Despite the best efforts of the government, there are still millions of US citizens who don’t have healthcare coverage. This translates into a large percentage of the population forced to forego preventative care and even emergency healthcare services. While bureaucrats continue to rewrite laws and introduce legislation that might make health care more affordable, more practical solutions are also being sought. There are mobile health clinics appearing in major cities, as well as well-known walk in medical clinic businesses that are emerging in both rural and rural environments. In order for people without health insurance to get access to medical services, they have to know what is available to them.
Healthcare Coverage Based On Income
Both older Americans, as well as low-income citizens, can get medical insurance if they ask for assistance. Medicare and Medicaid are government subsidized healthcare plans that can be used in traditional doctors’ offices as well as hospital emergency rooms. People with disabilities and even people who are experiencing hard times can usually qualify for coverage for themselves and their families. These kinds of medical plans are widely known in the US and are accepted by most doctors. The only downside is that neither of these government-sponsored medical plans is all-inclusive. More specifically, Medicare does not offer dental coverage.
Charity-based Healthcare Services
If a medical emergency occurs and the person affected doesn’t have any kind of medical coverage, then he or she can expect a very large bill to follow soon after. Financial limitations can be a major obstacle for people suffering from chronic medical issues for several reasons. First, if you have amassed a big medical bill from a local hospital and you haven’t at least set up a repayment plan, you can be prevented from scheduling any future procedures. Second, having a large medical debt appear on your credit report can make it hard for those without health care coverage to get better-paying jobs or otherwise get out of this vicious cycle. Charities offer help with medical bills as well as give a segment of the population access to low-cost healthcare services.
By Robert Barras, vice president of health solutions, CTG Inc.
Robert Barras
There’s nothing like a good bandwagon to get everyone excited. Whether it’s the success of your favorite sports team, or a hot new restaurant in town, or a movie that’s breaking box office records, once something gets hot it seems everyone wants a piece of it.
For healthcare IT, one of the loudest and most visible bandwagons in the last few years has been the cloud. The idea of being able to hand off the expense and resource-intensive hassle of purchasing, implementing, and maintaining hardware and software is very attractive to healthcare organizations continuously being challenged to “do more with less.” Yet that expediency is often offset by continuing concerns about security, especially as it relates to protected health information (PHI), speed of access, and other issues.
The reality is the cloud is the right choice for some organizations, or even some specific applications, but it’s not a panacea for HIT. Following are some things to consider as you make the choice of whether to move to the cloud at all, and what makes sense to move to it.
Improved scalability
One of the top reasons in favor of moving data and/or applications to the cloud is the ability to scale them on an ad hoc basis – especially as healthcare data continues to grow exponentially. A report from EMC and research firm IDC projects the volume of healthcare data will grow from 153 exabytes in 2013 to 2,314 exabytes by 2020.
Of course, the growth won’t come in a steady stream. At some points, healthcare organizations will need to be able to manage a high volume of data. At others, they may need to boost their computing power temporarily to drive a specific objective.
Rather than trying to manage data or computing needs internally and ending up with over- or under-capacity, the cloud provides a convenient way to scale up or down quickly. It’s also more cost-efficient, as healthcare organizations only pay for what they consume, significantly reducing costs. Finally, expanding capacity through the cloud ensures processing-heavy analytics applications aren’t slowing down the performance of critical clinical applications.
Enabling interoperability
All of that data won’t be coming from a single source, either. As more of healthcare shifts to being value-based, providers of all types and sizes need to populate their population health management (PHM) and other analytics applications with data drawn from a variety of sources inside and outside of the organization.
Most organizations, especially those hyper-concerned with security, will not want all of that outside data flowing into their core systems or internal data centers. The cloud presents an ideal alternative.
It can create a clean separation between the main storage of PHI and all other data by treating PHI as a source that feeds applications housed in the cloud. With the help of a partner, all the incoming data can be cleaned and normalized so it can be used within analytics or other applications, providing better, more complete answers to PHM, patient engagement, trends, and other questions than can be obtained with internal data alone.
