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HIMSS has launched it’s very own blog , cleverly called the HIMSS Blog.    They expect to post daily on issues and initiatives related to their efforts to improve patient care with health IT.  The first post is Certified EHRs…from Complete to Commodity.

I’ve added them to my Google Reader and look forward to reading their daily thoughts.

Hospitals and community health organizations continue to recognize the benefits of technology by implementing health IT to improve patient care, safety, and efficiency, including three finalists for the 2010 HIMSS Davies Organizational and HIMSS Davies Community Health Organization Awards of Excellence.

The HIMSS Davies Community Health Organization finalist receiving a site visit is Open Door Family Medical Center, Inc. in Ossining, NY. Open Door’s patient base of almost 35,000 consists primarily of the working poor: low-income working families and vulnerable populations such as Latino immigrants, women and children who are never turned away from care.

Two HIMSS Davies Organizational Award finalists will receive site visits. Sentara Healthcare in Norfolk, Va. has six hospitals, more than 100 physician practices and more than 340 physicians live on its eCare electronic health record system.

As one of the nation’s largest health systems devoted to pediatric patient care, teaching and research, Nemours provides clinical care in four states – Delaware, Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It includes the 200-bed Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, which is set on a 300-acre campus near Wilmington, Del.

For each award category, a review committee of former Award winners and other subject matter experts evaluates all application submissions. The committee members then vote to determine finalists for a site visit with the staff of the finalists to tour the facility and see the electronic health record workflow in action by various providers as described in their written application.

Now in its 16th year, the HIMSS Davies Awards of Excellence recognizes healthcare organizations across the country that go beyond the standard of care with health IT, explained David Collins, HIMSS Director, Healthcare Information Systems.

“The winners of the Davies Award understand that implementing health IT is a strategic decision to improve patient care and outcomes. These award finalists have put the patient first with the use of technology as a valuable tool for their staffs throughout the organization, describing value in their written application.”

In all HIMSS Davies Award categories, the application serves as a tool for an applicant to assess and document EHR progress based on four key areas: management, functionality, technology and value, with greatest weight given to value achieved. Winners will be invited to present at the 2011 Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition in Orlando, Fla. and to serve on their respective HIMSS Davies Award Committee.

For more information on the Davies Awards visit http://www.himss.org/davies/index.asp.

About HIMSS Davies Award of Excellence
The HIMSS Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence recognizes excellence in the implementation and use of health information technology, specifically electronic health records (EHRs), for healthcare organizations, private practices, public health systems, and community health organizations. Created by CPRI-HOST in 1994, the first three recipients of the Davies Organizational Award were recognized in 1995. In 2002, CPRI-HOST merged with the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and now, HIMSS manages the award program. The Award honors Dr. Nicholas E. Davies, an Atlanta-based practicing physician, president-elect of the American College of Physicians, and a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Improving the Patient Record, who died in 1991 in a plane crash. For more information visit www.himss.org/davies.

SOURCE: HIMSS

For the CCHIT certification, Nortec EHR 7.0 was inspected using real-life medical scenarios designed to test products rigorously against the functionality, interoperability and security needs of providers. The System passed inspection of 100% of CCHIT’s 2011 criteria for practice-based use, including verification of successful use at live sites.

Nortec EHR 7.0 was also inspected by CCHIT to preliminarily meet 19 of the 24 requirements of the Preliminary ARRA IFR Stage 1 certification for Eligible Providers published by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Inspection information is available at http://www.cchit.org/products. For the purpose of qualifying products for ARRA incentives, CCHIT anticipates, but has not yet received, accreditation by HHS.

“This is a wonderful milestone for us. We believe that by proving ourselves through these stringent tests and being one of the few EHR systems to receive both of these certifications and a full five star usability rating confirms our leadership and commitment to providing a system that is not only robust and secure but also remains practical and easy to use for our clients,” said Ajmal Sheikh, Nortec CEO.

