Your network infrastructure is a critical part of your company’s success. When it comes to handling IT you have a choice-wait till something cripples your system and then call in a professional to try fixing the problem-or take a preventative IT solution by daily monitoring via Managed Services and stop most problems before they start.
Break-fix monitoring is pretty much what its name implies-waiting for your technology to break and then fixing it. This option seems a cheaper route to go, especially if your business requires minimal network support. The only problem is when something breaks you end up suffering from network downtown while waiting for someone to come to fix it. A response time for a break fix customer tends to be slower than a managed service customer. Factor in any employee who relies on the network for phone or computer support and the money loss ads up quickly.
Managed Services is a proactive approach of handling your network. How Managed Services works is you have a monthly fee that would include any proactive monitoring, service calls, software upgrades and help desk support. A nice feature about managed services providers is the predictability of a fixed fee every month and reduced risk of network downtime, which equals more productivity for your business. An added bonus is Managed Services customers are always a priority-a necessity in the event of an emergency IT situation.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both models. IT problems are bound to happen-it is up to you to decide which option will maximize your profitability.
Source: Spaulding Hill
Your day just went off the deep end.
This may very well be playing in your organization today for anyone who is not already using managed services. The worst part is the fact when you call your repair guy, they tell you that they are swamped and won’t be out until tomorrow. Ok now what? The amount of is likely to cost in lost productivity? In lost sales? In dissatisfied customers?
That is just comes later when investing in the repair bill and realize you will need to sacrifice a shape part.
Managed services is not a silver bullet however it could make your enterprise life significantly more predictable. Monitoring and maintenance may help minimize “emergency” repairs and invite you to definitely policy for downtime and treat repairs more routinely. Predictability for the business owner can be a welcome change to daily fire fighting and emergencies.
One of several current myths is that often managed services be more expensive than break/fix repairs. Even though it can certainly seem that way when viewed only by comparing the repair bill for the monthly service fee, that isn’t a fair comparison. Break/Fix repairs have significant costs linked to lost productivity, customer dissatisfaction, lost revenue opportunities among others.
Consider any mechanical device you understand of from a car to the lawnmower. All things mechanical perform better when properly maintained. Managed services typically provides that ongoing maintenance and care that will extend living of your respective computer resources giving you far more value on your investment.
The break/fix type of caring for your computer resources isn’t managing your online business. It truly is gambling. You happen to be betting that you will not have a problem that costs you customers or a large repair bill. Can there be almost every other area of your company you treat doing this? I doubt it because if you do, it’s a safe prediction that you will not be in business very long.
Do you want to feel as if you’re running your company rather then it running you? Managed services can assist you to get a handle on a different part of your enterprise and put it at bay and management.
Source: Maxiarti.com
Health insurance companies increasingly are using social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to interact with patients, but they generally are not using such channels to engage with physicians, American Medical News reports.
Engaging With Patients
Health plans are trying out different strategies for establishing a presence on social media platforms, which are relatively new outlets for insurers. For example, some insurers are using social media tools to:
In addition, many insurers monitor comments about them that appear on social media sites. In some cases, the health plans respond directly to people who appear to need assistance.
Less Outreach to Physicians
Insurers generally are not using social networking websites to communicate with physicians.
Ingrid Lindberg, customer experience officer for Cigna, said reaching out to doctors is difficult because social media-based correspondence typically is not integrated with physicians’ workflow and is not a preferred communications outlet.
A WellPoint representative said the company is exploring ways to engage with physicians through social media, as well as through mobile devices.
Limitations to Social Media Strategies
Despite the growing popularity of social media, insurers are restricted in their use of such online tools because HIPAA privacy and security rules limit the sharing of personal health data.
To avoid violating privacy regulations, insurers that communicate on social media sites often redirect their interactions with consumers to telephone conversations (Berry, American Medical News, 1/24).
Source: iHealthBeat
According to a study by Accenture, most health delivery organizations underestimate the time and costs associated with implementing advanced electronic medical record (EMR) functions, including clinical order entry, nursing and physician documentation, clinical decision support, and bar-coding medications.
Released last week, the study, “Secrets of Success on the EMR Journey to Meaningful Use: Leading Hospital CIOs Reveal Key Lessons Learned,” also found that hospitals will experience significant spikes in operating costs during the period of time that they install EMR systems.
