- Recent survey data from Computer World magazine about company’s usage of MFPs:
o most companies fail to utilize the advanced functionality of the hardware
o 91% have activated scan to email
o 86% have set auto-duplex as default
o 39% use N-up function (putting 4 pages of info on one sheet of paper)
o Most do not user secure print feature, even though they are printing confidential documents
*********************************************************************************
- Many EHR systems (including Epic) supposedly are based on an old programming language developed in the 1960s called MUMPS, which stands for “Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System”
o MUMPS was developed by Neil Pappalardo and colleagues in Dr. Octo Barnett's animal lab at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston during 1966 and 1967. The original MUMPS system was, like Unix a few years later, built on a spare DEC PDP-7 computer.
*********************************************************************************
- Four out of five community hospitals believe they can achieve meaningful use by 2013 with their current electronic medical record systems, meaning one-fifth of community hospitals plan to switch their EMRs within the next couple of years, according to a KLAS news release.
*********************************************************************************
- InfoTrends said a recent survey on scanning usage reveals:
o 52.4% are scanning more
o 43% staying same
o 4.6% scanning less
o 45% using content management systems more
o 44% are now managing scans with software systems
*********************************************************************************
- The National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL) reported that results of a recent survey reveals that nearly 70% of printshop owners feel that their sales will grow in 2011.
*********************************************************************************
- Texas Instruments announced it will spend $6.5 billion to buy rival chip maker National Semiconductor.
*********************************************************************************
- The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, which is in charge of pushing healthcare providers to get EHR systems, announced it has appointed Dr. Farzad Mostashari as the new National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. He previously worked for New York City’s Department of Health.
*********************************************************************************
- Recent data from survey on ambulatory-care (non-hospital) physicians conducted by Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) on usage of EHRs:
o 72% are satisfied with their EHRs
o 61% claims their EHRs have increased productivity and boosted practice revenue
o 52% claim to be using EHRs
*********************************************************************************
- Recent research from IDC on what decision makers feel about sales people:
o 24% believe that sales reps are NOT prepared for appointment/meeting/presentation
o 30% believe they are somewhat prepared
*********************************************************************************
- Xerox announced that it purchased United Business Solutions, a Ricoh dealer in Addison, Illinois. (Ricoh will cancel this dealership, so Xerox will rush to convert them to Xerox product) Former owners were Reed Byhring and Fred Martin. Purchase price not announced.
*********************************************************************************
- According to Infonetics, revenue for managed security services will grow by 62% over the next 5 years to $17 billion worldwide.
*********************************************************************************
- Recent survey results from Information Week magazine regarding what IT is doing to keep devices on their network secure:
o 68% educate their users about security
o 62% put written policies in place, but no technology in place to enforce
o 50% technology in place to enforce
o 48% rely on employee common sense
o 37% require encryption
*********************************************************************************
- Adam Greene was named at Senior Health IT & Privacy Advisor in the Office of Civil Rights, which is part of the Department of Health & Human Services, and is enforcing HIPAA legislation on the healthcare industry. In a speech he reminded healthcare administrators:
o Business associates and subcontractors can be held directly liable for HIPAA breaches
o In accounts of disclosures of patient information (PHIs), treatment info, payment info and healthcare operation info must be tracked and disclosed
o New restrictions will be put on use of patient data for marketing and sale of protected health info (PHIs)
o Minimum HIPAA breach penalty raised to $50,000, maximum still at $1.5 million
********************************************************************************
- Hewlett-Packard is suing a former executive for allegedly stealing trade secrets before he took a job with HP rival Oracle.
o Filed Wednesday in Santa Clara County Superior Court, the lawsuit alleged that Adrian Jones, a former HP senior vice president in Asia, stole proprietary information before he resigned in February and moved to
o An internal investigation at the time of his resignation uncovered that Jones failed to disclose a "close personal relationship" with a subordinate, gave that subordinate a 97% salary bump and expensed thousands of dollars spent visiting that person with no relevant business purpose, HP said.
Before he left, Jones copied "hundreds of files and thousands of e-mails" related to HP's business strategies, future plans, employee data and customer data, the suit said.
o HP seeks an injunction from the court to prevent Jones from using the sensitive information to put the company at an "unfair competitive disadvantage."
*******************************************************************************
- The media is still publishing reports of copier hard drive security threats.
o The Kilgore News Herald newspaper of Texas ran an article that said; “employee and customer data could easily be downloaded (from copier) by criminals”
o Senator Bob Smith of Middlesex, NJ stated to the press; “It’s frightening to think about all the information that is potentially at risk unless we require (copier) hard drives to be erased…”
o Ondrej Krehel, Chief Security Officer at ID Theft 911 stated; “I don’t think vendors have been doing a good job of pushing the security capabilities available on their devices”
********************************************************************************
- HIPAA breach: MidState Medical Center In Meriden, Connecticut reported that an employee took info on 93,500 patients home on a personal hard drive. The employee was fired, but the drive has not been found.
********************************************************************************
- According to the Health Information Management Systems Society, here is list of most common EHR installs in the hospital/acute care market in the U.S.:
o Meditech 1,212 installs
o Cerner 606
o McKesson 573
o Epic 413 (but fastest growing)
o Siemens 397
o CPSI 392
o Healthcare Management Systems 347
o Healthland 223
o Allscripts/eClipsys 185
o 273 hospitals claim to have developed their own
-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Weekend Document Imaging Notes from 3/21/11
o Sharon Regional Health System of Ohio. Contract is $13 million over 5 years.
o Miami Children’s Hospital
o Sheridan Memorial Hospital of Wyoming for $9.8 million
HealthTexas gave out details on the install of its new EHR system:
o First 60 days average cost per physician of $32,409
o For entire year, average cost per physician of $46,659
o In-house staff spent an average of 134.2 hours per physician and $10,325 per physician during implementation
The HHS OCR (Health & Human Services division of Office of Civil Rights) is requesting $46.7 million in federal funding increase to accelerate its enforcement of HIPAA regulations on healthcare providers in the U.S. The increase includes the placement of a “Privacy Officer” in each of the OCR’s ten regional offices, to coordinate HIPAA data breach investigations. The agency predicts that it will need to investigate up to 20,000 breach reports per year.
Epic announced it won EHR contract from Cooper University Hospital of New Jersey.
Ponemon released data from survey of patients regarding their PHI (protected health information):
o 70% want control over their medical records
o 80% expect their healthcare provider to ensure privacy of their medical records
o 49% of patients who had their info exposed (HIPAA breach) took no new steps to protect themselves
o 50% did not report that theft of their medical info to police
43% did not want to make a “big deal out of it”
37% were afraid of being embarrassed
21% are afraid of loss of health insurance coverage
18% are afraid of lower credit score
o 55% are not familiar with new HIPAA regulations
o 79% are not aware of the creation of a national database of health information
Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana is urging lawmakers in his state to reconsider their ruling which rejected the $35 million in HITECH Act funds for implementation of EHR systems.
Black Book Rankings gave out results of EHR survey:
o Top EHR for radiologists is MedInformatix of Los Angeles
o Top EHR for pathologists is PSA (a division of MED 3000) of South Carolina
o Top EHR for oncologists is MOSAIQ, from Elekta of Sweden
o Top EHR for cardiologists is MicroMD from Henry Schein Inc. of Ohio
CareLogic announced it won EHR contract from Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services of Michigan.
Siemans announced it won a Soarian EHR contract from UMass Memorial Health Care of Massachusetts for $140 million
According to Kalorama Information, a total of $15.7 billion was spent on EHR systems in 2010.
