Rhode Island Health IT Newsletter: December, 2005
Vol.1; Issue 2
Presented by Quality Partners of Rhode Island
****************************************************************************************
Calendar of Events:
SAVE THE DATE: Quality Partners to host a DOQ-IT Dinner Meeting: "Winter Workflow Workshop: Evaluating Your Readiness for EHR" on January 25th from 6-8 PM ~ This workshop is geared toward Office Managers/EHR Project Managers and will focus on office workflow processes. Priority is given to DOQ-IT practices.
SAVE THE DATE: 2nd Annual Rhode Island Health IT Fair; sponsored by Quality Partners, Rhode Island Medical Society, and MGMA, to be held in March 2006...stay tuned for more details!!
**************************************************************************************** Rhode Island Health IT Project:
There have been several key accomplishments this past month with the AHRQ Health IT project. A Request For Proposals (RFP) has been drafted for a technical model and will be sent to interested Vendors at the beginning of 2006. Rhode Island attended, with fellow grant recipients, the "AHRQ State and Regional Demonstration Contractors" Conference in Utah where the primary topic was the business case for Health Information Exchanges.
Upcoming plans include completing the RFP development, finalizing key contracts within the grant and continue to develop the Rhode Island Quality Institute Consumer Advisory Committee and Administrative Data Exchange Committee.
The Physicians Advisory Panel met on December 7th and received an overview of the proposed technical solution. The group meets again on January 18th, 2006 to continue with recommendations on the proposed model. The panel is comprised of 14 physicians representing primary care, pediatrics, internal medicine, OB/GYN, and surgical specialities.
Rhode Island is one of the Recipients ~ Grants to Boost Public Health I.T. A new grant program from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will help public health agencies participate in regional health information organizations and other health information exchanges.
The foundation has awarded 21 grants of up to... http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/html/PortalStory.cfm?type=trend&DID=13332
Rhode Island Featured in a Web Portal that Tracks Health IT Interoperability Projects:
The HIT Dashboard, a Web portal that tracks more than 500 health IT interoperability projects across the country, was launched this month as part of an effort to educate policy makers, health care executives and technology vendors, Health-IT World News reports. To read more:
http://tmlr.net/jump/?c=17194&a=296&m=3491&p=1705874&t=164
To view the portal go to: http://www.hitdashboard.com/ and click on "Launch HIT Map" to view Rhode Island activities.
**************************************************************************************** The DOQ-IT Project:
Presently, 24 practices have been recruited to participate in the DOQ-IT project. The recruitment phase is complete. However, Quality Partners invites interested practices (both specialties and non-specialties) to be part of our learning group. The learning group offers practices information on EHR selection and planning, as well as, open learning sessions and our monthly e-newsletter. Please contact Mary Ellen Casey at mcasey@riqio.sdps.org for more information.
For practices who have already implemented an EHR please read on to learn more about the Rhode Island Chronic Care Collaborative.
Invitation to Participate in the 3rd Rhode Island Chronic Care Collaborative
Quality Partners of Rhode Island and the Department of Health Diabetes Prevention and Control Program invite primary care physicians who have implemented an electronic health record (EHR) to participate in our 3rd Rhode Island Chronic Care Collaborative (RICCC) that will begin in the spring of 2006.
The RICCC is a systematic, evidence-based approach to redesigning and improving healthcare delivery for diabetic patients. It is based on the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) Breakthrough Series model.
Participating practices will: · Learn to use the functionality of your EHR for care management processes · Learn to develop your own chronic disease program · Streamline clinical functions · Improve patient diabetic outcomes · Learn and Implement a proven quality improvement method · Share experiences, materials and lessons learned with peers
To enroll or learn more about this no cost initiative, please contact Lauren Pond, project coordinator at lpond@riqio.sdps.org.
***************************************************************************************
Gingrich Sees R.I. as Springboard for Nationwide Healthcare Reform
CHT Founder Newt Gingrich joins Governor Donald Carcieri and Congressman Patrick Kennedy at a bipartisan leadership conference in Providence, R.I.
The former House speaker says the nation's smallest state is a perfect place to be a model for saving lives and costs. "America must remake its convoluted and inefficient system of health care or countless lives will continue to be lost and billions of dollars will continue to be wasted", Newt Gingrich, former Republican House speaker, said yesterday. To read more: http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20051217_health17.22199054.html
**************************************************************************************** Rhode Island e-Prescribing Update:
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) and others have recommended the utilization of electronic prescribing (E-Rx) as technology to improve quality of care and reduce errors related to medication prescribing.