Accenture said it interviewed 15 CIOs who work at healthcare delivery organizations that are advanced in their EMR implementations and used quantitative benchmarking to identify six key insights that can help health delivery organizations successfully adopt their EMR technology. These are:
1. EMR planning and implementation must be a strategic initiative, not an IT initiative. Having the passion, influence, engagement, and attention of a hospital system’s leadership from the outset was consistently cited by study participants as a success driver.
2. It takes longer and costs more than most anticipate. Most of the participants in the study underestimated (by nearly 100%) the time and costs associated with implementing advanced EMR functions.
3. IT operating costs will spike, and managing them requires leadership alignment and patience. Benchmarking shows that hospitals experience an 80% increase in their IT operating expenses while transitioning to EMR. This translated to IT operating expenses accounting for a larger percentage, nearly 200 basis points more, of the hospital’s overall operating budget. Evidence also suggests that these expense inflections are sustained over the long term.
4. The war for health IT talent is on. There is a significant shortage of qualified health IT professionals to meet the demand associated with EMR implementation and support. Nearly every CIO interviewed noted unfilled positions and expressed concern about how their health system would source enough talent from the marketplace, including from EMR vendors, to meet longer-term demands.
5. Supporting EMR means thinking differently about capability and operating model needs. Hospital CIOs noted the need to think differently about capabilities required to support frontline EMR users, as well as to drive optimization of EMR-derived data through health analytics. In terms of support (training, service, and troubleshooting), the average hospital had to increase the number of full-time employees focused on healthcare IT support by 45% as it reached mature levels of functionality and adoption.
6. Creating a culture for adoption is essential. To achieve meaningful use, 75% of the clinicians in a hospital must, among other things, demonstrate consistent use of advanced EMR components, which include computerized physician order entry (CPOE), physician documentation, and closed-loop administration. Every CIO interviewed talked about the need for a sharp focus on change management and workforce engagement to ensure that key stakeholders, particularly physicians, get behind the effort and understand the benefits of using these components.
The report concluded that in order to facilitate a more effective EMR implementation process, hospitals should create a dedicated position — the chief medical informatics officer (CMIO) — to serve as a bridge between the healthcare IT organization and the hospital’s clinical and business operations.
Source: InformationWeek Healthcare
Looking for alternatives to EMR??? Give us a call and we can discuss!
During his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Obama made several references to the importance of health IT, Healthcare IT News reports.
While citing progress the U.S. has made in using technology to reduce waste, Obama said, “Veterans can now download their electronic medical records with a click of the mouse.”
Obama also cited health IT when calling for an expansion of access to high-speed wireless networks. He said, “Within the next five years, we will make it possible for business to deploy the next generation of high-speed wireless coverage to 98% of all Americans” (Manos, Healthcare IT News, 1/25). He continued, “This isn’t about faster Internet or fewer dropped calls. … It’s about a firefighter who can download the design of a burning building onto a handled device; a student who can take classes with a digital textbook; or a patient who can have face-to-face video chats with her doctor” (Dolan, Mobihealthnews, 1/26).
Obama also stressed the importance of continuing to invest in IT innovation. He said, “Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine. It may feel like you’re flying high at first, but it won’t take long before you feel the impact.”
Reaction
Justin Barnes — chair emeritus of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s Electronic Health Record Association and vice president of government affairs at Greenway Medical — said, “This is the eighth year in a row that health care IT has been a part or prominent part of the president’s State of the Union address.”
Barnes — who has been advising the White House and Congress on health IT since 2003 — said, “While the debate will certainly continue on exactly how we go about creating and implementing policy, it was very encouraging to hear the increased vigor supporting additional investments in innovation around biomedical research and information technology” (Healthcare IT News, 1/25).
Source: iHealthBeat
Health insurance investigators are considering social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter as tools to conduct claims investigations, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The insurance industry says fraud costs the U.S. up to $80 billion annually, accounting for up to 10% of total yearly health care spending.
Insurer Practices
According to National Insurance Crime Bureau spokesperson Frank Scafidi, insurers “look out for things that don’t add up.” For example, insurers could investigate someone who claimed an injury for work but had posted on Facebook about running a marathon.
Insurance companies also are examining whether data available on social networking sites can be used to help underwrite policies.
Mike Fitzgerald — a senior analyst at Celent, the insurance consulting arm of brokerage firm Marsh & McLennan — said insurers could find social media valuable to compare what individuals admit about lifestyle choices and what they reveal online.
Concerns
However, some insurance lawyers say that such practices could lead companies to monitor profiles to raise premiums or deny claims, the Times reports.