As the use of data in this manner grows, it will simplify the exchange between providers – especially as standards such as FHIR proliferate throughout the industry. The result is interoperability almost becomes a byproduct of the use of data in the cloud, avoiding the need for expensive, time-consuming special projects just to send electronic health records from one provider to another.
While telehealth has been around for years, virtual care technology is emerging as a powerful tool that goes beyond the traditional telehealth model. What will it take to reach the tipping point of virtual care adoption?
To become the “next generation” of telehealth, virtual care will need to improve access, availability, application, and acceptance considerations. Virtual care is poised to be embraced by the healthcare ecosystem, helping to optimize satisfaction and outcomes for all.
Access
Timing is everything in critical care situations. Providers need instant access to specialists who can make vital diagnoses and decisions on-demand. Virtual care technology enables specialists to provide an immediate consult via video and ensure that patient questions and emerging conditions are addressed. Remote video-based consults allow a specialist to examine and diagnose the patient in real time, regardless of the specialist’s location. Virtual care will move into the mainstream as more providers (whether at a healthcare facility or home health agency) realize they can obtain timely answers, prevent return trips to the ED, and minimize readmissions. Smaller and rural hospitals will be able to strengthen their role in the community by using virtual care to access offsite, specialized staff. The time-to-treatment will be reduced; providers will not need to waste precious minutes attempting to contact available specialists. And, specialists can provide the needed consult via video, without needing to rush to the patient’s bedside.
Availability
Many patients fail to follow up with their provider for post-discharge care. No-shows may result when a patient is unable to leave his/her residence due to a medical condition. Some patients are unable to secure reliable, timely, and/or affordable transportation to a follow-up appointment. Virtual care will improve the standard of care by providing patients with more convenient, comfortable, and cost-effective access to follow-up care. Once out of the hospital or nursing facility, a patient can participate in virtual visits on commodity devices such as tablets and smartphones.
Application
Healthcare organizations typically pilot the use of virtual care in one department, with one use-case or for a specific patient population, before rolling out the technology across a facility, health system, and/or health plan’s member base. Organizations may hesitate to expand virtual care across departments if they anticipate the implementation may be disruptive to their current processes. However, virtual care technology is designed to complement (and even automate) current workflows. Providers jump on the virtual care bandwagon when they realize that the application factors in a patient’s choice of communication devices (e.g., tablet, smartphone, and computer) and language. Because the technology features the ability to include interpreters in a video call and also provide messaging in the patient’s primary/preferred language, more healthcare organizations will accelerate the deployment of virtual care as they can now engage all patients in their care and across any level of connectivity.
Mobile technology is amazing. With the available technologies, anyone can see a doctor using smartphones. The impact of app developers and mobile app developers is increasing in healthcare. They make this possible by developing and releasing telemedicine and telehealth apps.
These apps make the provision and accessing of health more convenient. They make healthcare more preventive, inexpensive and better. These mobile apps for healthcare are unique. They are creating a viable marketplace for healthcare services. These apps reduce time to access medical consultation and treatment.
These mobile apps are revolutionizing healthcare on a daily basis. They allow patients to seek health on virtual platforms. They assist doctors and patients in solving health issues. These apps help healthcare providers to gather and manage information. They serve reference materials for care providers. They assist in monitoring and managing of patients. These apps are available across the U.S. and overseas to travelling U.S. residents. It is a must for mobile apps offering diagnosis and treatment become HIPAA-compliant. Telehealth information is available in the National Conference of State Legislatures. It contains information for each State within the U.S.
There are thousands of these apps available. Top app development companies work on daily basis to meet demands. This is an area where virtual reality app development is increasing without bounds. Highlight of some of the telemedicine and telehealth apps is available on this post.
PingMD
PingMD is a mobile app that provides a platform for doctors and patients to chat. It is available for Apple and Android smartphone users. This app enables doctors to discuss medical issues with their patients and colleagues. It eliminates the issue of leaking private messages to the public. The discussion between patients and doctors is transferrable to the patients’ medical record. Doctors can bill their patients for e-visitations and e-consultations. With this app, consulting a doctor becomes easy and fast.