Under the guidance of the Rhode Island Quality Institute, RI has partnered with SureScripts to implement statewide E-Rx. Phase I of this effort focused on getting a majority of pharmacies connected and early physician adopters to implement E-Rx in their practice.
After two years, 22% of office-based physicians in RI have registered with SureScripts to use E-Rx in their practices and 82% of pharmacies in RI accept electronic prescriptions. Currently, 1.6% of all prescriptions filled in RI are transmitted through SureScripts.
Achieving statewide adoption of E-Rx is the goal for RI moving into Phase II. The specific goals include:
· By the end of 2007, 75% of all prescriptions for residents of RI will be completed electronically
· By the end of 2007, two-thirds of all RI clinicians (i.e. physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants) will utilize an electronic prescribing mechanism for either new or renewal prescriptions
· By the end of 2007, 100% of pharmacies will be capable of accepting electronic prescriptions in accordance with NCPDP standards **************************************************************************************** HL7, NCPDP Collaborate on e-Prescribing Mapping Project
Members of the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs and Health Level Seven have completed the first phase of a standards coordination project to facilitate e-prescribing messaging capabilities between prescribers, pharmacies and payers, according to HL7....
Visit http://www.AISHealth.com/EHealthBusiness/121305.html#story5 to read the entire story
**************************************************************************************** CCHIT Publishes Proposed Final Criteria for Ambulatory EMR Certification:
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology has published its proposed final criteria for certifying ambulatory electronic medical records systems, Health Data Management reports.
http://www.ihealthbeat.org/track/url.cfm?u=31475&rurl=www%2Eihealthbeat%2Eorg%2Findex%2Ecfm%3FAction%3DdspItem%26itemID%3D117304
**************************************************************************************** WASHINGTON DC USA -- HEALTHCARE UPDATE NEWS SERVICE(TM):
NOVEMBER 30, 2005: A report released by the Center for Health Transformation (CHT) and IDX Systems Corporation outlines achievable recommendations to spur the adoption of electronic health records and regional health information organizations (RHIOs), based on the best practices of successful health data exchanges.
Drawn from discussions among technology experts, public policy analysts, and leaders of thriving regional networks at the CHT Connectivity Conference (Oct. 18, 2005), the white paper, "Accelerating Transformation through Health Information Technology," highlights proven and practical strategies for healthcare providers, federal and state policymakers and other stakeholders. The complete report is available online at:
www.idx.com.
**************************************************************************************** Health IT can help raise quality:
Health information technology is a "remarkable asset" in the drive to improve healthcare quality, said Institute for Healthcare Improvement President and Chief Executive Officer Donald Berwick, M.D. For full story, use link below:
http://e.ccialerts.com/a/tBDoF3eAIyhSgAa0kNPAS38Gv.Aa0kvLHY/mhc11
**************************************************************************************** A reminder and a measuring stick ~ By incorporating clinical measures into their EHRs some physician groups can simultaneously collect data and improve patient care.
As the nationwide campaign to improve healthcare quality gathers steam, some physician groups are starting to build performance measures into their electronic health records. By embedding the measures in their EHR templates and computer prompts, these groups are making dramatic improvements in some areas of patient care:
http://www.memag.com/memag/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=197566
*******************************************************************************************
The AAFP published an article titled, "Why it's Time to Purchase an Electronic Health Record System"
"If you're like me, you've been intrigued by the idea of an electronic health record system (EHR) for years but figured that it would be too costly and disruptive to your practice to actually buy one. You suspected that it would slow you down and force you to interact more with a computer than with the patient in front of you. You assumed that EHRs made sense only for technophile types who didn't mind typing or fiddling with programs, and you were right - until now. My history with EHRs...."http://www.aafp.org/fpm/20041100/43whyi.html
**************************************************************************************** "50 reasons to get an EHR" If a normal home life strikes you as a compelling reason to buy an EHR, we can give you 50 more good business reasons. We collected them from EHR users like Arlene Brown as well as a few IT experts...read on: http://www.memag.com/memag/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=179083
**************************************************************************************** Vendor Corner:
Rhode Island doc groups team up for EMRs from ModernHealthcare.com December 6, 2005 ----- Four Rhode Island physician groups have formed a company called Electronic Health Records of Rhode Island, which aims to help physicians in the state select and implement an affordable, interoperable electronic health record system, Modern Healthcare reports.
