Guest post by Eric McDonald, founder and CEO, DocuTap.
Expediency, exceptional service and a reasonable price. It’s the ideal for American consumers, particularly in healthcare. Because of that demand, patients were the drivers behind the adoption of the urgent care industry.
It started in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. Family practices started taking walk-in patients. While it wasn’t branded as such, that was the inception of urgent care. Since then, the urgent care industry has morphed into what it is today – a walk-in facility with extended hour service for adults and children with acute illnesses and injuries. But, that definition doesn’t do urgent cares justice. Urgent cares are setting the tone for what healthcare consumers want. They want unscheduled appointments, they want stellar service, they want a location that’s easy to find with accessible parking, they want distinguishable amenities, and they want the cost to be lower and more transparent.
There are approximately 9,000 urgent care centers in operation, according to the Urgent Care Association of America. The UCAOA’s 2012 Urgent Care Benchmarking Study concludes that urgent care centers see three million visits per week, totaling more than 160 million visits annually. The urgent care industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the country. With roughly two clinics opening every day, it’s expected there will be 15,000 urgent care centers by 2019.
With the boom in the urgent care space, some in the healthcare industry are concerned about the flow of patient information. Considering urgent care visits are typically one-offs, some patient information isn’t getting back to the primary care providers and health systems as it should. However, the healthcare industry is making strides to combat this through technology, interfaces, federal initiatives, and health systems partnering with urgent cares.
Driven by evolving consumer expectations, healthcare IT startup funding for digital healthcare, such as telehealth or wearable technology, is expected to double in the United States over the next three years, growing from $3.5 billion in 2014 to $6.5 billion by the end of 2017, according to new research by Accenture.
“A digital disruption is playing out in healthcare that will change social interactions, alter consumer expectations and, ultimately, improve health outcomes,” said Dipak Patel, managing director of Accenture’s patient access initiatives. “This momentum will be sustained if digital healthcare start-ups apply capabilities that create a seamless patient experience and result in both medical cost savings and improved outcomes.”
Prime allows users a way to make sure their friends, family and emergency contacts have access to their health by granting them full access at every hospital they visit. With Prime, users can stop worrying about keeping everyone up to date, and “tell the people that need to know, what they need to know.” Verifying that all HIPAA requirements are met, Prime secures information with bank-level security: All information is protected by state-of-the-art encryption. Access to the information is always monitored, and every member of the Prime team has been fully HIPAA trained.
Elevator pitch
Prime’s free mobile app helps patients aggregate their healthcare information from multiple sources into a single view on the go. Prime helps patients and their loved ones achieve a better healthcare experience by putting all their health information in one place.
Product/service description
Prime empowers people to take control of their personal health records on the go. Users can apply information from multiple sources into a single view giving them complete access to important data. The end result is individuals and their loved ones achieve a better healthcare experience. Prime is a free, HIPAA-complaint mobile app available for download in the Apple App Store. The company launched out of Techstars in 2014. We have helped users connect to more than 50,000 personal health records.
NueMD is conducting a survey of medical practices, billing companies, and business associates about HIPAA compliance.
In anticipation of the upcoming audits by the Office of Civil Rights, researchers at NueMD have teamed up with The Daniel Brown Law Group and Porter Research to conduct a survey that will help small practices prepare for an audit.
The survey will gauge respondents’ knowledge of HIPAA’s Privacy and Security regulations, understanding of compliance measures, and how electronic devices are used for communication.
Participation is strongly encouraged for care providers, office managers, and office staff of medical practices, as well as those who work for business associates (medical billing companies, software companies, etc) of covered entities.
athenahealth, Inc. announces that its More Disruption Please (MDP) Accelerator is now accepting applications. Launched in June 2014 with the arrival of its first portfolio company, Smart Scheduling, the accelerator is the company’s newest initiative for driving connectivity and innovation across the continuum of care.
The More Disruption Please Accelerator intends to drive disruption in health care by fostering the growth of high-potential, early-stage startups. athenahealth is offering its accelerator portfolio companies seed funding, free office space at its Watertown headquarters, and ongoing mentorship from athenahealth experts, advisors-in-residence and partners. Most notably, the More Disruption Please Accelerator provides its portfolio companies with exposure to athenahealth’s network of more than 55,000 health care providers via seamless integration with athenahealth’s athenaNet platform. Companies interested in working with MDP can now access and test athenahealth’s APIs through a re-imagined developer portal, designed to streamline global connectivity with athenaNet.