HelloMD
HelloMD is an app where doctors set their consultation fees. This app helps to find specialists for appointment booking. It is not an app that provides access to immediate healthcare. This app will help find specialists like neurologists and radiologists. This app is for patients with very special health conditions. Appointments are set up within 24 hours once a specialist in located. Thereafter, consultation between the specialist and patient takes place through video call. The app aims to connect patients with the right doctor. It helps patients seek second opinion on health conditions. Face to face consultation can happen where necessary. Doctors fix their fee and patients pay through credit card. This is before fixing an appointment. This app is web-based and accessible via mobile devices.
Epocrates
Epocrates is an app available for download to users of Android and Apple mobile devices. This app is a powerful app that allows doctors to access the health evidence of patients. It allows doctors access specific guidelines from national specialty societies about patients. It is an app with loads of source information on medications and prescriptions. It is an app for finding doctors to consult. This app provides information on harmful interactions between drugs. It can help identify pills using imprint code and some physical properties. It helps in calculating BMI and GFR. This app provides a platform for accessing medical news and information on researches. This app has two versions, the free and the fee for subscription version. The free version is Epocrates RX and the other is Epocrates Essentials. The Epocrates Essentials costs about $159.99 at the time of writing.
LiveHealth Online
LiveHealth Online is an available to Android and Apple mobile device users. This app allows patients to consult doctors through video calls. These doctors write prescriptions for their patient at the end of consultation. Note that this is possible in only few states. Patients make payment using their insurance plan. Consultation fee is $49/consultation for patients with no insurance coverage. Patients pay the consultation fee if their policy does not cover online visits.
Medscape
Medscape is an app accessible by Android and Apple mobile device users. It offers healthcare professionals the access to millions of medical information. It is a platform where medical profession can access educational tools. For clinicians in the U.S., it is the number one medial platform. It has more than 4 million users. It helps caregivers to look up medications and their dosages. It has a drug interaction check for preventing adverse combination of drugs. Its evidence-based disease and condition reference assists in finding important information on patients. There are medical calculators and image collection platforms on this app. This is a free app but requires that users to set up an account. It is available to users of Kindle Fire.
Microsoft HealthVault
Microsoft HealthVault is a free health mobile app. It is available to Apple and Window mobile device users. This app is a platform where individuals can keep their medical records. It is safe and up-to-date in storing medical record. It eases sharing of personal medical records to health professionals and family. People with chronic condition use this app to trail their health metrics. It is possible to input manual data. For automatic data input, patients connect the app to health trackers. Accessing this app through the web is possible.
Nearly 100 percent of chief medical information officers (CMIOs) in U.S. hospitals believe medication management improvement initiatives are having a positive impact and that patient safety issues are less likely to occur today as compared to five years ago, according to a new survey from the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems (AMDIS). The survey of physician leaders, sponsored by DrFirst, also revealed that CMIOs believe there is more work to be done to address gaps that could potentially impact patient safety.
Among the top patient safety gaps identified by CMIOs is the “inability to prevent financial constraints” from impacting patients’ adherence to prescribed medications. In fact, 71 percent of the survey respondents cited concerns with the lack of price transparency—the ability to inform patients how much a prescribed medication will cost, including their insurance co-pay amount. Medication costs are a key concern for patients as well, as evidenced by a Truven Health Analytics-NPR Health Poll which found that 67 percent of patients who failed to fill their prescriptions in the last 90 days reported high costs as their reason.
Addressing high drug prices is also a priority for the Trump administration, which earlier this year introduced the American Patients First blueprint, a comprehensive plan to bring down prescription drug prices and out-of-pocket costs.
