The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for the first time introduced star ratings on Hospital Compare, the agency’s public information website, to make it easier for consumers to choose a hospital and understand the quality of care they deliver. According to the organization, “This announcement builds on a larger effort across HHS to build a healthcare system that delivers better care, spends healthcare dollars more wisely, and results in healthier people.”
The Hospital Compare star ratings relate to patients’ experience of care at almost 3,500 Medicare-certified acute care hospitals. The ratings are based on data from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey (HCAHPS) measures that are included in Hospital Compare. HCAHPS has been in use since 2006 to measure patients’ perspectives of hospital care, and includes topics like:
How well nurses and doctors communicated with patients
How responsive hospital staff were to patient needs
How clean and quiet hospital environments were
How well patients were prepared for post-hospital settings
“The patient experience Star Ratings will make it easier for consumers to use the information on the Hospital Compare website and spotlight excellence in health care quality,” said Dr. Patrick Conway, acting principal deputy administrator for CMS and deputy administrator for Innovation and Quality. “These star ratings also encourage hospitals and clinicians to strive to continuously improve the patient experience and quality of care delivered to all patients.”
HIMSS released the results of the 2015 HIMSS Mobile Technology Survey at the annual HIMSS conference. This year’s study, of more than 200 healthcare provider employees, found that nearly 90 percent of respondents are utilizing mobile devices within their organizations to engage patients in their healthcare. The report also showed that respondents believe that mHealth technologies are beginning to drive cost savings and improve the quality of care delivered.
The adoption of mobile technologies has been rapid in recent years with 90 percent of American adults owning a mobile device. The healthcare industry continues to keep up, as these technologies are critical to the industry’s shift to patient-centered and value-based care. Respondents of this year’s survey reported leveraging a variety of mobile tools including: app-enabled patient portals (73 percent), telehealth services (62 percent) and text communications (57 percent). Of these technologies, 36 percent of respondents believe the use of app-enabled patient portals is the most effective tool in patient engagement to date.
“mHealth continues to evolve as a tool to drive healthcare efficiencies. The proposed Meaningful Use Stage 3 rule realizes this with the concept of APIs and patient generated health data, and this year’s survey showed that the wide spread availability of mobile technology has had a positive impact on the coordination of patient care,” said David Collins, senior director of HIMSS mHealth Community.
According to a new report from InMedica, a subsidiary of IMS Research, American healthcare providers are turning to telehealth in large numbers to help cut costs and projects patients using telehealth services to grow by nearly a factor of six by 2017. While 51 percent of HIMSS Mobile Technology Survey respondents indicated budget tolls as a key barrier to further implementation of mobile technologies, 54 percent indicated they had achieved cost savings when asked if the deployment of mobile technology had a positive effect in this capacity. Specifically, areas of impact included preventative support care (24 percent), telehealth interventions (23 percent) and resource utilization (21 percent).
Healthcare organizations having reached Stage 7 on the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) in 2013 and earlier will receive notification and instructions about the Stage 7 revalidation process by year-end, HIMSS Analytics announced.
Going forward, the Stage 7 validation lifespan will be three years. All Stage 7 organizations wishing to revalidate will be required to complete the process in the year between the second year anniversary of the original validation and its expiration.
“As the health IT industry rapidly evolves, EMRAM standards must continue to reflect industry best practices,” said John P. Hoyt, executive vice president, HIMSS Analytics. “The revalidation process will ensure that Stage 7 organizations continue to reflect the optimal use and sharing of patient data toward improved healthcare quality and safety.” HIMSS Analytics plans to implement the EMRAM revalidation process globally, Hoyt added.
In most cases, the revalidation process will include a pared down site visit to verify that new requirements put in place post validation are being met. “For the majority of organizations a one-person site visit should suffice,” Hoyt said. “The exception may be if the organization has implemented a new core clinical vendor or changed ownership since its last validation. In those instances a full three-person site visit will be required.”
More than 30 organizations representing over 2,400 clinic locations and 219 hospitals have earned Stage 7 status since 2009. In the United States, 3.6 percent of hospitals and 6.2 percent of ambulatory facilities had achieved Stage 7 as of the fourth quarter of 2014.