Chris Moses, CEO, Smart Scheduling, said, “Smart Scheduling is thrilled to take advantage of athenahealth’s commitment to open, interoperable, and disruptive technology as its first portfolio company. What’s unique about the athenahealth Accelerator is its highly customized approach; we are working together to determine a mutual definition of success for our company. Access to athenahealth’s APIs and cloud-based network has been, and will continue to be, critical to our scalability and success. We look forward to continuing to work with athenahealth’s team to bring our unique service to more and more providers across the country.”
Guest post By Barry P. Chaiken, MD, FHIMSS, chief medical information officer at Infor.
In many ways healthcare is like a symphony orchestra. Although information technology can enhance care planning, assist in medication administration and reduce duplicative testing, it cannot replace the people required to deliver care services to patients. Nurses are needed to administer medications, therapists are needed to provide treatments, and physicians are needed to diagnose illnesses and provide treatment plans. On average, hospitals devote close to 70 percent of their budget to labor costs. Until robots replace humans in the delivery of patient care, selection of the proper skill mix and number of professionals remains a significant factor that determines cost in provider organizations.
Although information technology cannot replace the staff delivering care to patients, it can assist organizations in choosing the best talent available, help develop that talent and determine the best way to utilize the skills of these professionals.
To identify the best talent, information technology tools allow the extraction of an employee’s “behavioral DNA” – the measurement of behavioral, cognitive and cultural traits. Organizations then compare this prospective employee’s “DNA” to the “DNA” of existing high performing employees within the organization in an effort to identify individuals who possess a high probability of excelling within the organization.
The recent theft of 4.5 million medical records by Chinese hackers coupled with the news that as-yet unidentified hackers were able to penetrate the U.S. government’s health care portal have ignited consumer concerns about the safety of health care records – and rightly so. No patient should have to worry that his or her protected health information (PHI) may fall into the hands of thieves.
The medical industry experiences more security breaches than any other U.S. industry today, serving to undermine public confidence in electronic health records and the industry at large. Last year alone, more than 7 million patient health records were breached, up 138 percent over the previous year, according to a February report by IT security consultant Redspin. Theft or loss of unencrypted portable computing devices (i.e., laptops) or digital media containing PHI was the leading cause of PHI data breach, impacting 83 percent of records breached. Unauthorized access and hacking incidents impacted less than 7 percent of records breached.
It’s reassuring to see the industry break new ground in studying security flaws and addressing vulnerabilities. For example, the Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) teamed with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) last spring to lead CyberRX, a series of no cost, industry-wide exercises designed to simulate cyber attacks on participating health care organizations and help them identify weaknesses in preparedness. Two important findings emerged:
Organizations that participate in cyber exercises are better prepared for a cyber attack, regardless of the maturity and comprehensiveness of their information security program.
More preparation exercises like CyberRX would benefit health organizations by helping them to evaluate their programs, refine policies and procedures, and develop and implement effective communications among internal departments, the industry at-large, and government.
HealthITJobs.com recently released new information that shows that health IT continues to be one of fastest growing careers in the US. The conclusion is based on its survey, “2014 HealthITJobs.com Salary Survey,” which also stated that the mean salary for health IT professionals is $89,879.43, with 30 percent also receiving an average bonus of $13,100.52.
In addition to being well paid, health IT pros also enjoy high job satisfaction with a full 80 percent of those working in the field satisfied with their jobs. In conjunction with the releasing the survey, the company also issued the following infographic with data collected during July and August of 2014.
As you might imagine, experience pays off, as do certifications. If you don’t have either, don’t expect to make as much, and without each a salary can be deeply impacted. If you have each of those and want to make even more money, work on Epic software or go work with a consultant firm. And, the most money will be made working in the New York area and on the West Coast, but you’ll also pay more to live there, of course.
Check out the following graphic? Are you being shown the money?
NueMD is conducting a survey of medical practices, billing companies, and business associates about HIPAA compliance.
athenahealth, Inc.