The CCHIT certification program provides a seal of approval for EHR products. With providers standing to receive over $44,000 in government incentives for implementing an EHR system, this certification reduces the risk in selecting such a system, while allowing physicians to focus on the needs of their practice.

‘Go’ will provide easy access to best practices and success stories from the Allscripts client community of more than 160,000 physicians, 800 hospitals, and 8,000 post-acute care facilities. Available at www.allscripts.com/go, the site contains over 100 case studies, articles and videos of Allscripts clients that have successfully automated and connected their practices.

“What physicians want now is not talk, but real results,” said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts. “The Stimulus incentives provide a clear call to action that the time to automate is now.  However, few physicians know where to go to get started. With ‘meaningful use’ now the measure of success, they are looking for companies that have demonstrated they can deliver.  Allscripts has thousands of clients who are effectively using electronic health records today and our Allscripts Guarantee provides the assurance that our solutions will meet the certification criteria. The introduction of ‘Go’ highlights the best demonstrated practices and results that our clients have achieved, providing a clear path for others to follow.”

As part of the launch of ‘Go,’ a number of leading providers in the Allscripts community will share their stories in the Allscripts booth during HIMSS, including the following:

–  Integrated Delivery Network: Bill Spooner, Senior Vice President and
Chief Information Officer of Sharp Healthcare and recipient of this
year’s CHIME-HIMSS “John E. Gall, Jr. CIO of the Year Award,” will
provide an overview of Sharp’s EHR journey, outlining how they drove
EHR utilization across more than 500 providers, converted 10,000
square feet of chart room into revenue generating MRI, CT and exam
rooms; and are already well positioned to demonstrate “Meaningful Use”
across all 16 of their locations.
–  Independent Physician Practice: Greg Oliver, MD, of Oliver Family
Medicine in Indianapolis will outline how a solo-physician practice
can easily implement an EHR and achieve significant results: Improving
the quality of care while reducing overall costs by $157,000 per year
and increasing profit by 25%.
–  Large Academic Medical Center: George Brenckle, PhD, Senior Vice
President and Chief Information Officer, and Richard Cramer, Associate
CIO of Operations and Health Information Exchange, both of UMass
Memorial Health Care, will detail how they are partnering with
Allscripts to connect their seven hospitals, the UMass Medical School,
13,500 employees and approximately 2,400 employed and affiliated
physicians to enable high-quality patient-centric care by making all
relevant information about a patient available at the point-of-care,
irrespective of organization, geography or care setting.

Today’s introduction of ‘Go’ adds to the resources that Allscripts has recently deployed to help physician practices take advantage of the Stimulus:

–  The Allscripts Stimulus Program provides physicians with a guarantee
that the Allscripts EHR they select will meet the EHR certification
criteria provided by the US Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS). Physicians can also benefit from a new Allscripts financing
program requiring no payments for software for six months, as well as
new programs focused on faster implementation to ensure physicians can
access the Federal Stimulus incentives.
–  The Allscripts Stimulus Center provides the latest information on the
Stimulus, including frequently asked questions on Meaningful Use and
Certification.
–  The Allscripts Legislative & Regulatory Action Center is a place to
learn about and take action on issues that are critical to the
provider community, providing a simple, ‘one touch’ connection to
elected officials. Current hot topics that have generated thousands of
letters through the site from Allscripts clients to their elected
officials include eliminating the proposed 21 percent reduction in the
Medicare physician fee schedule and adjusting the definition of a
“hospital-based physician” under the Federal Stimulus incentive
program to ensure they are not excluded.

“Our goal is to make it simple for physicians to take advantage of the Stimulus,” said Dan Michelson, Chief Marketing Officer of Allscripts. “The incentives are in place, our products are guaranteed, and a clear path has been set by the thousands of physicians who are making it work today. So there is no reason to wait and, if you do, you risking losing the opportunity to access the funding. It’s time to ‘Go’.”