U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has introduced legislation to expand the types of doctors that can get HITECH funds to pay for EHR systems to now include:
o behavioral health
o mental health
o substance abuse treatment professionals and facilities.
According to research completed by Center for Studying Health System Change, some 16 million more people are expected to receive healthcare via Medicaid by 2019 under Obamacare, and that it predicts there will not be enough doctors to see all these patients in many areas.
Sage announced it won an EHR contract from United Medical Centers of Texas.
MedAssets announced that it has added biometric finger vein readers from PatientSecure to its GPO catalog.
HIPAA Breach: Health Net Inc. of Rancho Cordova, CA, announced that 9 hard drives from one of its servers went missing, potentially exposing PHI (protected health information) for over 1.9 million patients.
Scanning in healthcare vertical on the increase according to research conducted by Record Nations:
o Requirements for Medicaid payments have causing 22% increase in scanning
o Need to recover physical space caused 11% increase
o 8% growth in scanning documents from healthcare business that were closing due to law requiring retention of records for 7 years
o 4% growth caused by a desire to “go green”
A hospital in Chennai, India reporting that a computer virus entered its network and “wiped off voluminous medical records of the premier hospital that treats 15,000 patients a day”
Allscripts announced it is opening up development centers in Pune and Bangalore, India.
A lawsuit was filed against Walgreen’s by disgruntled customers in California, trying to prevent the pharmacy chain from selling customer data. Without identifying individuals, Walgreen sells data that includes patient’s sex, age, state, and name of drug. The data is sold to pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Golden Gate Capital of San Francisco has made an unsolicited offer to buy Lawson Software of Minnesota for $1.8 billion. Lawson financial software for healthcare vertical offers:
o Automated data-collection and management tasks
o Budget Preparation & Reporting
o Grant Management
o Compliance Control Manager
o Accounts Payable & Accounts Receivable
o Financial Reporting Self-Service
o General Ledger
-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
This Week in Document Imaging 2/27/2011
- The University of California Davis announced that it has awarded contract to InterSystems Corp. of Massachusetts for integration services with its Epic EHR system.
- Epic claims that its EHR system at Kaiser Permanente securely manages the records of 8.6 million patients.
- Epic announced it won EHR contracts from:
o Sentara Health System in Norfolk, VA, 8 hospitals, for $273 million
o Franciscan Alliance, including all 13 hosptials and 165 practices for a total of $100 million.
- Allscripts announced it won EHR contract from St. Joseph’s Health System, which has locations in California, Texas and New Mexico.
- The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), using it new enforcement power, slapped a $4.3 million penalty against Cignet Health of Maryland for failure to honor patients’ requests for access to their medical records, as part of the HIPAA law.
- A study conducted by DowJones VentureSource found that:
o venture capital investment in medical software rose from $387.5 million in 2009 to $460 million in 2010, representing a growth of 19%
o an estimated 77% of venture capitalists predict that investment in healthcare information technology will continue to increase this year
- Massachusetts General Hospital agreed to pay HHS a fine of $1 million to settle a HIPAA violation involving 192 patients.
- KLAS Research announced results of a survey of customer satisfaction of EHRs in the ambulatory market:
o Allscripts = 16%
o Epic = 12%
o NextGen = 10%
- Hewlett Packard claims it won managed print services contracts, including its printers and MFPs from the following healthcare vertical customers:
o Bayer Schering Pharma AG
o Centra Health
o Children’s Hospital of Boston
o Cigna
o Exempla Healthcare
o Health Net
o Humana
o San Juan Regional Medical Center
- The Medicare Fraud Strike Force reported that it arrested 111 people last month, for allegedly bilking Medicare out of $225 million in false claims.
- Adam Greene, Senior Health IT and Privacy Advisor in the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), part of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), announced the minimum fine for HIPAA violation will increase from $100 to $50,000. This means that the minimum fine for misplacing just one patient record could result in a $50K fine.
- eClinicalWorks won an EHR contract from BayCare, a community based healthcare system in Tampa, FL.
- McKesson won an EHR contract from Stanly Regional Medical Center of Albermarle, NC.
- CapSite survey finds that 23% of hospitals plan to use consulting help to get their clinical systems up and running
- Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health & Human Services, announced the following about the EHR vendors that have been certified as meeting federal “meaningful use” standards:
o 231 vendors now certified
o 66% of these have fewer than 50 employees
- David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for HITECH stimulus money announced:
o 21,300 healthcare providers have signed up to qualify
o $20 million has been paid out so far from Medicaid
o Medicare payments start in May, 2011
- PatientKeeper announced it won contract from Madison Memorial Hospital of Rexburg, Idaho.
- Cerner, maker of EHR systems, announced it is in negotiations to but the former Sam’s Town Casino complex in Kansas City.
- The Henry Ford Health System of Michigan announced that an employee lost a flash drive containing the records of 2,777 patients. This is their second HIPAA violation in less than a year.
- Allscripts partner, dbMotion, announced contracts with:
o Orlando Health
o University Hospitals of Cleveland
o Sharp Healthcare (which will connect to its Cerner system)
o Huntington Memorial Hospital of Pasadena, CA
- Siemens announced it won an EHR contract from Jefferson Regional Medical Center of Pennsylvania.
-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-
- Epic claims that its EHR system at Kaiser Permanente securely manages the records of 8.6 million patients.
- Epic announced it won EHR contracts from:
o Sentara Health System in Norfolk, VA, 8 hospitals, for $273 million
o Franciscan Alliance, including all 13 hosptials and 165 practices for a total of $100 million.
- Allscripts announced it won EHR contract from St. Joseph’s Health System, which has locations in California, Texas and New Mexico.
- The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), using it new enforcement power, slapped a $4.3 million penalty against Cignet Health of Maryland for failure to honor patients’ requests for access to their medical records, as part of the HIPAA law.
- A study conducted by DowJones VentureSource found that:
o venture capital investment in medical software rose from $387.5 million in 2009 to $460 million in 2010, representing a growth of 19%
o an estimated 77% of venture capitalists predict that investment in healthcare information technology will continue to increase this year
- Massachusetts General Hospital agreed to pay HHS a fine of $1 million to settle a HIPAA violation involving 192 patients.
- KLAS Research announced results of a survey of customer satisfaction of EHRs in the ambulatory market:
o Allscripts = 16%
o Epic = 12%
o NextGen = 10%
- Hewlett Packard claims it won managed print services contracts, including its printers and MFPs from the following healthcare vertical customers:
o Bayer Schering Pharma AG
o Centra Health
o Children’s Hospital of Boston
o Cigna
o Exempla Healthcare
o Health Net
o Humana
o San Juan Regional Medical Center
- The Medicare Fraud Strike Force reported that it arrested 111 people last month, for allegedly bilking Medicare out of $225 million in false claims.
- Adam Greene, Senior Health IT and Privacy Advisor in the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), part of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), announced the minimum fine for HIPAA violation will increase from $100 to $50,000. This means that the minimum fine for misplacing just one patient record could result in a $50K fine.
- eClinicalWorks won an EHR contract from BayCare, a community based healthcare system in Tampa, FL.
- McKesson won an EHR contract from Stanly Regional Medical Center of Albermarle, NC.
- CapSite survey finds that 23% of hospitals plan to use consulting help to get their clinical systems up and running
- Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health & Human Services, announced the following about the EHR vendors that have been certified as meeting federal “meaningful use” standards:
o 231 vendors now certified
o 66% of these have fewer than 50 employees
- David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for HITECH stimulus money announced:
o 21,300 healthcare providers have signed up to qualify
o $20 million has been paid out so far from Medicaid
o Medicare payments start in May, 2011
- PatientKeeper announced it won contract from Madison Memorial Hospital of Rexburg, Idaho.
