|
|
Current and Breaking News for Professionals, Consumers and Media |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Current and Breaking News for Professionals, Consumers and Media |
|
|
|
|
|
As a result of meeting the outlined “meaningful use” requirements, the government is offering stimulus payments to partially reimburse EHR purchases and to reward proven EHR “meaningful users.” While in this case, the healthcare industry is spending money in order to make money, there seems to be ample willingness and broad benefits on the horizon. Beyond stimulus as an incentive, EHR adoption will increase the speed and availability of health records among physicians on a national level; this in turn will contribute to better patient care. EHR Enabling Tools also on the Rise In parallel with EHR spending, there has already been a growth in the adoption of speech recognition solutions that enable direct dictation into the EHR. Speech recognition does two things to improve EHR utilization. 1). It makes physicians more productive. Because the majority of people speak faster than they can type, clinical documentation can be done more efficiently when speech recognition is applied; this allows doctors to spend more time practicing medicine 2). By allowing physicians to speak vs. type, they are empowered to create a highly detailed narrative of the patient encounter that can not be fully represented in structured templates alone, or perhaps would not be as complete if a physician was tasked with typing the note. Because the value of EHRs will only be realized if the information captured within them supports improved, ongoing patient care, speech recognition, which helps to improve the quality of EHR data, will continue to see increased adoption throughout 2010 and beyond. In support of the growth trend of speech recognition alongside EHR spend, on December 21, 2009, Nuance surveyed more than 1,000 physicians to learn about physicians’ hopes and concerns with respect to healthcare information technology. The survey found that 96 percent of doctors were concerned about losing the unique patient story with the transition to electronic health records. Because the details found in the physician narrative help to personalize the record, doctors believe the narrative leads to high quality, patient-specific care. Speech recognition enables doctors to easily capture the narrative without having to type copious notes, which has proven to be an incredibly valuable link between the EHR and speech recognition technology. Increased Focus on Patient Safety and Communication Another trend expected in 2010 is an increased focus on patient safety. In a recent study led by Dr. Lawrence P. Casalino, an associate professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, it was found that more than 7 percent of clinically significant findings were never reported to the patient. Within the study, the records of 5,434 patients at 19 independent primary care practices and four based in academic medical centers were reviewed. Casalino’s team extracted records that contained abnormal results for blood tests of X-rays and other imaging studies, and then searched for documentation that the patient had been properly informed of the finding in a timely way. After many interviews with physicians associated with the uniformed patients, the researchers found that of the 1,889 abnormal results, there were 135 failures to inform. Clinical laboratories are tasked with performing more than 10 billion tests per year and while critical results usually comprise less than 2 percent of all lab findings, the timely communication between the lab, physician and patient is always crucial. Through the use of critical test results management technology (CTRM), some leading medical centers, like Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, are automating the communication of patients’ critical findings so ordering physicians can be confident there is a failsafe process and audit trail for timely communication of critical finding. VCU performs as many as 340,000 procedures annually. They went from being only 49 percent effective for critical message delivery to communicating critical results to the right caregiver within 13 minutes of being identified 99 percent of the time. Phone tag is no longer relied on to ensure critical patient care. As results like VCU’s become evident and shared, CTRM will emerge as a trend in 2010. With this emergence, the typical “systems” within the healthcare industry for delivering and managing critical test results, such as manual, disjointed, inefficient, prone to error, and inconsistent means, will be replaced. Hosted Solutions that Can Bend the Cost Curve In addition to EHRs and an increased focus on improved caregiver communication, in 2010 there will also be an increasing number of healthcare organizations looking to incorporate evidence-based clinical decision-support (CDS) as part of their patient care workflow. CDS helps to assure the most medically appropriate patient exam is ordered. An astonishing $3-10 billion is spent annually on unnecessary medical imaging tests. CDS helps to reduce unnecessary exams by providing doctors access to evidence-based clinical guidance at the time care is being discussed with the patient. For example, if a patient comes in with a headache, and the physician is considering various tests to run, the CDS solution will guide the doctor to order (or not order) an exam based on the patients’ symptoms, demographics and health needs. CDS guides the physician toward ordering exams that have a proven or high likelihood of contributing to improved patient outcomes. Beyond ordering the right test for patients at the right time, CDS helps to ensure doctors are not ordering exams because they are practicing ‘defensive medicine” – ordering tests to safeguard themselves from malpractice lawsuits. According to an article published in the Boston Globe this past November, an overwhelming “83 percent of physicians surveyed said they have practiced defensive medicine and that an average of 18 to 28 percent of tests, procedures, referral and consultations were ordered to avoid lawsuits.” Also, because more and more patients are turning to the web for medical information. Aside from the obvious dangers associated with this practice, physicians are facing patients armed with demands for specific diagnostic imaging tests and an expectation of acting on these requests. The pressure that today’s physicians are faced with raises serious ethical and professional concerns that may result in suboptimal patient outcomes as well as higher healthcare costs. Again, CDS works to ensure only medically appropriate exams are ordered. 2010 and Beyond It is a very exciting time to be in healthcare, and for the first time, healthcare IT is in the spotlight and has captured the attention of the entire nation as the industry undergoes change. Healthcare IT can drive advancements in efficiency, cost savings, and patient care. Beyond the various trends spotlighted in this piece, 2010 will also see major developments the mobile area for healthcare, as well as with Natural Language Understanding. With ongoing innovation and the right application and management of HIT, we can expect to see improved patient care and physician efficiency, while the cost burden associated with the current health care system is dramatically reduced. Subscribe to our FREE Ezine and be eligible for Health News, discounted products/services and coupons related to your Health. We publish 24/7. HealthNewsDigest.com We videotape Press Conferences, produce Satellite MediaTour's, B-rolls, PSA's, - all with distribution: HealthyTelevisionProductionstvmike13@healthnewsdigest.com Top of Page 
|
Contact
Us | Job Listings
| Help | Site
Map | About Us
Advertising
Information | HND
Press Release | Submit
Information | Disclaimer
Site hosted by Sanchez Productions
