New Center for Healthcare Transparency Can Transform The Industry

Posted by Allison on Sat, May 02, 2015 @ 04:29 PM

There is a newly formed Center for Healthcare Transparency (CHT) that is part of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

This new center aims to strengthen quality and cost information when it comes to healthcare. The program has ambitious goals, including, wanting half of the U.S. population to have access to reliable cost and quality information by 2020. Many healthcare leaders have been looking for something like this, because now is the time for changes that can improve efficiency. Without a doubt, the healthcare system is going through a transformation. According to the chief data officer for CMS now is the time for this new program and the new changes. He states, "A few years ago, you could've put everyone interested in transparency in a closet, and there would've been room left over." 

Recently, CMS took a major step in the direction of transparency in healthcare processes. It released data on Medicare Part D that indicated that the program spent $103 billion on prescriptions in 2013. The AMA criticized this, stating, "troubled by the lack of context provided with that could help explain physician prescribing practices and pharmacy filling practices before conclusions are drawn." So, there are clearly some issues with transparency, and in particular price transparency; this issue of price transparency is gaining some importance due to the rise in medical options and increase in consumerist healthcare trends. It is clear that this industry is changing at a rapid rate. Anytime there is change, in any situation, transparency can help aid any new challenges and can provide good insight into just how effective the changes have been. The CHT will be a good step in the right direction.

CHT can help tackle the issue of accountability in this ever-changing healthcare industry, and this is vital now especially, because of new technologies and new ways of practicing medicine that are different than they have been historically. Value-based payment models are a hot topic related to this, and there will be more information and more programs rising out of these new models. David Lansky, CEO of Pacific Business Group on Health, summed up the importance of transparency, saying, "if we're going to pay everybody based on value, we better be measuring it in a sensible way." 

What does this mean for medical scribes and EMR? Having a medical scribe in the picture helps track patient data more effectively and accurately. This goes to together with transparency, because accuracy and transparency are linked. It seems that more transparency is inevitable, and scribes already contribute to transparency, because of their documentation expertise. EMR use has been shown in many instances to increase productivity and efficiency by keep more accurate records of patients medical visits and history. 

Information gathered from FierceHealthcare article, "Center for Healthcare Transparency aims to strengthen qualilty, cost information" 

Tags: healthcare, Improve Efficiency, healthIT, EMR

EMR as a Tool for Teaching

Posted by Allison on Wed, Feb 18, 2015 @ 03:18 PM

As electronic medical records take their place in modern medicine, new questions arise as to the use of EMR, medical education and technology, and the use of electronic documentation as a tool for teaching. 

Now, first year medical students are tech-savvy and able to be on top of the times when it comes to health IT. EMR is starting to be included as part of medical curriculum.  This new addition to many medical education programs adds value. EMR is relevant to medical education because electronic documentation is becoming a necessity, especially with new meaningful use requirements and the shift to ICD-10. 

EMR education can be beneficial to not only medical students, but also to nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and physicians. The electronic medical record can be useful in guiding through the process of assessing the patient. The EMR helps give insight into the background of the patient and can help lead to the key facts and information to reach a potential diagnosis. EHR use can help in listing red flags, risk factors, and warnings about potentials risks for the patient in reaching a diagnosis. For example, EMRs can warn about patient drug allergies or interactions and assist in addressing patient treatment programs. This can help providers to limit their liability. For medical students and healthcare professionals learning the new technology and where technology intersects with patient care, EMR teaching can be truly beneficial. 

Information gathered via LinkedIn post:Using the Electronic Medical Record as a Teaching Tool

Tags: EMRs, Improve Efficiency, healthIT, patient satisfaction, EMR, EHR

HHS, Interoperability, & Healthcare IT: New Program

Posted by Allison on Tue, Feb 10, 2015 @ 12:54 AM

Interoperability has become a key topic in today's healthcare research and this issue has brought the collaboration between the private and public sector into the spotlight. 

