Partners from Strategic Interests attended the annual Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaboration (SHIEC) conference in the Washington, DC area this month. This meeting brings together over 70 Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) and other interested organizations from across the country. We were able to participate in discussions, offer advice, and make some terrific connections with other interoperability experts.
It’s been said that in healthcare, we make monumental changes at a glacial pace. According to an ONC report released this week, acute care hospitals have once again made an increase in their interoperability status versus last year. This nets out to a 2% increase in the number of hospitals that can receive patient summary of care records from other institutions, an increase of 6% for finding such records outside their health system and a whopping 12% increase in those who can integrate outside patient records into their own EHR. All told, however, only 41% of US non-federal acute care hospitals can send, receive, locate and integrate outside information – a number far too low to rush to high fives all around.
While the improvements are notable, there is still much work to do. Far too many hospitals have anemic data exchange policies and capabilities and nearly half have their EHR silo unable to show a complete patient record that includes outside care data. While we wish patients would remain within a single health system, geography, capabilities, and even travel schedules means this is often not the case.
Are you part of a hospital or health system who wants to improve your interoperability capabilities? Let Strategic Interests know. We would love to help design a suite of programs to help you achieve all the benefits an interoperable system provides.
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics has recognized Rochester Regional Health hospitals with HIMSS Stage 7 validation. Achieved by only approximately six percent of hospitals nationwide, HIMSS 7 validation is the industry’s highest standard for electronic medical record adoption and implementation. Getting there is a multi-year, eight stage process that requires collaboration and coordination of team members at every level of the health system.
Rochester Regional’s are the only hospitals in the Upstate New York that have achieved HIMSS 7 and actually comprise one third of all hospitals in New York State to have achieved Stage 7 designation.
Outside of Manhattan, Rochester Regional comprises four of the five hospitals that have achieved this distinction.
Not only was the milestone achieved, but Philip Bradley, regional director of North America for HIMSS Analytics stated, “Rochester Regional Health has accomplished an excellent deployment of a comprehensive acute care EMR. The case studies of quality and efficiency improvements are among the best we have ever seen.”
Strategic Interests has been working diligently with Rochester Regional for years in their EHR and healthcare technology transformation process. We’ve provided grant guidance, implemented population health programs, given DSRIP support, developed interoperability strategies, support data normalization initiatives — and a lot more.
HIMSS Stage 7 validation is based on the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM). Stage 7 signifies the transition from paper charts to only using electronic medical records. There are eight stages (0-7) that measure a hospital’s implementation and utilization of information technology applications. The final stage, Stage 7, represents an advanced patient record environment.
HIMSS Analytics will recognize Rochester Regional Health at the 2018 HIMSS Conference & Exhibition, held from March 5-9, 2018, at the Venetian-Palazzo-Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas, and Strategic Interests will be there to cheer our client on!
Isn’t is time for your health system to achieving the highest quality and efficiency possible using technology? SI can help!
On October 17, 2017, Strategic Interests president Al Kinel will be a participant in an executive roundtable entitled “Creating a Continuum of Seamless Care – Heart Health” in Washington, D.C.. Sponsored by the eHealth Initiative and Foundation, this session includes presentations from:
Jennifer Covich Bordenick, CEO, eHealth Initiative
Ileana L. Piña, MD, MPH, FAHA, FACC, Professor of Medicine & Epidemiology and Population Healthm, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Associate Chief for Academic Affairs, Division of Cardiology, Staff Heart Failure/Transplant, Montefiore Medical Center
Brian G. Choi, MD, FACC, Chief Medical Information Officer; Associate Professor of Medicine & Radiology; Co-Director, Advanced Cardiac Imaging, Division of Cardiology at the George Washington University; Member, American College of Cardiology Informatics and Health IT Task Force
Jessica Paulsen, Branch Chief, Implantable Electrophysiology Devices Branch, Division of Cardiovascular Devices, Office of Device Evaluation, Center for Devices and Radiologic, Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Susan M. Campbell, MPH, Vice President of Public Policy, WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease
William B. Borden, MD, Member of American College of Cardiology’s Population Health Management Task Force; Chief Quality and Population Health Officer, Associate Professor of Medicine and Health Policy, George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates
William T. Thorwarth, Jr., MD, FACR, Chief Executive Officer, American College of Radiology (ACR)
Topics of discussion include ways to pair radiology and cardiology as well as new emerging technologies in heart health, prevention and issues surrounding cardiology and women. The event is located at CAQH headquarters, a non-profit alliance of health plans and trade associations developing and leading initiatives that positively impact the business of healthcare.