Stage 7 organizations are virtually paperless. Clinical information can be readily shared electronically with hospitals, ambulatory facilities, medical offices and other entities within health information exchange networks, as well as with patients and consumers. Stage 7 organizations also use advanced data analytics techniques to help improve quality, safety and efficiency.
HIMSS Analytics developed the EMR Adoption Model in 2005 as a methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of EMR systems for hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics® Database. Eight stages (0-7) measure a hospital’s implementation and utilization of information technology applications. The Ambulatory EMR Adoption Model was introduced in 2012 to address the specific needs of ambulatory facilities. It follows a similar eight stage (0-7) model.
HIMSS released the results of the 26th Annual HIMSS Leadership Survey of more than 300 participants, examining key trending issues impacting the business of healthcare including patient considerations, security concerns, insurance models and policy mandates. This survey revealed that 72 percent of respondents report that consumer and patient considerations, such as patient engagement, satisfaction and quality of care will have a major impact on their organization’s strategic efforts over the next two years.
The strategic value of information technology (IT) continues to be top of mind with healthcare leaders as 81 percent of respondents indicated IT is considered a highly strategic tool at their organizations and 76 percent noted that their IT plan fully supports their overall business plan. Participants also answered questions related to how IT was being used to facilitate the goals of the Triple Aim – a framework developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement that describes an approach to optimizing health system performance. While more than two-thirds of respondents (68 percent) indicated an improvement within the patient health experience, more than half also felt that IT was reducing the cost of healthcare (53 percent) and improving population health (51 percent).
“This year’s survey showed that more than one-third of participants report that their organization was able to demonstrate improvement in all three areas covered in the Triple Aim as a result of their IT use,” said John H. Daniels, vice president, strategic relations for HIMSS. “These numbers are critical as they prove the continued progress healthcare is making as IT integrates with value-based care strategies and the growing influence of the patient in health encounters. It will be important for providers to capitalize on this momentum to ensure improved patient satisfaction as the sector begins the transition from Stage 2 to Stage 3 of meaningful use.”
The Leadership Survey also indicated that IT is supported from the top down– 79 percent of respondents indicated their organization’s executive team is highly supportive of IT and 72 percent of respondents indicated their organization’s board of directors was also on board with IT growth within their organizations.
According to Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is a “model or philosophy of primary care that is patient-centered, comprehensive, team-based, coordinated, accessible, and focused on quality and safety.” PCMHs power business and clinical processes by using clinical decision support tools to connect patients with members of their healthcare team to improve both the patients’ and the providers’ experience of care. This coordination encourages a stronger physician-patient relationship, leading to better care delivery, more involved and engaged patients and reduced avoidable costs. According to the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), these models are “transforming primary care practices into what patients want, focusing on patients themselves and all of their healthcare needs. They also are foundations for a healthcare system that gives more value by achieving the ‘triple aim’ of better quality, experience and cost.”
The NCQA recognizes over 10 percent of U.S. primary care practices as patient-centered medical homes. In order to be recognized by the NCQA, these primary care practices must offer access both afterhours and online, allowing patients to receive care when and where they need it. They work with patients to make treatment decisions based on individual preferences and help patients engage in their own health. The practice as a whole works as a team to coordinate care from other providers and community resources to maximize efficiency. Additionally, PCMHs focus on preventive care and the management of chronic conditions to prevent complications and emergencies.
Guest post by Dr. David Whitehouse, chief medical officer, UST Global.
Technology innovation is changing many fields dramatically but unevenly, and that is especially the case with the medical field. When I get into my car each morning and look at the dashboard, I know more about the health of my car than myself.
When it comes to health, we live our lives directed by our beliefs about health and symptoms. Beliefs drive us to strategically invest in aspects of our physical selves, from diet to exercise, to immunizations. What causes us to go to the doctors, for the most part, are symptoms: aches, rashes, pain, and general losses of function. Once we see a doctor, specifics about our health are further defined by numbers (temperature, blood pressure, cholesterol).