- Cerner, maker of EHR systems, announced it is in negotiations to but the former Sam’s Town Casino complex in Kansas City.
- The Henry Ford Health System of Michigan announced that an employee lost a flash drive containing the records of 2,777 patients. This is their second HIPAA violation in less than a year.
- Allscripts partner, dbMotion, announced contracts with:
o Orlando Health
o University Hospitals of Cleveland
o Sharp Healthcare (which will connect to its Cerner system)
o Huntington Memorial Hospital of Pasadena, CA
- Siemens announced it won an EHR contract from Jefferson Regional Medical Center of Pennsylvania.
-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-
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=-
- 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=-
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=-
Saturday, January 29, 2011
This Week in Document Imaging 1/28/2011
- Meditech announced it won contract from Charlotte Hungerford Hospital of Connecticutt.
- BMC Healthcare of Maryland announced it will use Meditech EHR in hospital and eClinicalWorks in its physician offices.
- HIPAA breach. The St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital in Indiana had to notify 1,800 patients that their protected health information (PHI) may have been compromised when a hacker successfully persuaded some employees to reveal a login to the hospital’s email system.
- A survey of hospital by Accenture shows EHR installs:
o Epic = 30%
o Cerner = 30%
o Eclipsys (division of Allscripts) = 10%
o GE Centricity = 10%
o McKesson = 10%
o Meditech = 5%
o Siemens = 5%
o Quadramed = 5%
- Children’s Hospital of Boston, MA announced that it acquired:
o eClinicalWorks as its EHR
o Perceptive (Lexmark) imageNOW as its document management system
o Hewlett Packard for its MFPs and printers
o NSi AutoStore as middleware to connect HP MFPs to imageNOW
- Allscripts announced that its EHR connects to Cardiac Science Corp’s automated external defibrillators and diagnostic cardiac monitoring devices.
- In survey published by OpenText of internal medicine trainees, it was revealed that over two-thirds were spending more than 4 hours per day on documentation.
- Cerner announced an install of its Millennium EHR system at Memorial Hermann Healthcare System of Houston, Texas, as well as Lancaster General Health of Lancaster, PA.
- According to The New York Times newspaper, the United States government and Israel’s government worked together to develop the Stuxnet worm that’s blamed for crippling Iran’s program to develop a nuclear weapon. The worm reportedly knocked out one-fifth of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges.
- HIPAA breach: A nurse fired for allegedly looking at the medical records of Tiger Woods is suing for defamation and says he never saw the golf star's files, the Orlando Sentinel reported Friday.
o David Rothenberg seeks 400,000 dollars in damages plus reinstatement and a letter of explanation from officials at Health Central, the hospital where Woods was taken after a November 2009 car crash.
o Hospital officials fired Rothenberg in December of 2009 for looking at the record of Woods three times within 10 minutes on his computer, according to the lawsuit filed Friday.
o Rothenberg, who faces the loss of his nursing license, accused the hospital of defamation and conspiracy to defame plus violating polygraph procedures and causing harm to his reputation.
o Rothenberg argues the evidence against him was circumstantial and that he left his computer terminal unattended and someone else logged in to peep at the golf star's medical records.
- According to a one industry author, in the year 2010, Epic secured EHR contracts from the following hospitals:
o Johns Hopkins
Catholic Health Services of Long Island
New Hanover Regional Medical Center
Ochsner
Moses Cone
Bronson
St. Joseph Michigan – Lakeland
Martin Memorial
Idaho – St. Luke’s
US Coast Guard
Provena
Aurora
University of Mississippi Medical Center
JPS Health Network
SUNY Upstate Medical University
LSU Health
Rochester General
ProHealth Care
Owensboro
Rockford
Sansum
Access Community Health Network
Bassett Healthcare
Stormont-Vail Health Care
Hurley Medical Center
Temple University Health System
Amphia Hospital (Netherlands)
Memorial Healthcare System
Orange Regional Medical Center
Tampa General Hospital
Wenatchee Valley Medical Center
-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
This Week in Document Imaging 12/29/10
o Number of hospitals using either basic or advanced EHR up from 24% to 38%
o Largest increase in quality of care was for patients treated for heart failure for hospitals with EHR versus those without
- Results of EHR study conducted by University of California-Davis finds:
o Initial implementation of EHR results in a 25-33% drop in physician productivity
o Internal medicine units adjusted to the new technology and experienced increase in productivity
o Pediatricians and family practice doctors did not return to original productivity levels
- Dell announced it is buying InSiteOne Inc. of Wallingford, CT, and provides medical diagnostic image archiving services.
- According to Black Book Rankings about EHR adoption:
o 90% of healthcare providers that purchased EHR systems are off track to meet meaningful use implementation goals
o Only 10% foresee achieving requirements for stimulus funding this spring
o Over 400 EHR system developers have emerged in past year
o Top five reasons why will not meet requirements:
93% say lack of support from their EHR vendor
89% say delay caused by cost of additional support by EHR vendor
82% caused by rushed selection of EHR vendor
77% lack staff to implement
69% are underfunded to rectify difficult EHR system interfaces
- The State of Wisconsin is still pursuing a lawsuit it filed against McKesson for $150 million, for allegedly overcharging Medicare and Medicaid programs.
- Allscripts announced that its EHR can not be integrated with WellDoc DiabetesManager solution. WellDoc allows physicians to have real-time patient self-care data, including; blood glucose data, mediation use, lifestyle info and other diabetes related info.
- Premier Inc., one of the 6 large healthcare group purchasing organizations (GPOs) in the U.S. announced that over the past year, 1,220 hospitals participating in its group buy program have identified $81 million in savings. Savings under the program vary between 5% and 15%.
- HIPAA breach. Dean Health System of Wisconsin notified 2,000 surgery patients that their personal information was exposed when the laptop computer belonging to a doctor was stolen.
- Centra Health System of Virginia notified 14,000 patients that their personal info was exposed when an employee’s laptop computer was stolen from her rental car.
- EHR vendor, eClinicalWorks of Massachusetts reports:
o CEO if Girish Kumar Navani
o Will be hiring up to 200 in 2011 due to growth
o Currently has more than 1,300 employees
o Will build new headquarters for $18 million
o Will finish the year with $150 million in revenue
o 5 year goal is to have 100,000 providers and 100 million patients on its HER
- Results of healthcare survey conducted by PriceWatersCoopers (PwC):
o 86% of patients do not access their medical records electronically
o What consumers would use web-access to health info for:
58% lab reports
56% prescription orders
53% immunization records
52% upcoming appointments
48% physician visit notes
33% suggested preventive health screening
o 72% would trade employer-based insurance for higher pay
-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
This Week in Document Imaging 12/13/2010
- According to “GreenOrder”, a sustainable business strategy firm:
o Copier sales in US are worth $24 billion annually
o Older copiers use up to 60% more energy than new models
o Average office worker creates 1.5 pounds of paper waste each day
o Recycled paper uses 44% less energy and produces 48% less waste
o More than 100 million cartridges end up in trash each year in US
o Cartridges take up to 450 years to decompose
o Toner remanufacturing employs 35,000 in the US
o Reconditioning cartridges saves 264 gallons of oil and 845 lbs. of solid waste each month
o Fewer than 10% of all electronics discarded are recycled each year in US
o Electronics contribute 50 million tons of trash each year to landfills
- Hyland, maker of OnBase document management software, which has a large market share in the healthcare vertical, announced version 10.0 adding:
o Intelligent automated indexing
o Business process and notation modeler
o Site provisioning for MS SharePoint
o Comprehensive full-text search with Autonomy IDOL integration
o Integration for MS Outlook 2010
- EHR usage survey. Survey conducted by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals:
o More than half of physicians surveyed are using at least a partial EHR system in their practices
o Nearly a quarter have a system in place that meets criteria for basic EHR system
o 10% have fully functional EHR in place
- McKesson, maker of EHR systems, announced that Professional Data Services Inc. won its “Value Added Reseller of the Year” award for its sales of McKesson Practice Partner EHR during last year.