The surveyed CMIOS also identified a major gap related to the opioid epidemic. Sixty-five percent of respondents cited the need for an integrated clinician workflow that makes it easy for clinicians to coordinate the entire medication management process, including electronic prescribing of controlled substances like opioids, access to state Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) to identify patients’ opioid histories, and electronic access to prescriptions from other providers and locations to avoid potentially harmful drug combinations. Similarly, 41 percent shared concerns about providers’ abilities to prevent opioid abuse since they often cannot easily distinguish “drug shoppers” from genuine patients.
Cameron Deemer
Overall, 82 percent of surveyed CMIOs concur that medication management improvement initiatives have had a positive impact on adverse drug events. However, only half of the CMIOs expressed satisfaction with the medication management process, while 12 percent indicated dissatisfaction. According to the survey, the biggest gaps in the entire medication management process are incomplete patient medication histories (80 percent) and misaligned medication reconciliation and care transition cycles that lead to misinformed decisions by care teams (75 percent).
“While the industry has clearly made significant strides to improve medication management processes, CMIOs remain troubled by a number of gaps that compromise patient safety and quality outcomes,” said G. Cameron Deemer, president of DrFirst. “That’s why DrFirst has remained firmly committed to addressing these pain points with innovative new technologies that make a meaningful difference in patient care and the physician experience.”
Remote monitoring. Smart sensors. Better communication and overall patient care. The internet of things has some incredible applications for the health industry — assuming we can overcome the security challenges it brings with it. But where do we start?
The potential of the Internet of Things to revolutionize the world has already been well-documented – as has its potential security shortcomings. I don’t believe it’s hyperbole to call IoT one of the most disruptive digital technologies ever developed, if not the most. But that disruption can easily be a double-edged sword.
Consider the healthcare industry, for example. Hospitals, care providers, and covered entities regularly work with some of the most sensitive data in the world, subject to some of the most stringent protections. They have an inarguable duty of care to keep protected health information (PHI) out of the wrong hands.
Incautious application of IoT technology runs directly counter to that duty of care.
Unless you want your organization to be included in that statistic, you’re going to need to take a step back and re-examine your security practices. The Internet of Things is by its very nature unlike any technology you’ve used in the past. What that means is that it requires a completely different approach.
You must have some way of monitoring, managing, and locking down any endpoints that might have even a passing connection to patient data. You need to implement new processes and procedures regarding how devices are used and interconnected within your organization. Finally, you need to be aware of PHI no matter where it is and who’s using it — and if someone is accessing it who shouldn’t be, you need the capacity to lock down their access and protect that data.
For an industry where even standard IT can prove challenging, that’s a pretty intensive list. It’s a small wonder, then, that many healthcare organizations choose to work with managed services providers rather than deal with things internally. And if, after a security assessment, you find that your own IT staff lack the expertise, that might be the best bet for you as well (at least until your staff can receive proper training).
Of course, selecting an IoT services provider comes with its own laundry list of challenges. You’ll need to school yourself in the tactics and language the bad eggs use to try to lure in new clients, and you’ll need to ensure that any providers you work with are fully HIPAA-compliant. There are a few signs you should look out for in that regard:
Ivenix, Inc., a medical technology company with a vision to eliminate infusion-related patient harm, was founded in 2012 to develop innovative solutions that transform infusion delivery. Designed from the ground up to streamline medication delivery and bring legacy technology into the digital age, the Ivenix Infusion System includes a large-volume infusion pump supported by a robust infusion management system designed to set new standards in usability, medication precision and interoperability.
Founders’ story
Today’s IV smart pumps rely on technology developed more than a decade ago and continue to put patients at risk. At Ivenix, we believe it’s more important than ever to empower clinicians with the most effective infusion equipment, training and processes to ensure they do no harm. No hospital wants to wonder: “Are we doing enough? Are we making every effort to prevent infusion mistakes?” We are all patients. And Ivenix is dedicated to the belief that infusion technology should put patients first with enhanced outcomes and a better patient experience, while dramatically improving clinical workflow and efficiency. It’s what inspires us, motivates us, and brings us together for the shared purpose of delivering groundbreaking infusion innovation to healthcare.