To access ‘Go’, visit www.allscripts.com/go. Learn more at the Georgia World Congress Center during HIMSS10 by visiting the Allscripts booth (#6714).

This honor is the result of years of planning, says Ed Bauknecht, director of HFM’s Management Information Systems. “This national recognition is the culmination of many years of hard work by several individuals; not only in MIS, but all of the HFM staff who have dedicated time and talent in the implementation process and are committed to the use of these electronic tools to enhance patient safety,” said Bauknecht. “HIMSS Analytics has confirmed just how far HFM has traveled down the road of EMR.”

Steven Driggers, MD, HFM’s Chief Medical Officer, also stresses that this designation is a key quality indicator that benefits all HFM customers. “Being a Stage 6 hospital reinforces HFM’s commitment to quality care,” said Driggers. “It better positions us to have the capability to provide data on quality of care and to successfully address industry transformations in the future. For the patient and all customers, it means a continued focus on improving care delivery to ensure quality and value throughout our organization.”

HIMSS Analytics created the EMR Adoption Model (EMRAM) to identify the levels of EMR capabilities, ranging from an environment at Stage 0 with few to no clinical applications, through Stage 7, an EMR environment where paper records are not used to manage or support patient care, data is mined and analyzed to improve care delivery performance, and data can be easily exchanged between care provider settings. In essence, the EMRAM provides a methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of EMR systems.

“HIMSS Analytics congratulates Holy Family Memorial, Inc. for leading the way toward healthcare IT adoption,” said Mike Davis, executive vice president of HIMSS Analytics. “Stage 6 represents a level of sophistication that only 50 U.S. hospitals have reached to date.”

CareTech Solutions, Inc. (www.CareTechSolutions.com), a health information technology (IT) and Web products and services provider for hospitals and health systems nationwide, has served as Holy Family Memorial’s healthcare IT provider since 2007. CareTech helped bring Holy Family Memorial’s EMR vision to life by providing a full spectrum of IT services in support of the hospital’s data center operations, service desk, desktop, network, and applications. CareTech also manages Holy Family Memorial’s MIS staff, and provides technical resources for implementation of Holy Family Memorial’s strategic information technology plan.

“Holy Family Memorial’s achievement of Stage 6 on the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model Scale is an outstanding and rare achievement in support of patient care, and stands as the model for other U.S. hospitals to emulate when it comes to healthcare IT adoption and use,” said Jim Giordano, president and CEO of CareTech Solutions. “We’re delighted to have offered our healthcare IT expertise to help Holy Family Memorial address and embrace the national vision for the role technology should play in helping to provide quality, affordable patient care.”

LSS Data Systems, a MEDITECH partner, supplies the core ambulatory EMR and practice management system to Holy Family Memorial.

“We congratulate our colleagues at Holy Family Memorial on this remarkable achievement,” said Bill Schmidt, LSS vice president of sales and corporate development. “Reaching Stage 6 on the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model puts them in an elite category, among less than one percent of healthcare organizations nationally.”

According to HIMSS Analytics, Stage 6 hospitals:

• Have made significant executive investments to reach this stage;
• Appear to have a significant advantage over competitors for patient safety, clinician support, clinician recruitment, and competitive marketing for both consumers and nurse recruitment;
• Have almost fully automated/paperless medical records;
• Are either starting to evaluate their data for care delivery process improvements, or have already documented significant improvements in this area;
• Have made investments that are within reach of most hospitals and recognize the strategic value of improving patient care with the EMR;
• Are poised to provide data to key audiences (e.g., payers, the government, physicians, consumers, and employers) to support electronic health record (EHR) environments and health information exchanges (HIEs); and
• Have achieved a significant advancement in their IT capabilities that positions them to successfully address many of the upcoming industry transformations we will be experiencing in the near future, such as HIPAA Claims Attachment, pay for performance, and government quality reporting programs.