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has increased efforts recently, timing these efforts with the Meaningful Use deadlines approaching organizations nationwide. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Matthews Burwell announced a new program last week that would be a two-year grant program for $28 million to encourage adoption of health IT and to increase interoperability, thus supporting the use of the health information exchange. HHS and the new program will include 12 new awards; these awards will be cooperative agreements to states, territories or state designated entities to continue work under the same intent as the original State Health Information Exchange Program. 

As quoted in FierceHealthIT, HHS Secretary Burwell spoke about the new program: "This two-year grant program will ask awardees to demonstrate innovative, community-based solutions to advance, standardize, and secure an interoperable movement of health information across organizations, vendors, and geographic boundaries."

She continued to discuss the importance of the new program for interoperability: "It's important to remember the real reason we're doing this work because if we succeed in our efforts around interoperabilty and delivery system reform, it means that a patient who's admitted to a hospital or referred to a specialist will be more likely to get the right tests and medications because her doctors are doing a better job of coordinating with each other." 

As we know in the medical scribe industry, the increasing presence of technology in healthcare operations can increase efficiency. While technology can improve efficiency and help streamline activity in practices and hospitals, this high-tech environment can cause headaches in the process. This HHS program and the Health Information Exchange are keys to improving the quality of care for patients. But, it is key to hire the right people to implement these changes and to help in the adoption of the rapid changes in the way the healthcare industry does business. Medical scribes can be of assistance to busy practices and organizations that are adapting to the new technological changes in healthcare. 

Tags: ICD10, meaningful use, Improve Efficiency, healthIT, Scribe, EMR

Scribe to Attend AAEM Scientific Assembly February 28-March 4

Posted by Allison on Wed, Feb 04, 2015 @ 03:05 PM

Scribe Solutions will attend the American Academy of Emergency Medicine's 21st Scientific Assembly. This conference will be held in Austin, Texas and will run from February 28th through March 4th. 

Interested in hiring medical scribes? Do you have staffing needs in terms of EMR documentation? Scribe Solutions can help! Feel free to stop by the Scribe booth to speak with a representative from our company and to grab an information packet.

BOOTH 302 is where Scribe will be! 

Would you like some background on EMR and medical scribes now to see if scribes might be right for you?

Read this information segment below and then stop by our booth at AAEM in a few weeks...we'll see you then! 

Connection Between Scribes and EMR:

By definition provided by the U.S government Health IT website, an electronic medical record (EMR) is a digital version of a paper chart that contains all of a patient’s medical history from one practice. An EMR is mostly used by providers for diagnosis and treatment.

EMRs are more beneficial than paper records because EMRs lead to improved efficiency and organization of records. Digital management systems for tracking patient care and maintaining that patients are properly informed about their health via online records is key to keeping up in the digital age.

Using EMRs can be overwhelming to doctors who are more accustomed to paper charts. 

This is where the scribes come in! Medical scribes focus on completing all of the electronic record work while the physician focuses on the patient.

According to the American College of Emergency Physicians the following are the main duties of scribes:

  • to follow a physician through his or her work day and chart patient encounters in real-time using a medical office's Electronic Health Record and existing templates

  • generate referral letters for physicians, manage and sort medical documents within the EHR system, and assist with e-prescribing

    Thus, by handling data management tasks, scribes allow physicians to have more time with patients and to better manage their patient treatment time.


Tags: EMRs, Improve Efficiency, healthIT, Scribe, EHR

Healthcare & Privacy: Study Finds EMR Benefits Outweigh Risks

Posted by Allison on Wed, Jan 28, 2015 @ 10:52 AM

According to a new study by global consulting firm Accenture, consumers with chronic illnesses are less bothered by privacy concerns tied to EMR. Instead, the chronically ill are more concerned about the privacy of shopping and banking transactions than EMR and healthcare records. 