- According to survey of EHR usage in pediatric hospitals conducted by Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine:
o 2.8% have a comprehensive EHR system
o 17.9% have a basic EHR system
o 15.7% exchange health info electronically
o 34.3% have CPOE (computerized physician order entry) systems
- According to survey from College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME):
o 15% of hospital CIOs are confident that they will have EHR installed by April, 2011
o 5% expect to meet meaningful use targets in first 6 months
- Allscripts, maker of EHR systems, announced it won a contract from Berkshire Health Systems of Berkshire County, Mass.
- Pediatric Cardiology Associates in Syracuse, N.Y., implemented Allscripts EHR.
- Cerner announced it won an EHR contract from WellSpan Health of Pennsylvania.
- Epic won an EHR contract from University of Colorado Hospital.
- Medsphere won an EHR contract from Lutheran Medical Center of New York.
- Auxilio, a managed print services provider that focus on the healthcare vertical, announced it won contracts in California from:
o Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital
o Petaluma Valley Hospital
o Queen of the Valley Hospital
- Worldox, a document management program for the legal vertical, won the “Gold” award from Legal Technology News for 2010 based on customer satisfaction.
- Ricoh announced it has chosen to offer IPRO Tech software for its legal vertical market customers, including the eCapture, Allegro and Eclipse eDiscovery products.
-=Greetings from the Highlands=-
Monday, November 29, 2010
This Week in Document Imaging 11/28/2010
- McKesson announced it won an EHR contract from North Sunflower Medical Center of Mississippi.
- The Ohio Regional Health Information Partnership (OHIP), a state regional extension center (REC) has selected eClinicalWorks as the ambulatory EHR vendor of choice.
- Details from survey from the Agency for Health Research and Quality:
o based on data from 10,567 staff from 470 medical offices in 33 states
o More than 50% have encountered problems when exchanging information
o 69% reported that patient was unable to get appointment within 48 hours for serious problem
o 85% reported that a wrong chart/medical record was used for a patient
o 63% reported that a chart/medical record was not available when needed
o 70% reported scanning a patient record into the wrong patient folder
o 22% reported that pharmacy contacted office to clarify prescription
o 44% reported that patient’s medication list was not updated during their visit
o 39% reported that lab results were not available when needed
o 79% reported that an abnormal result from a test was not followed up within one business day
o 55% reported problems communicating with labs/imaging centers
o 50% reported problems communicating with other physicians
o 52% reported problems communicating with pharmacies
o 58% reported problem communicating with hospitals
o 82% had electronic appointment scheduling
o 59% have electronic access to test/lab/imaging results
o 51% have EHR systems
o 41% have electronic medication ordering
o 37% have electronic ordering of tests
- The California Department of Public Health fined 7 hospitals for HIPAA breaches:
o Kern Medical Center fined $250,000 for theft of 596 patient records from unlocked locker
Also fined $60,000 regarding unauthorized access to emergency room patient by two employees
o Pacific Hospital of Long Beach fined $225,000 for employee gaining unauthorized access to 9 patient records
o Kawaeah Manor Convalescent Hospital in Visalia fined $125,000 for employee gaining unauthorized access to 5 patient records
o Delano Regional Medical Center fined $60,000 for employee gaining unauthorized access to medical record of relative
o Childrens Hospital of Orange fined $25,000 for employee gaining unauthorized access to patient record of coworker’s child
o Oroville Hospital fine $42,500 for employee discussing patient record on cell phone with others and posting on MySpace
o Biggs Gridley Memorial Hospital of Gridley fined $5000 for two employees gaining unauthorized access to medical record of coworker
-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-
Monday, November 22, 2010
This Week in Document Imaging 11/21/10
o Conducted by HIMSS (health information management systems society)
o 22% have capability to achieve 10 or more of the required core measures in Stage 1 of meaningful use
o 34% can achieve between 5 and 9 of the core measures
o 40.47% can achieve 5 or more of the menu items
o 9.61% can achieve 12 core measures
- Most common benefits of installing an EHR(electronic health records system) according to New England Journal of Medicine:
o No more filing, pulling, re-filing or creating paper charts
o No lost charts
o Less time filing
o Universal chart access
o Easier compliance with chart requests
o Improve external communication
o Fewer call backs from pharmacies
o Higher quality documentation
o Spend less time charting
o More efficient chart signing
o Built-in health maintenance protocols and reminders
o Improved medication management
o Improved customer service
o Free up valuable office space
o Eliminate transcription costs (average physician spends $12K to $25K/year)
o Eliminate chart creation costs (average of $5 per chart for supplies and labor)
o No more paying staff to pull and refile charts (average of $0.40 per transaction)
o No more cost to find lost charts (average of $2500 per year)
o Eliminate paper faxes for prescription renewals (average of $36K/year for supplies and labor)
o Reduce undercoding, where physicians are not getting paid for everything they do (average of $25K/year)
- Study by Medical Economics magazine shows that annual cost for an average physician practice to manage paper charts is: (instead of using EHR)
o $12K/year for transcriptions
o $2400/year for paper chart supplies
o $41.6K/year in labor to pull and refile charts
o $2.5K/year in labor to find misplaced charts
o $36K/year for inbound faxes
o $21.875K/year for outbound faxes
o $25K/year for money lost in downcoding (not claiming enough)
o TOTAL = $141,375/year
- According to the Kansas City Business Journal, due to wildlife environmental concerns, EHR vendor Cerner is reconsidering the location of its future 600,000 square foot office in Wyandotte County.
- Cerner wins contract from DeLand Hospital of Florida and North York General Hospital of Toronto.
- Cerner announced it will sponsor the USA Bid Committee to help bring the FIFA World Cup soccer championship to the U.S. in 2022.
- McAfee and Cisco have released their detailed cybersecurity reports for the third quarter:
o 60,000 new pieces of malware were identified per day, quadruple the 2007 rate
o In third quarter, McAfree identified 14 million unique pieces of malware, up 1 million
o The Zeus botnet malware let business to lose $70 million to Ukranian organized crime
o The Cutwail botnet malware used denial of service attacks against 300 websites
o 60% of Google search terms delivered customers to malicious sites in first 100 results
o 10% of malware was encountered via search engines
o 7% of malware was referred by Google
o 7% of all encounters targeted Java
o 1% targeted Adobe Acrobat Reader
o Pharmaceutical vertical was the most targeted
- Survey of large healthcare organizations conducted by Ponemon Institute reveals the following about data security:
o 85% feel they comply with HIPAA
o 72% enforce policies with includes termination of employees who pose threat
o 71% provide training to users
o 66% have business associate agreements
o 65% ensure minimal system downtime
o 53% perform timely system updates with patches
o 47% secure patient data in motion
o 47% know where patient info if physically located
o 45% conduct independent audits
o 39% prevent cyber attacks
o 32% identify major data breaches
o 31% prevent major data breaches
o 30% determine root cause of data breach
o 29% protect patient info used by business associates
o 23% limit access to data storage devices
o 10% protect patient info used by outsourcers, including cloud computing vendors
- According to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the most common cause of data breaches impacting more than 500 people is the theft of laptop computers.
o Of the 189 data breaches recorded this year that involved more than 500 people, 52% were result of theft
o 20% were from unauthorized access
o 18% were from loss
o 24% involved laptop computer
o 22% involved paper records
o 16% involved desktop computers
o 14% involved portable devices like smartphones
- Holy Cross Hospital if Florida had to notify 40,000 of its patients that a former employee may have stolen their personal information and sold info to a third party. 4 of the 5 people involved have been arrested, including the former hospital emergency room worker. The info was used to illegally obtain credit cards, effectively stealing their identities.