Marketing/promotion strategy
Ivenix is generating awareness through a number of channels, and has partnered with industry associations, such as HIMSS, IHE and AAMI, which has an Infusion Safety Therapy Coalition, to address current market issues in infusion safety, interoperability and innovation. Ivenix is also testing its infusion pump system with a number of integration partners, including leading EMR, alarms management and clinical communication vendors to provide interoperability solutions.
Market opportunity
Ivenix is addressing the $9 billion global infusion pump market, with first targeted efforts on the U.S. large volume pump market, a $2..6 billion market segment that represents the majority of infusion pumps used in the U.S. hospital and ancillary clinic market.
Who are your competitors?
Braun, BD, ICU Medical, Baxter
How your company differentiates itself from the competition and what differentiates Ivenix?
Ivenix has developed an infusion platform to address an industry fraught with medication errors. Infusion-related errors account for more than 50 percent of the 1.5 million adverse drug events reported annually to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Between 2015 and 2017, more than 23,000 pump malfunctions, including subsequent injuries, were reported to the FDA. With today’s pumps, infusion errors are attributed to error-prone programming tasks, usability issues and clinical use, inaccurate flow, hardware failures and outdated designs with limited information. Currently, less than 1 percent of IV pumps are fully integrated with electronic medical records. Ivenix is rethinking infusion delivery to set new standards in safety, simplicity, and interoperability, Ivenix designed its infusion system on three fundamental dimensions:
Patient-centered design: Intuitive design enables faster bedside setup and lowers risk of programming errors, benefiting patients because clinicians spend less time troubleshooting pumps or resolving nuisance alarms.
Integrated data-driven insights: Advanced IT platform integrates with the EMR and other hospital information systems, securely manages data and connects clinicians with patient-specific knowledge to be better informed – and therefore make better decisions – at the bedside.
Adaptive fluid delivery: Advanced pump technology reduces clinical variability of medication delivery to help improve patient outcomes.
Healthcare delivery is being transformed as we speak, from technological breakthroughs and regulatory change to changing patient demographics and consumer expectations. As the healthcare landscape evolves, forward-looking healthcare providers are seeing their real estate in a new light. It’s time for healthcare providers to consider new approaches to real estate and facilities as a way to improve efficiency and patient outcomes.
Following are four ways hospitals and health systems can stay ahead of the curve.
Leverage the M&A boom to improve facilities performance and value. While 2017 seemed to be the year of hospital M&A, JLL analysis points to an even higher volume of M&A in 2018. Cost containment is often a key motivator for initiating M&As. In the aftermath of consolidation, many health systems are now sitting on large portfolios of underutilized real estate that represent a major source of value and capital investment. A data-driven analysis can help identify opportunities to drive more value from each facility and put each to its highest and best use.
Unlock operational efficiencies with a centralized approach. As health systems expand their real estate portfolios with diverse outpatient facilities, centralized facility management and maintenance may be the most efficient way to manage their growing footprints. Partnering with a third-party facility management service provider is a common path to centralization, although it is critical to partner with a firm that understands the nuances of the healthcare environment.
Centralized control of facilities data and analytics provides a complete picture of how different facilities are performing, so the facilities team can make accurate capital plans based on data rather than informed guestimates. Also, today’s facility management technology supports preventive maintenance and can even generate automated alerts if a building system is malfunctioning or approaching a complete breakdown. In addition to improving efficiency, a facilities management partnership can help reduce compliance risks and improve patient and staff satisfaction.
Embrace new definitions of what it means to be a health system—and how that plays out on the map. Though hospitals remain a critical focus, traditional networks may soon be rendered obsolete as industry leaders find that new opportunity lies outside the hospital campus. From medical office buildings to healthcare-anchored retail centers, tailored care settings can improve the patient experience and increase patient loyalty—and boost the hospital balance sheet.
However, managing a complex network of medical facilities requires a thoughtful strategy informed by location analysis. Thinking differently can reap big rewards, but it’s important for executives to carefully weigh the risks and benefits of paying a little more to be closer to where patients already spend time.
Ivenix, Inc.