BEI Blog
One of the reasons for purchasing an EHR is to gain efficiencies that do not exist in a paper-based practice. For instance, the practice’s medical records staff may be eliminated or reduced over time, because paper charts do not have to be maintained and filed. However, many efficiencies afforded by EHRs are quite often not captured by practices. One such area is that of interfacing medical devices such as thermometers, x-ray machines and densitometers.
Interfacing medical devices to EHRs has traditionally been a tricky business. That’s due to several factors: the lack of standards definitions and the requirement that both the medical device manufacturer and the EHR software vendor have a common standard implemented in order to affect the interface. The good news is that progress is being made. If you are in the process of selecting an EHR you should pay careful attention to those devices that are important to your practice and how the EHR(s) under consideration interface with those devices. You can read the entire article on Medical Devices & EHRs here.
May, 2012
The “DIRECT project is a new technology that enables healthcare practices to securely send information about a patient to another practice, hospital or other setting of care. DIRECT Messaging is based on the national Direct Project which was launched in March of 2010 by the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONC). DIRECT can be thought of as a replacement for the fax machine. It operates like email. We cannot use regular email for this purpose because it is unsecure, and therefore cannot be used to send and receive patient Protected Health Information (PHI). Sending PHI over regular email is a HIPAA violation.
In our area, DIRECT is being implemented in the state of Virginia. It is being provided by an organization called ConnectVirginia. Implementations of DIRECT in DC and Maryland should be available shortly. If this is of interest you should read the entire article on “Pushing Healthcare Information.”
April 2012: On February 23 CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) released the proposed rules for Meaningful Use Stage 2. These rules will govern how the federal government dispenses the $23 billion that was appropriated by the HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) Act in 2009. The proposed Stage 2 rules will have a 60 day comment period, CMS will consider the comments and come up with the final rule. For more details please read the entire Meaningful Use Stage 2 article.
We also publish a monthly newsletter for the healthcare market and thought this article on iPads might be of general interest. We have many clients looking to use iPads in their corporate environments, and the warnings here are pretty much the same as they are for healthcare – make sure that the applications you are using have been adapted for iPads, otherwise you may end up unhappy with the results.
Read the article about iPads in Healthcare.
To receive the full $44,000 in Medicare reimbursements for the Meaningful Use of an EHR, providers must show three months of Meaningful Use before the end of 2012. If you haven’t started yet time is of the essence!
Jonathan Krasner of BEI will discuss EHR selection, implementation and Meaningful Use.
Michael Nester of Access National Bank will discuss how financing options can tie into the government’s reimbursement schedule and and why financing an EHR system now is a cost-beneficial decision for your practice.
Access National Bank
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
11:30 am – 1:30 pm
1800 Robert Fulton Drive, Suite 250 Reston, Virginia 20191
Register Now!
Please note: This seminar is limited to Physicians and Practice Managers
Core Measure 15 is one of the requirements for healthcare practices who are applying for federal funding for Electronic Health Record Systems. This specific requirement asks the provider to “Conduct or review a security risk analysis in accordance with the requirements under 45 CFR 164.308(a)(1) and implement security updates as necessary and correct identified security deficiencies as part of its risk management process.” Sounds pretty ominous, doesn’t it?
BEI can help healthcare practices conduct a security risk analysis to meet this important Stage 1 requirement. If you think you might need help with this, contact Jonathan Krasner at jonathan.krasner@beinetworks.com or 703-528-8300
x105.
Nuance Communications announced that Dragon Medical Practice Edition, the latest addition to the Dragon Medical portfolio of medical speech recognition software, started shipping September 1, 2011.
Like its predecessors, Dragon Medical Practice Edition will help clinicians and healthcare organizations create medical notes directly in any EHR in real-time. With real-time, voice-driven clinical documentation clinicians are empowered to capture a more thorough patient story without sacrificing time. Dragon Medical Practice Edition yields a 15 percent improvement in accuracy over previous Dragon Medical releases and contains additional features that will be especially beneficial to physicians in small practices, which make up an estimated 40 percent of the total U.S. physician population. Beyond the cost savings associated with decreased transcription costs, Dragon Medical Practice Edition can save clinicians 40-60 minutes per day on documentation and supports more detailed documentation of patients’ history of present illness, more flexible review of symptoms, and more descriptive assessment and care plans. New features include Smart Configuration and Recognition Analytics.
BEI is an authorized reseller of Dragon Medical Practice Edition. If you are interested, or have any questions, please contact Jonathan Krasner at 703-528-8300 x 105.
BEI’s July Healthcare IT Update covered the new version of HIPAA that will become mandatory as of January 1, 2012. Everyone in the healthcare industry will have to become familiar with the new requirements well before the mandated compliance date. Testing should begin as soon as possible to avoid any delays in claims payments and rejections. You can check out July’s HIT Newsletter or subscribe to receive it monthly.
Thursday, June 2, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm
In this presentation Jonathan Krasner of BEI will review the HITECH government funding programs and explain what it will take to achieve Meaningful Use. If you are interested in attending please click here.
Thursday, March 24, 2011 12:30 – 2 pm
Virginia Hospital Center
In this presentation Jonathan Krasner of BEI will review the HITECH government funding programs and explain what it will take to achieve Meaningful Use. If you are interested in attending please contact Jo Ann Allen of the Arlington County Medical Society.
