by medicaltechont | Feb 8, 2017 | Canada, Doctors, Healthcare
Sharing his full story is a start: making an effort to explain how someone trained to recognize and fix the medical problems of strangers couldn’t diagnose or heal himself. Gebien knew all about the dangers of fentanyl yet that didn’t stop him from becoming an addict and destroying his life. And the health care system he worked in seemed unable to halt or help him.
Read more online at http://www.macleans.ca/society/how-fentanyl-turned-an-er-doctor-into-an-addict/
by medicaltechont | Oct 25, 2015 | OHIP Billing, Ontario
Toronto dermatologist Ben Barankin is adamant that the cuts by Kathleen Wynne’s government to doctors’ service fees will create a huge impact on patients in the coming months.
Barankin, who has been in practice for 10 years, said staff will have to be let go, there will be longer wait times for OHIP-funded treatments and insisted the government’s moves are “pushing” specialists — like him — who also operate private clinics, closer towards a two-tiered system.
http://www.torontosun.com/2015/10/18/doc-warns-of-longer-waits-for-ohip-funded-procedures
by medicaltechont | Feb 14, 2015 | United States
Modernizing Medicine, creator of the Electronic Medical Assistant (EMA), a cloud-based, specialty-specific electronic medical record (EMR) system, on January 29 responded to recent announcements from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and leading health insurers, regarding the concerted push away from fee-for-service healthcare models in favor of outcome-based reimbursements.
CMS has announced that 85 percent of Medicare payments in 2016 could be based on quality of care, and that number could grow to 90 percent in 2018. Additionally, a UnitedHealth Group executive was reported to have said that the company plans to increase value- based payments to doctors and hospitals by 20 percent this year, forecasting over $40 billion in payments tied to value or quality of care.
“This major shift in payment models requires the right tools and reporting systems if physicians and provider organizations want to safeguard against penalties from volume-based medicine and benefit from related incentives,” said Modernizing Medicine’s CEO and Co- founder Dan Cane in a statement issued following the recent announcements from CMS and HHS. “Modernizing Medicine is deeply committed to the physicians and healthcare professionals we serve, and we believe that health information technology vendors share a large part of the responsibility to ease the impending transition toward quality reporting and outcomes-based reimbursements.”
Unlike EMRs using templates or macros, EMA was designed with unique structured data technology that handles the Value-based Payment Modifier and enables quality reporting including Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) program reporting. Cane believes Modernizing Medicine is in a market leading position in providing a system that addresses this burden for physicians, enabling them to focus on practicing medicine without fear of the upcoming changes.
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by medicaltechont | Mar 15, 2010 | Healthcare
The folks at Medsphere, which licenses hospital software based on the VA’s open source VistA system, has launched aStimulus ROI Calculator, a handy way for evaluating its software based on that sweet, sweet stimulus cash, and of getting your hospital on its radar.
It’s a good thing.
But if you’re looking at health IT, especially if you’re a clinic, a stimulus calculator is not the first place you should be looking.
During the HIMSS show I got this clue in the Kryptiq booth, from Thomas Landholt (right), who runs a family clinic in Missouri and has been through the automation wars.
His advice? First write a business plan.
Whether you can afford an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system is one thing. But if government money is going to be your sole motivator, your automation effort is going to fail.
Instead, he suggested, treat your EMR investment just as you would an investment in a new imaging system, or lab system, or any other major purchase you are making for your business. That’s what your clinic is, a business.
Doctors resist thinking of themselves as businessmen, but unless you’re drawing a paycheck that’s what you are. And the biggest mistake many doctors make is spending all their time working in their business, rather than on their business.
Writing a business plan is working on your business. Figure out how you’re going to profit from this investment. Add up all the costs, list all the benefits. Put numbers on them. Do research to make certain the numbers are accurate.
What Landholt found, in building out his own EMR system, was that it helped him re-engineer his business. He put his nursing station in sight of the reception desk. He put in secure messaging to reduce the cost of connecting with patients, and increase communication. He changed workflows.
These are some of the things EMR software is designed to enable, under the stimulus. But what the software really does is provide you the opportunity to get inside your business and make it work better, more efficiently. You can lower costs and provide better care once you have access to your own data.
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by medicaltechont | May 20, 2008 | Google, Technology
I always wondered what would happen if Google Health decided to launch in Canada. Would there be an effect on the Canadian Healthcare system? Or would PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act) get in the way?
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About a year ago Google announced that it would launch a service to allow users to store their own health records on a secure website. There was a lot of discussion about what it would look like but the wait is over. A free public “beta test” version of Google Heath is now operational at google.com/health.
The service allows users to create an online profile that includes information about any medical conditions, test results, procedures, immunizations and medications. You’re also asked to enter in your height, weight, blood type and race. With this information, the service, in theory, could offer you tailored medical information as well as serving as a central hub storing your medical records.
Eventually the goal is for users to be able to import their health information from the secure websites of care providers. To that end, Google already has arrangements with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and the Cleveland Clinic as well the online pharmacies from Longs Drugs, Walgreens, RXAmerica and Medco. A relationship with Quest Diagnostics allows users of its services to import their lab tests. Google also has a link to the American Heart Association’s heart attack risk assessment site so that you can get your customized risk assessment without having to retype your height, weight, cholesterol and other into the Heart Association’s site.
One nice feature is the drug interaction alert that lets you know about potential conflicts between drugs you take. Of course, you have to remember to enter all your drugs for that to work.
Because none of my providers are among Google’s initial partners, I had to enter all the information myself. Fortunately, it was easy to find because the health clinic I use most of the time has its own online service that stores this information. I’m pretty happy with what my provider offers but it’s an island of information. If, for example, I were to have a blood test done elsewhere, that information would not be on my provider’s site nor is there a way I could even type it in. Google is trying to solve that problem by creating a health record keeping system that is controlled by the user, not the health care provider. This is especially important for those of us who don’t belong to a health maintenance organization (HMO) because we might visit different physicians who are not affiliated with each other.
Clearly privacy is the number one concern when it comes to any online medical information service. Google’s health privacy policy states that “You control who can access your personal health information. By default, you are the only user who can view and edit your information.” You can, however choose to share your information with others. The company also promises not to “sell, rent, or share your information” and will let you delete your account or any information in it at any time.
read more | digg story