- McKesson Corp, an EHR vendor, announced it is cutting its lobbying spending by 61%, from $110,000 in third quarter, versus $281,000 a year ago. It lobbied Congress, DHHS, CNS and FDA.
- McKesson announced it won an EHR contract from HealthPoint of Tampa, FL with its Practice Partner product that will cover 110 physicians.
- Greenway Corp. & Sage Corp. announced that their EHR products were endorsed by PA REACH East and PA REACH West, the Pennsylvania regional extension centers (RECs)
- Most companies do not erase sensitive data from hard drives according to study conducted by Kroll Ontrack:
o Only 49% stated that their businesses deployed a data eraser method
o Among that group, 75% do not delete data securely
o Average business suffers at least one data breach per year
o Data breaches cost U.S. companies an average of $6.75 million
o Only 19% deploy data eraser software
o 6Z% use a degausser to erase media
o 33% do not know how to ensure data has been erased
o 22% say they reboot the drive to see if data is still there
o 60% of all old business computers are fully intact with proprietary business data in the second hand computer marketplace
o 40% say their companies gave away their used hard drive to another individual
o 22% don’t know what happened to their old computers
o 16% rely on a product or service report to confirm all of their data had been wiped
- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reported its data breaches in October of 2010:
o Notified 2,574 veterans that there personal info may be compromised
o Two stolen desktop computers
o Lost 22 Blackberry devices
o 79 internal unencrypted email incidents
o 79 mishandling incidents (i.e. mixing up prescriptions)
o 10 mis-mailed medications
- AvMed Health Plans had a class action lawsuit filed against the company by the law firm of Edelson McGuire:
o Two unencrypted laptop computers were stolen on 12/11/2009 in Gainesville, FL, with possibly 1.22 million customers having their personal information compromised.
o Info stolen included Social Security numbers
- According to Dan Vesset, analyst at IDC, the Healthcare business intelligence market was $600 million in 2009, and will grow faster than any other vertical market in the next 5 years. Growth driven by:
o Increased focus on financial performance management
o Labor productivity
o Cost control
o Analysis of billing
o Analysis of payments
o Bed occupancy rates
o Patient treatment
- St. Joseph Health System, with locations in western U.S., announced it chose Microsoft’s Amalga Unified Intelligence System for data storage. It will load data from its Allscripts, GE and Meditech EHR systems.
- Allscripts, maker of EHR systems, announced that it will allow outside developers to write programs. So far, 200 software developers have expressed an interest with 45 already signing on.
- Allscripts has partnered with the Illinois Technology Association to support and promote the ITA Fall Challenge, to identify students who are future technology leaders. Partnership led by Celia Harper-Guerra, Senior VP of Talent Acquisition and Development for Allscripts.
- Allscripts announced it won an EHR contract from SA Health, the public health system of Australia that covers 80 hospitals. Also have install at West Penn Allegheny Health System.
- The Ohio Health Information Partnership, a regional extension center serving parts of the state, announced it selected 5 preferred HER vendor:
o Allscripts
o eClinicalWorks
o eMDs
o NextGen
o Sage
- Geisinger Health System of Pennsylvania was featured recently in Bloombery Businessweek as having spent $35 million to install Epic EHR, and then spent another 4@ million to get the system to work with its pharmacy database.
- Epic won EHR contract from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
- Dell reported that its sales to healthcare vertical are responsible for its recent financial performance. The company reported that its profits more than doubled, and its revenue was up 19%. Examples of contracts won:
o Methodist Hospital in Houston, TX
o Western Maryland Health Systems in Cumberland, ND
o Songjiang Hospital in Shanghai, China
- Dr. Robert Wheatley of Florissant, MO reported that his laptop computer was stolen from a locked vehicle which contained information on 1,400 patients.
- Vangent of Arlington, VA won a $3.3 million EHR contract from Indian Health Services for locations in:
o Aberdeen
o Albuquerque
o Bemidji
o Billings
o California
o Nashville
o Navajo
o Oklahoma City
o Phoenix
o Portland
o Tucson
- Athenahealth announced its EHR product was selected as preferred choice by Tri-State Regional Extension Center (REC) which covers Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana.
- Meditech wins EHR contract from Memorial Hospital of Illinois. The company also has system in place at Chandler Regional Medical Center of Arizona.
- NextGen won contract to provide its EHR to physicians of Baptist Health Care of Florida and Alabama.
- C3 Partners LLC announced it is offering a on-line software package to assist physicians make sure they are meeting Meaningful Use requirements for fed stimulus funding. www.hitechanswers.net
- According to Office for Civil Rights, over 5 million people have been affected by healthcare data breaches since September, 2009.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
This Week in Document Imaging 117/10
- According to The Ponemon Institute, hospitals spent $6 billion annually because of patient data breaches, and Federal regulations (i.e. HIPAA) have not improved the safety of patient records. Research showed:
o hospitals are not protecting patient data
o hospitals admit to being vulnerable to data breaches
o breaches are occurring frequently and often go unreported
o only a small percentage of healthcare organizations rely on security technology
- ScImage Inc. of Los Altos, CA announced that it has developed software to integrate EMR software systems with Konica Minolta ImagePilot digital radiography systems, using HL7 communications and web-viewing technologies.
- Former employee, Cam Giang, pled guilty to stealing personal information (name, date of birth and Social Security numbers) from 218 coworkers while at University of California San Francisco Medical Center. Mr. Giang was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison.
- A skin printer? The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine announced they have developed an inkjet printer that deposits skin cells directly onto a wound to help it heal faster.
- Results of survey conducted by CompTIA:
o 34% of healthcare providers report using EHR system
o 16% report using a partial EHR system
o 29% are evaluating their options
o 20% have not yet started research
- More reason why healthcare firms should use biometric finger vein reader options:
o 100 times more accurate than finger print scans
o Nearly impossible to hack
o Scanner converts subcutaneous vein pattern into thousands of zeroes and ones
o All data encrypted and hidden behind firewall
o Encrypted to AES 128 bit
o You can not leave your vein pattern at a crime scene
o Prevents medical records overlays and merging
o Prevents identity theft
o Prevents lack of ID for unconscious patients
- Allscripts announced it won an EHR system contracts from:
o United Hospital Systems of Kenosha, Wisconsin.
o Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital of New York
o Martin Memorial Health Systems of Florida
- Allscripts CEO, Glenn Tullman stated that the federal government will spend as much as $27.4 billion between 2011 and 2021 to encourage health professionals to install EHR systems.
- Epic wins more EHR contracts:
o $56 million from New Hanover Regional Medical Center (which is receiving $13.7 million in federal incentive money)
o $450 million system at the 28 hospital Sisters of Mercy Health System in Arkansas
o Fairview Northland Medical Center in Minnesota
o Fairview Lakes Medical Center in Minnesota
o Pen Bay Healthcare of Maine
- According to survey conducted by KLAS, the most popular EHR providers for community hospitals:
o For small hospitals of 1 to 150 beds = Meditech
o 151 to 300 beds is Cerner
o 300+ beds is Epic
- Meditech reported that its last quarter’s revenues were up 23%.
