% said it improves process of filing and retrieval

o 47% able to use in business process workflows

o 40% said collaboration was easier

o 77% use to improve processes and operational efficiencies

o 72% use to reduce paper and save storage space

o 50% use to comply with regulations

o 21% use to increase competitive edge

- Palisades Medical Center of New Jersey, which had chosen Siemens Soarian as its EHR, announced that it chose DB Technology’s RASi software as its document management system.

-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Weekend Document Imaging Notes 2/5/2011

- Meditech announced it won EHR contracts from:


o Sierra View District Hospital of Porterville, CA.

o Saint Francis Medical Center in Grand Island, NE

o United Memorial Medical Center of New York

 Also acquired Lexmark Perceptive imageNOW document management system


- Epic apparently won EHR contracts from:

o Kadlec Medical of Washington

o Resurrection Health of Chicago, IL

o Providence Hospital of Oregon

o Providence Hospital of Washington

o Owensboro Hospital of Kentucky

o Yale New Haven Hospital of Connecticut



- Swedish Medical Center of Seattle, WA announced that its Epic EHR system shutdown for 4 hours due to a software glitch, forcing doctors and nurses to temporarily conduct business with pen and paper.



- Allscripts won EHR contract from UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester, Mass.



- HIPAA Breach News: The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) reports that the number of entities reporting breaches of patient files affecting 500 or more patients has hit 225, since the first breach was reported to OCR in 9/2009.

o 10 reports of breaches impacting more than 100,000 patients

o 4 reports of breaches impacting between 50,000 and 99,999 patients

o 6 reports of breaches impacting between 25,000 and 49,999 patients

o 27 reports of breaches impacting between 10,000 and 24,999 patients

o 61 reports of breaches that involved a laptop computer



- HIPAA Breach in Indianapolis. Saint Vincent Hospital notified 1,800 patients that their PHI info may have been exposed due to someone hacking into their email system.



- Apparently Methodist Hospitals of Indiana is suing consulting firms FTI Cambio and HealthNET as well as Meditech for supposedly convincing the hospital to abandon its in-progress $26 million Epic implementation and instead spend $16 million upgrading their existing Meditech EHR. Methodist wants out of its Meditech contract and asking for $16 million in damages.



- McKesson announced it won contracts from:

o F.F. Thompson Hospital of New York

o OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital



- According to Lyra, here are average monthly volumes in the healthcare vertical:

o B/W midrange MFPs = 6,525 pages/month

o Color midrange MFPs = 7,160 pages/month

o B/w desktop printers = 2,165 pages/month

o Color desktop printers = 1,235 pages/month

o Inkjet printers/MFPs = 675 pages/month



- Congressman, Jim Jordan, of Ohio introduced House bill HR408 which apparently would repeal the EHR reimbursement funds in the HITECH Act. Even if the House of Representatives passes the bill, it would still have to be approved by the Senate, and then President Obama.





- Quality Systems, Inc. (NextGen EHR) turns in record Q3 numbers:

o Revenue up 23% to $91.9 million

o Board chair, founder, and former CEO Sheldon Razin holds almost $400 million worth of shares.

 He started the company in his garage in 1973 with $2,000 in capital and took it public in 1982. Its market cap is now over $2 billion.

- Research firm KLAS has released its 2010 Top 20 Best in KLAS Awards: EHR Software & Professional Services report, which includes the annual rankings of healthcare information technology vendors. The rankings are based on more than 17,000 interviews conducted yearly with healthcare providers.

o Winners in the Ambulatory Electronic Medical Record (EMR) category, by practice size:

 More than 100 physicians: Epic EpicCare Ambulatory EMR

 26 to 100 physicians: eClinicalWorks EMR

 6 to 25 physicians: Greenway Medical PrimeSuite Chart

 2 to 5 physicians: e-MDs Chart

o For practice management systems, by practice size:

 More than 100 physicians: Epic Resolute/Prelude/Cadence

 26 to 100 physicians: McKesson Horizon Practice Plus

 6 to 25 physicians: Greenway Medical PrimeSuite Practice

 2 to 5 physicians: e-MDs Bill

o Also in the 2010 report, Epic was the top-ranked overall software vendor, with a performance score of 86.7 out of 100, followed by CareFusion and 3M.

o The top-rated overall services firm was Hayes Management (88.9), followed by Deloitte Consulting Inc. and CTG.

- University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City announced it is conducting an investigation after a screening showed the electronic medical records of 13 University of Iowa football players may have been accessed inappropriately.

o The hospital says under the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the patient medical records can only be accessed by health care workers with legitimate reasons to review those records. The hospital says it routinely screens for possible privacy violations to protect the confidentiality of patients, including those with "high public profiles."

o The football players have drawn national attention after they fell ill following off-season workouts. They have been in the hospital since Monday. Since then, there have been media reports on the results of drug tests and the player's conditions.

-=Greets from Sandy Hook=-