The challenge of exchanging information among health care providers goes far beyond programming. Certainly, EHRs that use differing formats and structures increase the task of meaningful and necessary clinical data communication, but needs reach far beyond simply technology issues. Strategic priorities must be established and aligned in order for delivery of patient care to improve and the transition toward value based care to be accomplished effectively. The struggle to provide access to data is real and one that we talk to people about every day. Most patients, and even many doctors, assume all pertinent data is available to anyone who should be granted access. This is simply not the case in most communities.
Public health information exchanges have attacked some of the problems, providing a public utility of sorts to manage the flow of information. And private HIEs close gaps for some institutions, especially following mergers and acquisitions of practices and health systems, but integral to the process of interoperability is stakeholders achieving alignment with goals, plans and initiatives.
In order to ensure the right data is presented to the right people at the right time, and the creation of a truly integrated EHR is available, a course of action can include multiple tools, APIs, options and approaches. For some systems, a single EHR can be used including add-on modules to incorporate data. In other situations, such as when legacy data is required to be accessible from retired EHRs or when many data sources are using a variety of different systems, custom built or customizable off-the-shelf interface engines might be the best choice.
Decisions abound but one thing holds fast — tackling interoperability strategy shouldn’t be done in a vacuum. Using objective strategic advisors to collect requirements, assess cultural implications, evaluate vendor offerings and help to plan the most effective and efficient path will save costs, headaches, and, in the end, lives through the improvement in patient safety and care quality.
Chicago, August 2017 — Al Kinel discussing care transition IT strategy at Allscripts Population Health University
As part of the Allscripts Population Health University held August 8 – 10, 2017 at Chicago’s McCormick Center, Strategic Interests president, Al Kinel, led a presentation explaining the improvement of care transitions using information technology. As seasoned implementation agents for Allscripts dbMotion product, SI understands first hand how the timely exchange of pertinent information positively impacts transitions of care from clinical, technical and strategic angles.
Kinel was joined by two SI clients who discussed their experience with interoperability and transitions of care: Erik Jacob, Manager of IT Interoperability at Rochester Regional Health, discussed the projects in Rochester from the Community Diabetes Collaborative through the merger of multiple hospitals and practices. Brian Henderson, Director of Physician IT Services at Sarasota Memorial Hospital presented the project connecting ambulatory community providers to the hospital’s health information exchange, SMHxchange. Finishing the talk, Strategic Interest’s Director of Clinical Services, Brett Kinsler, DC presented the methodology used to identify gaps and prioritize data elements to be exchanged to facilitate a Medicaid DSRIP program.
Chicago, August 2017 — Erik Jacob presented Rochester Regional Health’s interoperability process
Overall, the team defined the value of Health Information Exchange (HIE) with specific use case examples and described how innovative solutions can impact organizations and practices, increase care quality, decrease duplication of services, prevent unnecessary readmissions, and enable innovative payment models while attaining strategic objectives and enhancing partnerships among hospitals, LTPACs and community providers.
We appreciate being invited by Allscripts to present a topic we are so passionate about and are grateful to our client partners from RRH and SMH for bringing real life examples and experience to the discussion.
Getting there is a multi-year, eight stage process that requires collaboration and coordination of team members at every level of the health system.
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