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.”
The following is an announcement from CMS about potential modifications to the meaningful use program, announced Apr. 10, 2015:
On April 10, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a new proposed rule for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs to align Stage 1 and Stage 2 objectives and measures with the long-term proposals for Stage 3, to build progress toward program milestones, to reduce complexity, and to simplify providers’ reporting. These modifications would allow providers to focus more closely on the advanced use of certified EHR technology to support health information exchange and quality improvement.
The proposed rule is just one part of a larger effort across HHS to deliver better care, spend health dollars more wisely, and have healthier people and communities by working in three core areas: improving the way providers are paid, improving the way care is delivered, and improving the way information is shared to support transparency for consumers, health care providers, and researchers and to strengthen decision-making.
The proposed rule is a critical step forward in helping to support the long-term goals of delivery system reform; especially those goals of a nationwide interoperable learning health system and patient-centered care. CMS is also simplifying the structure and reducing the reporting requirements for providers participating in the program by removing measures which have become duplicative, redundant, and reached wide-spread adoption (i.e., are “topped out”). This will allow providers to refocus on the advanced use objectives and measures. These advanced measures are at the core of health IT supported health care which drives toward improving the way electronic health information is shared among providers and with their patients, enhancing the ability to measure quality and set improvement goals, and ultimately improving the way health care is delivered and experienced.
Guest post by Todd Weller, vice president of product development, Hexis Cyber Solutions
According to a 2014 Identity Theft Resource Center Report, the healthcare industry has officially surpassed other major industries and now accounts for 42.3 percent of all data breaches recorded last year. As the number of patient medical records transitions to a digital sharing model, the potential cost of data breaches is now substantially higher than for those less regulated, like retail and public services. It’s clear that the industry is increasingly vulnerable to sophisticated cyberattacks; hackers are after vital patient information such as social security numbers and past medical records. With limited budgets and priorities often, and rightfully, placed on patient care, many healthcare organizations lack the resources to implement stronger security levels. Despite these constraints, with the right technology and best practices in place healthcare organizations can position themselves for success.
The costs associated with “damage control” for many healthcare providers is steep with the annual cap on fines for violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and HITECH Act of 2009, up from a maximum of $25,000 per year to $1.5 million. And fines are only part of the financial burden. Investigation and legal efforts, business downtime and decreased credibility all drive up costs even further.
Unfortunately, many healthcare organizations are still facing challenges when it comes to effectively communicating and collaborating on security. In many of these healthcare organizations, there is a department for privacy and compliance and then a separate department for enterprise IT security. Functional groups are often siloed and share very little information with each other. This becomes a major issue in the event of a breach as neither side is able to understand the full spectrum of the threat without the others’ data.
The consequences of the gap between compliance and IT security becomes evident when dealing with insider threats. An individual’s actions may look legitimate but when correlated against other activity, could indicate that malicious activity is occurring. A workstation that has always previously accessed clinical data or some other patient information doesn’t raise suspicion. But a subtle, steady increase in traffic, say of five or ten percent, correlated with communication to an unauthorized or new IP address, likely indicates a breach. The same example could apply to an external threat with a malicious actor using social engineering methods to entice an unwitting user to download malware. Once inside the network, the malware can replicate the very same scenario. Either way, a breach has occurred. The IT security department may discover the situation, investigate and handle it and move on to the next task. But without visibility into this type of data, how would the compliance department learn about possible data leakage and take the necessary steps to investigate and report?
In this series, we are featuring some of the thousands of vendors who will be participating in the HIMSS15 conference and trade show. Through it, we hope to offer readers a closer look at some of the solution providers who will either be in attendance – with a booth showcasing and displaying key products and offerings – or that will have a presence of some kind at the show – key executives in attendance or presenting, for example.
Hopefully this series will give you a bit more useful information about the companies that help make this event, and the industry as a whole, so exciting.
Elevator Pitch
Since 1987, ESET has been developing award-winning security software that now helps over 100 million customers to enjoy safer technology. Its broad security product portfolio covers all popular platforms and provides businesses and consumers around the world with the perfect balance of performance and protection. The company has a global sales network covering 180 countries, and regional offices in Bratislava, San Diego, Singapore and Buenos Aires.
About Statement
ESET is a leading security solution provider for healthcare organizations of all sizes. The company pioneered and continues to lead the industry in proactive threat detection.
Services and Products Offered
ESET products protect mobile, traditional endpoints and servers, secure VPN and critical applications with multi-factor authentication. The company also provides professional services to help healthcare organizations with deployment, malware removal, security assessment and knowledge transfer.
Device Control
Protect against and block malware introduced by removable media and storage devices that can expose an organization to data leaks.
Email Security
Keep email servers free of malware, spam and spear phishing attacks that lead to data breaches.
Web Filtering
Prevent users from visiting compromised websites that can bring malware into your network, and enforce the organization’s Internet use policy.
In this series, we are featuring some of the thousands of vendors who will be participating in the HIMSS15 conference and trade show. Through it, we hope to offer readers a closer look at some of the solution providers who will either be in attendance – with a booth showcasing and displaying key products and offerings – or that will have a presence of some kind at the show – key executives in attendance or presenting, for example.
Hopefully this series will give you a bit more useful information about the companies that help make this event, and the industry as a whole, so exciting.
Elevator Pitch
Facilitating more than five million patient visits every month, Practice Fusion’s platform is the new gold standard for ambulatory EHR technology. We can support your organization’s goals for risk adjustment, accurate coding and coordinated care management—in real time and at scale. We also partner to support clinical programs in collaboration with our physicians to improve outcomes for patients at the population level. Finally, our connectivity services provide a single point of connection to our ecosystem of over 112,000 health care professionals nationwide.
About Statement
Practice Fusion is the #1 cloud-based electronic health record (EHR) platform for doctors and patients, with a mission of connecting doctors, patients and data to drive better health and save lives. A driving force in modernizing American health care, Practice Fusion is used by a community of more than 112,000 active medical professionals with over 100 million patient records under management. In 2014, Practice Fusion’s EHR facilitated more than 56 million patient visits (approximately 6% of all ambulatory visits in the US) and is the fastest growing EHR in the US.
Founder’s Story
Founded in San Francisco in 2005 and bootstrapped in a Starbucks, Practice Fusion has grown dramatically, building the largest physician-patient community in the U.S.
Services and Products Offered
Clinical data exchange, HCC code assist, digital care management
Cerner has announced it will bring its patient app, HealtheLife, to Apple Watch.
Since 1987, 
Facilitating more than five million patient visits every month, Practice Fusion’s platform is the new gold standard for ambulatory EHR technology. We can support your organization’s goals for risk adjustment, accurate coding and coordinated care management—in real time and at scale. We also partner to support clinical programs in collaboration with our physicians to improve outcomes for patients at the population level. Finally, our connectivity services provide a single point of connection to our ecosystem of over 112,000 health care professionals nationwide.