For the most part, I am aware of my symptoms, but not my numbers. Some with a chronic illness like diabetes use numbers to help pinpoint the ups and downs of their health. The majority of us do not keep track, because internally, automatic sensors measure and assay everything – glucose levels to direct the secretion of insulin, and blood pressure changes to alter our heart rate.
Homeostasis takes place unconsciously, as conscious knowledge of all these internal processes would be information overload. Certain manifestations like fainting, blushing, and dizziness, remain on the macro level to warn us that the system was in trouble.
Modernity has shifted the need for conscious measurement of our internal processes. The diseases that are killing us – obesity, metabolic disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease – are ones for which our control systems are poorly evolved. These types of diseases do their damage silently and over long periods of time. Unable to correct imbalances well, these problems tax us physiologically but send us no symptomatic warning until it is too late and the damage is well on its way.
At the HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago, HIMSS released the results of the 2015 Impact of the Informatics Nurse Survey – a survey of nearly 600 participants including C-suite executives, clinical analysts and informatics nurses. The survey examined the growing technology-driven healthcare ecosystem and the role nursing informatics – a specialty that integrates knowledge, data and wisdom – is playing in this evolving environment. The results indicated that the role of informatics nurses has expanded greatly and is having immense impact on patient safety and overall care, as well as notable workflow and productivity improvements.
This year’s survey, supported by the HIMSS Nursing Informatics Community, found that 60 percent of respondents believe that informatics nurses have a high degree of impact on the quality of care provided to patients. The survey also showcased that the majority of respondents claim that their organization had hired an informatics professional in a leadership capacity. Moreover, 20 percent of respondents reported employing a Chief Nursing Information Officer (CNIO) at the leadership helm.
“The 2015 Impact of the Informatics Nurse Survey showcases the positive influence informatics nurses are having on improved quality and efficiency of patient care,” said Joyce Sensmeier, vice president of informatics for HIMSS. “We are going to continue to see the role and use of technology expand in healthcare and the demand for nurses with informatics training will grow in parallel. As clinicians further focus on transforming information into knowledge, technology will be a fundamental enabler of future care delivery models and nursing informatics leaders will be essential to this transformation.”
As healthcare provider organizations look to build upon their electronic health record (EHR) solution in order to leverage data analytics and population health management tools to transition to a true learning health system, nurses will continue to play an important role in the process. Key findings from the survey reinforce that participants believe that informatics nurses bring value to the implementation phase (85 percent) and optimization phase (83 percent) of clinical systems processes. These numbers are a clear indicator that the informatics specialty is a critical part of evolving healthcare organizations.
Cerner has announced it will bring its patient app, HealtheLife, to Apple Watch.
Cerner’s newly-released iOS 8 HealtheLife app is designed to make it easier for patients to manage their health from Apple Watch, with push notification reminders to track health data and a display dashboard for tracked metrics.
“Apple Watch is the next evolution connecting consumers and their health team to the clinical community, regardless of physical location,” said Brian Carter, senior director and general manager, personal health, Cerner. “This is just the first step in the evolution of sharing personal health data – to provide physicians with access to actionable data anytime, anywhere, not just what’s collected at the doctor’s office.”
This month, Cerner will conduct initial deployments with clients to collect biometric values from the Apple Watch-compatible HealtheLife app, including weight, blood pressure and blood sugar values. With the patient’s consent, the data will be sent directly to Cerner Millennium® electronic health record.
“The status of a person’s health is greatly related to what they’re doing personally on a day-to-day basis. This information is vital to providers so they can focus on personalized patient care and population health management,” said Carter.
Emory Healthcare and Agnesian HealthCare will be the first health systems to deploy this technology. Emory, the largest health system in Georgia, will receive data from patients through HealthKit.
“Cerner’s technology aligns with our strategy to further engage patients in their own health,” said Dr. Julie Hollberg, chief medical information officer, Emory Healthcare. “Patients can monitor their vitals on a daily basis and share that data with their care teams, enabling providers to keep a closer eye on their patients.”
Cerner has announced it will bring its patient app, HealtheLife, to Apple Watch.