"The dream here is to have every doc in the state on one IT system," says Mark Jacobs, physician chairman of Electronic Health Records of Rhode Island's board of directors. To read more about this topic go to:
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article.cms?articleId=37864
**************************************************************************************** **************************************************************************************** Medicare AMA Sends Letter to CMS Administrator McClellan, Congress Opposing Medicare Physician Rate Reduction With Pay-For-Performance System:
American Medical Association Executive Vice President and CEO Michael Maves on Monday sent a letter to CMS Administrator Mark McClellan saying that the group will oppose efforts to adopt a pay-for-performance Medicare reimbursement system unless Congress acts to permanently reverse payment cuts to doctors:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=34177
**************************************************************************************** RIMS Flash: Congress Averts Medicare Payment cut for 2006
House vote eliminates plan to cut payments by 4.4%; 2006 rates will stay at 2005 levels.
As part of a frantic end-of-the-session budget debate that will likely continue into Wednesday, both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives have agreed to scrap a planned 4.4 percent reduction in Medicare reimbursement that would have taken effect on January 1, 2006. Both chambers have voted to extend 2005 payment levels for another year.
American Medical Association President J. Edward Hill, MD lauded the payment freeze and credited the AMA's extensive grassroots effort to raise awareness for Medicare reform as a force behind the recent vote.
"Over 360,000 physicians and patients told Congress that the cuts were unacceptable - andCongress listened," he said in a statement.
Please visit the http://www.ama-assn.org/ AMA website for more information A final vote on the 2006 budget is currently scheduled for Wednesday, December 21.
****************************************************************************************
To subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter please email: mcasey@riqio.sdps.org To submit items please contact Mary Ellen Casey, Project Coordinator at: 401-528-3231 or email: mcasey@riqio.sdps.org
Mary Ellen Casey, RN, BS, M.Ed, COS-C Project Coordinator Quality Partners of Rhode Island 235 Promenade St Suite 500, Box 18 Providence, RI 02908 Phone: 401-528-3231 Fax: 401-528-3210 E-mail: Mcasey@riqio.sdps.org www.qualitypartners.org
Presented by Quality Partners of Rhode Island
****************************************************************************************
Calendar of Events:
SAVE THE DATE: Quality Partners to host a DOQ-IT Dinner Meeting: "Winter Workflow Workshop: Evaluating Your Readiness for EHR" on January 25th from 6-8 PM ~ This workshop is geared toward Office Managers/EHR Project Managers and will focus on office workflow processes. Priority is given to DOQ-IT practices.
SAVE THE DATE: 2nd Annual Rhode Island Health IT Fair; sponsored by Quality Partners, Rhode Island Medical Society, and MGMA, to be held in March 2006...stay tuned for more details!!
**************************************************************************************** Rhode Island Health IT Project:
There have been several key accomplishments this past month with the AHRQ Health IT project. A Request For Proposals (RFP) has been drafted for a technical model and will be sent to interested Vendors at the beginning of 2006. Rhode Island attended, with fellow grant recipients, the "AHRQ State and Regional Demonstration Contractors" Conference in Utah where the primary topic was the business case for Health Information Exchanges.
Upcoming plans include completing the RFP development, finalizing key contracts within the grant and continue to develop the Rhode Island Quality Institute Consumer Advisory Committee and Administrative Data Exchange Committee.
The Physicians Advisory Panel met on December 7th and received an overview of the proposed technical solution. The group meets again on January 18th, 2006 to continue with recommendations on the proposed model. The panel is comprised of 14 physicians representing primary care, pediatrics, internal medicine, OB/GYN, and surgical specialities.
Rhode Island is one of the Recipients ~ Grants to Boost Public Health I.T. A new grant program from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will help public health agencies participate in regional health information organizations and other health information exchanges.
The foundation has awarded 21 grants of up to... http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/html/PortalStory.cfm?type=trend&DID=13332
Rhode Island Featured in a Web Portal that Tracks Health IT Interoperability Projects:
The HIT Dashboard, a Web portal that tracks more than 500 health IT interoperability projects across the country, was launched this month as part of an effort to educate policy makers, health care executives and technology vendors, Health-IT World News reports. To read more:
http://tmlr.net/jump/?c=17194&a=296&m=3491&p=1705874&t=164
To view the portal go to: http://www.hitdashboard.com/ and click on "Launch HIT Map" to view Rhode Island activities.