- Meditech announced it has certified Canon & Kyocera MFPs as printers for its system.
- Sage Intergy wins contract for 90 radiation therapy centers in 16 states for 21st Century Oncology, headquartered in Florida.
- NextGen announced:
o wins EHR system contract from ACT Health Management Services of North Carolina with 400 locations and 70 clinicians
o wins HER system contract from Methodist Hospital of Texas (5 hospitals and 289 physicians)
o reported that its revenue was up 14% to $81.5 million during last quarter.
- Athenahealth wins a EHR system contract from Holy Cross Hospital of New Mexico.
- EHR federal government timeline:
o Fall of 2010 = certified EHR technology available and listed on ONC website
o January, 2011 = Registration for EHR incentives begin
o January, 2011 = State Medicaid providers may launch the programs
o April, 2011 = Attestation for EHR incentive programs begins
o May, 2011 = incentive payments begin
o November 30th, 2011 = last day for hospitals to register and attest to receive incentive payment for FY2011
o February 29, 2012 = last day for physicians to register and attest to receive incentive payments for CY2011
o 2014 = Last year to initiate participation in program
o 2015 = Medicare payments are reduced for those that have not installed EHR system and shown meaningful use
o 2016 = last year to receive incentive payments and last year to initiate participation
o 2021 = last year to receive incentive payment
- Microsoft reported that only 150 hospitals worldwide are connected to its HealthVault personal health platform.
- McKesson, provider of EHR systems, announced it is buying US Oncology for $2.16 billion. US Oncology of The Woodlands, Texas, makes EHR systems for 1,300 community-based oncologists.
- Cerner wins contract for EHR system at Regional Medical Center in South Carolina. Also has install at Eastern Maine Medical Center.
- After originally not being selected, Missouri healthcare officials are giving Cerner a second change after the Kansas City based company failed to make a two-state list of preferred EHR vendors.
- eClinicalWorks announced it won an EHR systems contract from the San Francisco Department of Public Health, for its 800 doctors.
- A survey of hospital medical records departments conducted by CapSite found:
o 3M Health Information Systems has 30% marketshare
o Meditech has 22% marketshare
o 41% plan to invest in new applications during next 24 months
- The 2010 HIMSS (health information management systems society) Security Solutions Survey found:
o 50% spent 3% or less of their IT budgets on security
o 14% of hospitals have yet to conduct a risk analysis
o 33% of clinics have yet to conduct a risk analysis
o 31% have encrypted data on laptop computers
o 16% have not encrypted any laptop computers
o 69% have plan in place to respond to a data breach
o 33% of hospitals have fulltime chief security officer
o 8% of clinics have fulltime chief security officer
o 38% have designated a staffer to handle security responsibiities
- Surescripts Inc., which operates a nationwide e-prescribing network, announced that it will now support and enable the electronic exchange of all types of clinical information.
- Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller has sued health insurer WellPoint Inc. for $300,000, alleging the firm took too long to notify Indiana residents affected by a HIPAA data breach, affecting 32,000 people. The breach was related to a website that inadvertently exposed personal financial info and SS#’s.
- FormFast Software announced it won contract for electronic forms software from Capital Region Medical Center of Jefferson City, MO.
- Scientists from the University of Oxford have shown that they can improve a person’ math abilities for up to 6 months by applying an electrical current to the human brain.
- A document management survey conducted by Version One revealed:
o 86% of senior IT professionals are still reliant on paper records
o 51% stated that they are “very reliant” on paper based records
o 1% stated that they “hardly ever” rely on paper
o 13% stated that they are “occasionally reliant” on paper
o 32% would switch to document management system (DMS) to improve customer service
o 20% said that assurance that electronic documents are legally admissible would be key driver for eliminating paper
o 48% want to be assured that DMS would provide enough security
- WorkflowOne announced it won a document management solutions contract from the Albert Einstein Healthcare Network in Dayton, Ohio.
- Survey results from Medical Group Management Association (MGMA):
o Hospitals with EHR systems reported $49,916 greater total medical revenue after operating cost per physician than practices using paper
o After 5 years of use, practices reported an operating margin 10.1% greater than practices in their first year of EHR
-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
This Week in Document Imaging "Industry Notes" 10/31/10
- Keane Inc., a company which specializes in offering managed IT services to healthcare industry, announced it was acquired by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) of Japan for $1.2 billion.
- Allscripts, a vendor of EHR, announced that last quarter’s revenue was $192.5 million compared to previous quarter’s revenue of $190.3 million
- McKesson, EHR vendor, announced it won contract from Cowherd Family Medical Center of Heber, Arkansas.
- Federal authorities arrested 4 people in connection with $200 million fraudulent Medicare claims in Miami. The companies involved were American Therapeutic Corp. and Medilink Professional Management Group, and had to do with bogus mental health therapy sessions.
- Auxilio, a company that specializes in offering managed print services to the healthcare industry, announced it won another bid in New York, with a $3.5 million, 3 year contract from New York Hospital Queens.
- Surescripts Inc. announced it is expanding its nationwide e-prescribing network with a new service that will allow for exchange of clinical health information. It includes:
o Up to date summaries of patient’s recent visits
o Secure messaging tools
o Net2Net Connect for sending and receiving clinical info outside their network
o Message Stream for electronic exchange of clinical info
o Clinical Message Portal for those without EHR that wish to send and receive info
- Results from healthcare survey conducted by SK&A:
o Survey of 213,500 medical offices
o EHR adoption at hospital-owned offices grew from 44.1% to 54.9% (10.8% increase)
o EHR Adoption at health-system owned offices grew from 50.2% to 61.2% (11% increase)
o Overall, medical office EHR adoption has grown from 36.1% to 38.7% (3% increase)
o Most commonly used EHR functions are:
28.4% use electronic patient notes
27.3% use electronic labs/x-rays
25.9% use electronic prescribing
o Physician offices with more exam rooms, more physicians on staff, and higher daily patient volumes have highest EHR adoption rates
o Physician specialties with highest adoption rates
Radiology = 59.9%
Pathology = 59.8%
Aerospace medicine = 59.5%
Dialysis = 59.3%
Emergency medicine = 57.6%
o Which states use EHR more?
Northern states = 40.9%
Southern states = 40.1%
Minnesota = 62.6%
Utah = 55.4%
Wisconsin = 52.3%
- Survey data released by during the recent Medical Group Management Association (MGMA):
o Practices with EHR systems that were not owned by hospitals or integrated delivery systems (IDNs) reported $49,916 greater total medical revenue as compared with those with paper medical records
These practices also reported greater expenses per physician ($105,591), but had greater median revenue per physician ($178,907) than those with paper medical records systems
After 5 years of EHR use, had operating margin that was 10.1% greater than practices using EHR for 1 year
o Practices with HER system that were owned by hospitals or IDNs had operating margin that was $42,042 higher than those with paper records
o Medical records staff per physician decreased by 44.12% after install of EHR
o 62% of medical practices will limit the number of new Medicare patients they accept if scheduled reimbursement cuts, totaling more than 30%, go into effect
o Almost 50% stated that they will stop seeing new Medicare patients altogether
o 75% said they planned on delaying purchase of new equipment or facilities
o 50% are planning on reducing staff
o 45% may put off purchasing EHR
- Cerner, maker of EHRs, which recently announced it will build a new office in Kansas, is now asking Kansas City for $50 million in industrial revenue bonds to pay for new computers and other equipment in the new facility. If approved, the city would own the equipment and lease it back to Cerner.