The study's research shows that more than half (51 percent) of the U.S. chronically ill (consumers who have chronic conditions) feel that the benefits of accessing medical records electronically outweigh any risks of privacy invasion. In this study, titled the Accenture 2014 Patient Engagement Survey, more than 2,000 U.S. consumers were polled. A unique fact was uncovered in the study, that when it comes to perceived risks in terms of privacy and EMR, the opinions on the matter varied based on specific chronic illnesses of each type of patient in the survey. 

The highest percentage of patients believing that EMR benefits outweigh the risks were those with cancer (57 percent). Other patients that were surveyed had smaller percentages of belief on the risks versus benefits of EMR; asthma and arthritis patients weighed in at a 48 percent belief that benefits of electronic health record sharing outweigh perceived risks. Another key finding in this study is that patients expressed their desire for access to EMRs, revealing their belief in the right to access their EMR, with 69 percent saying that having access to their health data is a human right. 

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Additionally, Accenture's findings indicate that it is clear that people, especially those with chronic conditions, want access to their health records. But, as fedeal legislation supports the shift to EMR, it will be interesting to discover just how many patients will shift to accessing their records via EMR technology. While the switch to EMR may seem daunting to many practitioners and patients alike, medical scribes can ease the transition to EMR. Meaningful Use Stage 2 is here, so this topic is pertinent. Scribes can help improve efficiency in healthcare practices and organizations. Combining new technology with the added resource of a scribe can increase efficiency and aid in the better documentation of patient health records. 

Tags: healthcare, meaningful use, Improve Efficiency, healthIT, Scribe, EMR

Could EMRs Save Health Care? Is a Medical Scribe the Answer?

Posted by Allison Dewan on Wed, Dec 10, 2014 @ 11:13 AM

A recent article in the Houston Business Journal, titled, "How EMRs will save health care" looks at some of the benefits of EMRs and how the technology is aiding many in the healthcare industry. 

 One physician group, the Southeast Texas Medical Associates LLP, was featured in the article as an example of a physican-owned health care organization that finds EMRs to be beneficial. James Holly, CEO of the physician group (SETMA) said that EMRs "play a big role in making the process more efficient for patients." His group uses EMRs to send data between specialists and primary care physicians within the network, according to the article. 

Holly went on to discuss just how important he finds EMRs to be, and as the head of a physician group, how he thinks EMRs are changing health care as we know it. He says that he thinks EMRs can only improve in the future, saying " I think in 10 more years, we're going to be in a much more robust position than we are now...I think the (health care information exchange) will be mature, and most practices, if not all, will be integrated through the HIE."

While Holly is forward-thinking and seems to embrace the technology, that is not the case with mnay physicians. Also, Holly is optimistic towards the HIE, which in theory is a groundbreaking idea. But, in reality, many physicians and healthcare workers are skeptical of the HIE, and worry that a lack of communication many occur between different health care systems and different physicians and hospitals. Another question that many physicians and healthcare workers alike are raising is the question of errors in reporting when using EMRs.

As for the fear of, and the room for errors when using EMRs, there are many options to prevent errors. Medical scribes can assist in this space and can allow for more accuracy and less room for error when using EMRs. Scribes work side-by-side with the physicians and serve as personal assistants and data entry specialists when it comes to the EMRs. This allows physicians more time for patient care, and this also prevents physician data entry errors on EMRs. 

It seems that EMRs are here to stay, especially with Meaningful Use requirements coming up and the need for electronic documentation of patient records. Scribes can help doctors, especially since there is such a high learning curve for these clinicians. Doctors prefer to care for their patients, and they want to provide quality care; physicians do not want to type into EMRs all day long. EMRs and the HIE still have some kinks to work out, but as with any new technology and concept, it takes time to enact and adapt to change. Healthcare workers, be it physicians, physician assistants, nurses or nurse practitioners need to embrace change in order to increase efficency, and many can do this using a medical scribe.

Tags: healthcare, EMRs, Improve Efficiency, Scribe, EMR, EHR, Medical Scribes