**************************************************************************************** The DOQ-IT Project:
Presently, 24 practices have been recruited to participate in the DOQ-IT project. The recruitment phase is complete. However, Quality Partners invites interested practices (both specialties and non-specialties) to be part of our learning group. The learning group offers practices information on EHR selection and planning, as well as, open learning sessions and our monthly e-newsletter. Please contact Mary Ellen Casey at mcasey@riqio.sdps.org for more information.
For practices who have already implemented an EHR please read on to learn more about the Rhode Island Chronic Care Collaborative.
Invitation to Participate in the 3rd Rhode Island Chronic Care Collaborative
Quality Partners of Rhode Island and the Department of Health Diabetes Prevention and Control Program invite primary care physicians who have implemented an electronic health record (EHR) to participate in our 3rd Rhode Island Chronic Care Collaborative (RICCC) that will begin in the spring of 2006.
The RICCC is a systematic, evidence-based approach to redesigning and improving healthcare delivery for diabetic patients. It is based on the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) Breakthrough Series model.
Participating practices will: · Learn to use the functionality of your EHR for care management processes · Learn to develop your own chronic disease program · Streamline clinical functions · Improve patient diabetic outcomes · Learn and Implement a proven quality improvement method · Share experiences, materials and lessons learned with peers
To enroll or learn more about this no cost initiative, please contact Lauren Pond, project coordinator at lpond@riqio.sdps.org.
***************************************************************************************
Gingrich Sees R.I. as Springboard for Nationwide Healthcare Reform
CHT Founder Newt Gingrich joins Governor Donald Carcieri and Congressman Patrick Kennedy at a bipartisan leadership conference in Providence, R.I.
The former House speaker says the nation's smallest state is a perfect place to be a model for saving lives and costs. "America must remake its convoluted and inefficient system of health care or countless lives will continue to be lost and billions of dollars will continue to be wasted", Newt Gingrich, former Republican House speaker, said yesterday. To read more: http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20051217_health17.22199054.html
**************************************************************************************** Rhode Island e-Prescribing Update:
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) and others have recommended the utilization of electronic prescribing (E-Rx) as technology to improve quality of care and reduce errors related to medication prescribing.
Under the guidance of the Rhode Island Quality Institute, RI has partnered with SureScripts to implement statewide E-Rx. Phase I of this effort focused on getting a majority of pharmacies connected and early physician adopters to implement E-Rx in their practice.
After two years, 22% of office-based physicians in RI have registered with SureScripts to use E-Rx in their practices and 82% of pharmacies in RI accept electronic prescriptions. Currently, 1.6% of all prescriptions filled in RI are transmitted through SureScripts.
Achieving statewide adoption of E-Rx is the goal for RI moving into Phase II. The specific goals include:
· By the end of 2007, 75% of all prescriptions for residents of RI will be completed electronically
· By the end of 2007, two-thirds of all RI clinicians (i.e. physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants) will utilize an electronic prescribing mechanism for either new or renewal prescriptions
· By the end of 2007, 100% of pharmacies will be capable of accepting electronic prescriptions in accordance with NCPDP standards **************************************************************************************** HL7, NCPDP Collaborate on e-Prescribing Mapping Project
Members of the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs and Health Level Seven have completed the first phase of a standards coordination project to facilitate e-prescribing messaging capabilities between prescribers, pharmacies and payers, according to HL7....
Visit http://www.AISHealth.com/EHealthBusiness/121305.html#story5 to read the entire story
**************************************************************************************** CCHIT Publishes Proposed Final Criteria for Ambulatory EMR Certification:
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology has published its proposed final criteria for certifying ambulatory electronic medical records systems, Health Data Management reports.
http://www.ihealthbeat.org/track/url.cfm?u=31475&rurl=www%2Eihealthbeat%2Eorg%2Findex%2Ecfm%3FAction%3DdspItem%26itemID%3D117304
**************************************************************************************** WASHINGTON DC USA -- HEALTHCARE UPDATE NEWS SERVICE(TM):
NOVEMBER 30, 2005: A report released by the Center for Health Transformation (CHT) and IDX Systems Corporation outlines achievable recommendations to spur the adoption of electronic health records and regional health information organizations (RHIOs), based on the best practices of successful health data exchanges.