Vedica Puri — a partner at Pillsbury & Levinson, a law firm specializing in insurance — said, “The situation is coming up more and more in court where lawyers for insurance companies lay traps for the insured based on pictures or postings on Facebook or Twitter.”
Peter Foley, vice president of claims administration at the American Insurance Association, said insurance investigators could be deemed negligent if they did not scan social media sites for contradictions. He added that anything found on social networking sites should only be a starting point for investigations and not final proof of fraud (Li, Los Angeles Times, 1/25).
Source: iHealthBeat
For any questions or interest in social media for your practice, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Baby boomers are expected to contribute to an expansion of the mobile health IT market, according to a report released Wednesday by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Enterprise Forum of the Northwest, NextGov reports.
Key Findings
According to report, market analysts predict that seniors will play a role in helping the mobile health IT market grow to $4.6 billion by 2014 and to $12 billion by 2020.
The report also notes that nearly 56% of baby boomers have expressed a “high willingness” to use home-based health monitoring devices. Some of the products that seniors expressed interest in include:
Possible Challenges
According to the report’s authors, an expansion of the mobile health market might be unsustainable without a shift in health care payment structures.
The report notes most health insurance companies currently do not cover the costs of remote monitoring technologies and other mobile health tools (Versel, Mobihealthnews, 1/12).
Source: iHealthBeat
Physicians have different views as to whether health IT will improve health care, according to a new survey, Reuters reports.
For the report, Thomson Reuters and practice management company HCPlexus surveyed 2,958 physicians of various specialties on their views on health care reform, including health IT initiatives.
When asked about the impact of using electronic health records:
The survey allowed participants to provide comments.
One Colorado dermatologist said that his practice has had EHRs in place for three years and that EHRs make it “easier to keep track of patients” at different offices.
However, an Arizona dermatologist said he thinks EHRs gets in the way of patient-doctor interaction. He said, “You cannot record your patient’s answer and still maintain eye contact and watch the patient’s body language as you proceed with the interview” (Clark, HealthLeaders Media, 1/20).
The report concludes that “greater attention should be paid to understanding the present opinions of the health care provider constituency before proceeding down a path of reform” (Reuters, 1/19).
Source: iHealthBeat
Personal health records must be designed with the right technology to remain patient centered to best manage an individual’s health, according to a Journal of the American Medical Association commentary published on Jan. 19, CMIO reports.
Virginia Commonwealth University physicians Alexander Krist and Steven Woolf described a model that they say should be used to keep the focus on the patient when developing PHRs.
Krist and Woolf write that the model should have five key functions:
The authors write, “The typical [PHR] takes an oversimplified approach,” adding, “The power of smart technology could enable PHRs to be far more refined and thereby more appealing to patients” (CMIO, 1/18).
Source: Health IT
A wide variety of new technologies aim to help family members monitor the health and safety of senior relatives who would like to continue living in their homes, HealthDay reports.Available DevicesSome of the new technologies include:
Seniors’ ViewsElinor Ginzler — senior vice president for livable communities at AARP — said it would be incorrect to assume that older residents would reject the electronic monitoring devices because of a loss of privacy.
Ginzler cited a recent AARP survey, which found that nearly nine in 10 seniors said they would be willing to give up some privacy if they could remain in their homes longer.
Many seniors also said they would be willing to use specific home safety technologies even if they previously were unfamiliar with such devices.
Recommendations
Ginzler and Harry Wang — director of health and mobile product research for Parks Associates — offered three recommendations for promoting successful senior safety systems:
Source: iHealthBeat
MGMA Supports ICD-10 Testing With Outside Organizations
July 30, 2013
Report: Many EHR Users Set To Replace Systems Within the Next Year
July 30, 2013
Providers, Vendors Urge Congress To Delay Meaningful Use Stage 2
July 30, 2013
Many Doctors May Find Meeting ‘Meaningful Use’ Requirements a Challenge
June 28, 2013
When it Comes to ICD-10 Physician Documentation: Collaborate and Educate
June 28, 2013
The Slow Crawl Toward Improved EHR Usability and Interoperability
June 28, 2013
Efficient Patient Communication and Engagement
June 13, 2013
ONC Issues Guidance on Stage 2 Transition of Care Requirements
May 31, 2013
Drugmakers Leverage Doctor, Patient Data To Market Their Products
May 31, 2013
Consumer Organizations Defend Meaningful Use Program
May 31, 2013