- Siemens, maker of EHR, won contract from Charleston Area Medical Center of West Virginia.
- iSalus Healthcare, maker of EHR systems, announced that the CEO it recently fired, Mark Day, is now suing the company. Mr. Day claims he was fired after reporting that he was suspicious that employees were stealing software.
- Epic, maker of EHR systems, won a contracts from:
o Rush University Medical Center of Illinois.
o New Hanover Regional Medical Center of North Carolina for $56 million to replace McKesson Horizon system
- The Kansas Foundation for Medical Care Inc. and University of Missouri Board of Curators published a list of preferred medical software providers, including GE Healthcare and McKesson. Noticeably absent is Kansas City-based Cerner Corp.
- CapSite announced that its survey reveals that 41% of hospitals will invest in new health information management (HIM) solutions in 2011.
- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it will implement auditing procedures to check healthcare providers that are claiming funds for install of EHR systems.
-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
This Week in Document Imaging "Industry Notes"
- The Ottawa Hospital of Canada announced it awarded a contract to Telus Inc. for software system to run 3,000 Apple iPads on a wireless network, with access to its database.- According to Steven Waldren, director of AAFP’s Center for Health IT, the fed government payments for EHR installs is taxable.
- Cerner wins customer award. Ovum, a division of DataMonitor, announced that based on a survey of the ambulatory healthcare market (not hospitals, which are acute care), that Cerner’s EHR software is number one. More details:
o “Cerner is the most versatile and multi-faceted”
o eClinicalWorks in second place
o GE Healthcare in third place
- Cerner announced it will build a new 600,000 square foot office at Village West in Kansas City, Kansas that will employ 4,000 personnel. Total investment of $16.5 million.
- The Hospital Corporation of American (HCA), headquartered in Nashville, TN, with locations across the U.S. , is apparently testing Cerner’s EHR. This is significant as its current system is from Meditech.
- Siemens, maker of EHR system and other technologies, announced it will layoff 17,000 people worldwide due to slow sales.
- Epic, maker of EHR systems, won more hospital contracts:
o Yuma Regional Medical Center of Arizona, which has 333 beds, and contract is worth $73 million.
o Moses Cone Healthcare, which has facilities in North Carolina and employs 7,400 people. Total contract value up to $120 million.
o Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York
- Katina Candrick was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and a $163,000 fine for stealing information on 1,200 patients while working for MedAssets.
- Athennhealth, maker of EHR systems, announced that its revenue has grown 33% this past quarter to $63.1 million
- Allscripts, maker of EHR systems, announced it won contract from the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center of New York.
- HIPAA data security breach. Keystone Mercy Health Plan and AmeriHealth Mercy Health Plan, insurance providers in Pennsylvania, reported the loss of an unencrypted portal flash drive that contained patient data for 280,000 members.
- GE Healthcare announced EHR installs at:
o Capital Region Healthcare in Concord, NH
o Decatur Memorial Hospital in Decatur, IL
- McKesson, maker of EHR systems, announced it won a contract from Greater Florida Anesthesiologists.
- McKesson agreed to pay the state of Connecticut a $15 million fine to settle charges of illegally inflating drug costs.
- Cause of data theft named after Greek god. The Zeus malware program is being blamed for many thefts of customer information. The computer virus first appeared in Europe in the mid-90s. and the makers continue to modify it to circumvent whatever security measure are put in place. It is a keylogger software, meaning it affects a PC, and then tracks keystrokes, making it ideal for tracking bank account information.
-=Greetings from Sandy Hook"
Monday, October 25, 2010
Getting into already-tied-up accounts by selling solutions
Getting into already-tied-up accounts by selling solutions
There is one customer objection that every sales person cringes upon hearing: “We have signed a 3-year contract with another company and can’t buy printers until that contract goes out”.
Now I am not a printer salesman, and I won’t claim expertise in the area. But one thing I do have under my belt is that we have many resellers selling our print management solution, and they claim to have found a great way to overcome this objection.
Simply tell the customer that you are not interested in selling them printers, so the exclusivity agreement doesn’t matter. Instead, tell them that you are interested in how they manage those printers that your competitor has sold to them.
Very commonly, they are aware that they do not have a good strategy for managing their printers. For example, it can be difficult to track and reduce costs of printing, or they may lack functions such as print and pull. I have written another article about how a pull and print solution can help companies reduce costs and improve security.
If the organization is big and has multiple offices, a problem that is very often persistent and difficult to solve is how those printers are networked efficiently from an IT standpoint. For example, are there print servers in each office and how does that affect energy usage and maintenance costs? How are printer drivers kept track of and updated centrally? And how much time does the IT support spend on printer related issues?
By first going in with a standalone software solution instead of machines, many of our resellers’ account managers have established long-term relationships with their competitors’ customers, even when those customers have been tied up in long-term contracts. Learn the basics about a great print management software, and use this strategy next time you get the above objection!
Yusuf Hasanogullari
Tel: +353 (0) 876 74 04 22
yusuf@dipritec.com
---
Dipritec - Take control of your printers
www.dipritec.co.uk
-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Sharp MX-B402 "Spec Review"
Sharp launched a new A4 b/w laser MFP, the MX-B402 featuring:o Base MSRP of $4795
o 40ppm top speed
o Will replace the MX-B401
o 50 second warmup time and 8 second first copy out time
o Has 25% lower cost per page to the dealero 20,000 page yield for black toner (based on 5% coverage per page)
o 7” color touchscreen LCD display with thumbnail preview
o 600x600dpi
o Optional fax board with PC fax
o Handles up to 110lb. index paper weight
o Comes standard with 100 sheet stack bypass and one 500 sheet paper drawer, and can up to 3 more drawers to make unit floor standing
o Auto duplex & 50 sheet document feeder standard with 35opm scan speed
o Card shot standard
o Built-in print controller:
Actual maker unknown (most likely Zoran)
IPv6
10/100/1000BaseT& USB ports in rear
USB port in front for print from thumb drive
Optional card readers
800MHz processor from Freescale
512MB RAM (separate 1GB RAM for copier features)
80GB hard drive
• Optional hard drive data security kit
PCL & PostScript print drivers standard
• Optional XPS print driver which requires purchase of 1GB RAM option
imageSEND scans documents to 7 destinations
• USB/network/email
• Scans in color
Internet fax
OSA technology for optional embedded applications
o Optional internal 30 sheet stapling finisher
-=Greets from Sandy Hook=-
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Weekend Document Imaging Notes
- Another healthcare data breach. The University of Kentucky is notifying 2,207 people that their personal information including Social Security numbers was on a laptop computer that was stolen.
- Federal regulators now estimate that nearly 4.8 million individuals have potentially had their personal information exposed due to the 138 breaches reported so far.
- A study by Frost & Sullivan predicts that revenue for the U.S. ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) market will double from $1.3 billion in 2009 to an estimated $.26 billion in 2012.
- The Drummond Group announced that it has received approval by the feds to offer certification services to healthcare customers for their EHR systems. Pricing starts at:
o Remote testing of EHR = $19,500
o Onsite testing = $23,500 plus travel
o (the other firm who is allowed to certify is CCHIT)
- Epic announced it won an EHR contract from Maine Medical Center, to replace their Eclipsys system.
- Cerner announced it won an EHR contract from Naples Community Hospital.
- The Detroit Medical Center claims that its new EHR system from Cerner will save the hospital $5 million per year. The system cost the hospital $50 million to implement.