Drawn from discussions among technology experts, public policy analysts, and leaders of thriving regional networks at the CHT Connectivity Conference (Oct. 18, 2005), the white paper, "Accelerating Transformation through Health Information Technology," highlights proven and practical strategies for healthcare providers, federal and state policymakers and other stakeholders. The complete report is available online at:
www.idx.com.
**************************************************************************************** Health IT can help raise quality:
Health information technology is a "remarkable asset" in the drive to improve healthcare quality, said Institute for Healthcare Improvement President and Chief Executive Officer Donald Berwick, M.D. For full story, use link below:
http://e.ccialerts.com/a/tBDoF3eAIyhSgAa0kNPAS38Gv.Aa0kvLHY/mhc11
**************************************************************************************** A reminder and a measuring stick ~ By incorporating clinical measures into their EHRs some physician groups can simultaneously collect data and improve patient care.
As the nationwide campaign to improve healthcare quality gathers steam, some physician groups are starting to build performance measures into their electronic health records. By embedding the measures in their EHR templates and computer prompts, these groups are making dramatic improvements in some areas of patient care:
http://www.memag.com/memag/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=197566
*******************************************************************************************
The AAFP published an article titled, "Why it's Time to Purchase an Electronic Health Record System"
"If you're like me, you've been intrigued by the idea of an electronic health record system (EHR) for years but figured that it would be too costly and disruptive to your practice to actually buy one. You suspected that it would slow you down and force you to interact more with a computer than with the patient in front of you. You assumed that EHRs made sense only for technophile types who didn't mind typing or fiddling with programs, and you were right - until now. My history with EHRs...."http://www.aafp.org/fpm/20041100/43whyi.html
**************************************************************************************** "50 reasons to get an EHR" If a normal home life strikes you as a compelling reason to buy an EHR, we can give you 50 more good business reasons. We collected them from EHR users like Arlene Brown as well as a few IT experts...read on: http://www.memag.com/memag/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=179083
**************************************************************************************** Vendor Corner:
Rhode Island doc groups team up for EMRs from ModernHealthcare.com December 6, 2005 ----- Four Rhode Island physician groups have formed a company called Electronic Health Records of Rhode Island, which aims to help physicians in the state select and implement an affordable, interoperable electronic health record system, Modern Healthcare reports.
"The dream here is to have every doc in the state on one IT system," says Mark Jacobs, physician chairman of Electronic Health Records of Rhode Island's board of directors. To read more about this topic go to:
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article.cms?articleId=37864
**************************************************************************************** **************************************************************************************** Medicare AMA Sends Letter to CMS Administrator McClellan, Congress Opposing Medicare Physician Rate Reduction With Pay-For-Performance System:
American Medical Association Executive Vice President and CEO Michael Maves on Monday sent a letter to CMS Administrator Mark McClellan saying that the group will oppose efforts to adopt a pay-for-performance Medicare reimbursement system unless Congress acts to permanently reverse payment cuts to doctors:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=34177
**************************************************************************************** RIMS Flash: Congress Averts Medicare Payment cut for 2006
House vote eliminates plan to cut payments by 4.4%; 2006 rates will stay at 2005 levels.
As part of a frantic end-of-the-session budget debate that will likely continue into Wednesday, both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives have agreed to scrap a planned 4.4 percent reduction in Medicare reimbursement that would have taken effect on January 1, 2006. Both chambers have voted to extend 2005 payment levels for another year.
American Medical Association President J. Edward Hill, MD lauded the payment freeze and credited the AMA's extensive grassroots effort to raise awareness for Medicare reform as a force behind the recent vote.
"Over 360,000 physicians and patients told Congress that the cuts were unacceptable - andCongress listened," he said in a statement.
Please visit the http://www.ama-assn.org/ AMA website for more information A final vote on the 2006 budget is currently scheduled for Wednesday, December 21.
****************************************************************************************
To subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter please email: mcasey@riqio.sdps.org To submit items please contact Mary Ellen Casey, Project Coordinator at: 401-528-3231 or email: mcasey@riqio.sdps.org
Mary Ellen Casey, RN, BS, M.Ed, COS-C Project Coordinator Quality Partners of Rhode Island 235 Promenade St Suite 500, Box 18 Providence, RI 02908 Phone: 401-528-3231 Fax: 401-528-3210 E-mail: Mcasey@riqio.sdps.org www.qualitypartners.org
posted by Bob Coli, MD | 9:11 AM
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