- The CFO of Danbury Health System of Connecticut was arrested and charged with cutting checks totaling $140,000 to an EHR software company he ran out of his house.
- Aon Consulting is notifying 22,000 State of Delaware retirees that it inadvertently included their Social Security numbers in a request for proposal that it prepared to the state.
- Survey results from Imprivata about healthcare customers readiness for HIPAA rules:
o 76% claim a data security breach is their greatest security concern
o 38% report that they can not track inappropriate document access
o 76% report that top budget priority is buying an EHR system
o What type of authentication will you deploy to meet HIPAA?
83% = passwords
37% = biometrics
35% = proximity ID cards
o 90% believe that use of passwords slows down patient care from doctors
o 48% are still not sure if their existing EHR qualifies for fed gov reimbursements (under ARRA/HITECH act)
o 46% believe the biggest challenge for complying with fed rules is educating employees
o 47% are not sure if they are subject to any state laws regarding data security
o 97% state that new fed rules drive their purchasing decisions
-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-
Canon imageCLASS MF9280Cdn and MF9220Cdn "Spec Review"
o Copy/scan/fax/print standard
o Auto duplex standard
o 50 sheet document feeder
o Comes standard with 250 sheet paper drawer and 100 sheet stack bypass
o Optional 500 sheet paper drawer
o 22ppm color or b/w top speed
o 4 tandem OPC drum design
o 3.5” full color LCD display (not touch screen)
Easy Scroll Wheel to help select features on the display
o Built-in print controller
Actual maker unknown
USB port
Can print from or scan to a USB thumb drive
Scan to email with LDAP
MF9220 offers PCL print driver only
MF9280 has PCL and PostScript print drivers
Apparently no XPS print driver available
Need to lease or buy a new multifunctional copier? Call a P4P solutions expert at p4pcafe http://www.p4pcafe.homestead.com/
-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Weekend Document Imaging Notes 8/22/10
o work hours are up
o increases in eDiscovery workloads
o increase in litigation support
o many plan to add staff
o increases in budget for technology purchases
- IBM announced it will offer healthcare IT in the cloud working with Aetna Insurance through its ActiveHealth unit. It will compete with similar offerings from Practice Fusion, AthenaHealth and eClinicalWorks.
- Prompted by the CBS report in April on copier data security, a newspaper in Europe, called News of the World, did its own investigation of copier hard drives. The newspaper purchased a number of trade-in copiers and found:
o NATO briefing notes
o Details of a bank account belonging to BAE systems (a large defense contractor)
o The information was found on the hard drive of a Canon imageRUNNER
- Fujitsu launched a free service that lets individuals use their mobile phones to keep personal health records. The cell phones have sensors to record weight, body fat and blood pressure.
- Fujitsu and the University of Tokyo announced that they have jointly built a supercomputer system that can development drugs to treat cancer and metastasis.
- The Forrester Group reported that its survey of healthcare IT professionals revealed that 75% had their systems go down over the last year. 61% stated it took more than 1 hour to recover from the crash.
- Epson announced a new print driver, called ESC/P-R, that will allow some of its color inkjet printers to print from Royal Phillips ultrasound equipment in the healthcare industry
- Recent data on healthcare reveals:
o currently there are roughly 750,000 healthcare establishments in the U.S.
6,013 hospitals
918,000 physicians
• 67% affiliated with hospital
• 60% have no HER
• Less than 25% of doctors prescribe drugs electronically
o In addition to medical records and forms, the most common paper documents per department are:
Customer Records include contracts, forms, authorizations, contact reports and email
Human Resources include resumes, contracts, expense reports, vacation requests and reviews
Legal includes contracts, e-discovery and auditing
Purchasing includes purchase orders, receiving slips, invoices and confirmations
Product management includes designs, drawings, data sheets and contacts
o The most common reasons why they will invest in technology:
81.5% want to increase productivity
67.7% want to lower costs
60% want to address security requirements
o Only 40% of those surveyed had some type of document management system
- Recent AMA survey shows that it is not uncommon for medical practices to report a gross collection rate of only 60% or less. This means that for every $1.00 of medical services billed, the physician may only receive 60 cents. Other findings:
o gross charges denied by payers has grown to 14-18%
o denied, rejected, resubmitted and underpaid claims can costs as much as $100,000 per month
o practice can lose as much as $75,000 per year in denied claims that are never resubmitted
o many practices do not resubmit up to 50% of their claims
o underpayment of claims is as much as 35% lower than contracted amount
- In a recent healthcare industry trade magazine, in section titled “The Healthcare IT Guy”, recent reminders were given for doctors to qualify for federal funds for implementation of an electronic health records (EHR) system: (of which MFPs, scanners, document management and middleware can play a role)
o If starting implementation in 2012, will be eligible for full payments from Medicare ($44K over 5 years)
o Can start as late as 201 to get full payments from Medicaid ($63K+ over 6 years)
o For hospitals, payments include a base amount of $2 million, plus $200 per patient, starting with the hospital’s 1,150th patient discharged and ending with No. 23,000, beginning in 2011 fiscal year.
Both doctors and hospitals that cannot “demonstrate meaningful use of EHR” by beginning of the 2015 fiscal year will be penalized
- As the healthcare industry “digitizes”, one of the concerns is the amount of data storage that will be required. In a recent article in “Healthcare Technology”, the data collected by medical imaging (radiology) equipment was detailed:
o “Prior to the mid-90s, most of the scanning was only two slices. Now 3D visualization is a must-have application and a primary diagnostic tool. This has had a significant impact on the medical imaging industry. For example, if you took a head and neck scan in 1994, it was about 21 slices. Today, a single head and neck scan is 240 slices.”
o Formats/acronyms used in radiology are; PACS (picture archiving and communication system) and DICOM (digital imaging and communications in medicine)
- Four different insurance companies announced that they will offer financial incentives to physicians and hospitals for meeting federal EHR meaningful use rules:
o Aetna
o Highmark
o UnitedHealth
o WellPoint
- EHR provider, Epic, announced contracts with:
o Tucson Medical Center
o Kaiser
- Two senators attempt to expand who can get the HITECH subsidies from Medicare and Medicaid:
o Sheldon Whitehouse & Jack Reed of Rhode Island introduced bill
o Want monies to be available for EHR implementation by mental health, behavioral health and substance abuse treatment professionals
o Currently, psychiatrists are eligible, but not psych hospitals, clinical social workers and substance abuse programs
- Another healthcare data security issue. Someone broke into a Texas allergy clinic and stole four PCs containing personal health information (PHI). It cost the clinic $15,000 to send the mandatory breach notifications letters to its 25,000 patients, far more than the cost of replacing the computers.
- And another. Four Massachusetts community hospitals are investigating how thousands of patient records ended up in a pile at a local dump site that was 20 feet wide and 20 feet long. A newspaper photographer discovered the records when he was dumping his own trash, and notified the 4 hospitals; Milford, Holyoke, Carney and Milton.
- The Department of Health & Human Services announced that in 2007, Medicare overpaid physicians by $13.8 million for incorrectly coded claims.
- Eclipsys (which was just acquired by Allscripts) announced it won an EHR contract from Isabel Healthcare of Falls Church, VA.
- Allscripts, maker of EHR software, announced it has hired former U.S. Attorney, Ken Alexander, as its new Executive VP and General Counsel. It also announced it won a contract from the Iowa Health System.
- According to an Institute of Medicine study, 1.5 million Americans are injured each year and 7,000 die from preventable medication errors.
-=Greetings from the Highlands=-
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)