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

Flu Prevention and Practice Management

Posted by Allison on Mon, Feb 09, 2015 @ 12:43 AM

As you may have noticed in the news, flu season is taking its toll on communities across the country. 

With issues like Ebola facing physicians recently, and with flu season here for the time being, it is key to ensure that practices guard themselves from gaining more illnessness and spreading flu germs. 

We all know that germs are difficult to contain, this is is not something new. 

flu virus

But, with new technology comes new advances. Because germs are hard to control, practices are now trying out telemedicine to help contain the spread of illnesses like the flu. Telemedicine can help control the spread of the flu because patients can been seen virtually and not face-to-face. By seeing patients via telemedicine, fewer germs are coming into practices. 

But, telemedicine is only being used in a limited number of practices. There are other ways to help block the spread of flu germs.

Here are some tips to prevent the spread of germs:

  1. Incorporate hand-sanitizer gel in busy areas of practices and enforce hand washing and good hygiene 
  2. Offer face masks in practices; offer masks to both patients and workers
  3. Ensure countertops and surfaces are constantly sanitized
  4. Separate sick patients from well patients to the best ability

Tags: healthcare, wellness, healthIT, patient satisfaction, employee engagement

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

Reporting Periods for Meaningful Use: CMS Changes

Posted by Allison on Mon, Feb 02, 2015 @ 12:39 AM

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently announced that it is considering proposals to shorten the meaningful-use reporting period to 90 days in 2015. Providers have been requesting this change.

What does this mean? 

This change would mean that providers could meet the meaningful-use requirements and in turn could avoid financial penalties with software in place for less time than what is currently required.

It is clear the providers are faced with the modernization of healthcare and improving efficiency in healthcare today. Many have turned to EMR and medical scribes to adapt to meaningful use as a whole, but extensions in the reporting period among other changes could help physicians transition smoothy and without hassles and headaches. 

Stethoscope By Computer Keyboard4

Experts and researchers have weighed in on this potential change.

President and CEO of The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, an organization that is an advocate for the changes in reporting period length, stated, "Meaningful use has the potential to be a transformative program for the nation's healthcare delivery system and we commend CMS for recognizing the need for a course-correction." Other groups have also praised CMS for looking into/and most likely changing the reporting window. The Medical Group Management Association and The American Medical Association praised the CMS for agreeing to modify the window, and they are pushing for CMS to issue the new rule quickly. 

In addition, according to the Modern Healthcare article, CMS also is considering changing reporting periods to the calendar year to "allow eligible hospitals more time to incorporate 2014 Edition software into their workflows...and will modify other aspects of the program that may lessen providers' reporting burdens.

Also, CMS explained that the rulemaking on reporting period flexibilty will be separate from the upcoming third-stage meaningful-use rule, which is expected to come out in March. 

Meaningful use takes some navigating by these physician groups. While CMS is doing its best to work with practices and hospitals to come out with the best-fit programs for healthcare as a whole, this space can be tough to handle in a busy healthcare environment. Medical scribes can lead to increased efficiency, and this has been proven in many practices and organizations. Scribes may be the answer to some of the problems physicians are facing in the switch to EMR. With supportive legislation from CMS and useful and beneficial programs by CMS, together with scribes, healthcare as a whole is on the path to becoming a more organized, high-tech sector. 

Tags: healthcare, meaningful use, Scribe, EMR

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

ICD-10 & Meaningful Use: 2015 and Healthcare Efficiency in EMR Use

Posted by Allison on Thu, Jan 15, 2015 @ 09:32 AM

ICD-10 has been in the news...alot. Whether you like it or not, ICD-10 is going to be shaking things up. So, it is better to get on board now, before it is complicated and costly to do so at a later date.

The American Medical Association published a list of the top 10 issues for physicians to watch in 2015, and ICD-10 implementation and meaningful use are part of this list. 

The AMA list examines the large amount of regulatory requirements, and this list explains that these regulatory requirements can take away from what is most important to most physicians...treating the patient. According to the AMA research, in order to advance health IT, many are asking for some relief when it comes to government mandates. While improving efficiency can be a result of switching to electronic medical records (EMR), the heachaches and hassles that many physicians are facing relate to government regulation and lack of time in effectively treating the patient while also switching to EMR. On the AMA list, meaningful use is focused on and the need for improvement is highlighted, according to FierceHealthcareIT.  

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Meaningful Use has been criticized as being too broad and its one-size-fits-all nature has been called incomplete. Sustainability of practices is of great concern to physicians today, so these issues and complaints noted in the AMA list need to be addressed in order to allow for the efficency that improved documentation can provide. Medical scribes can assist in the shift to electronic medical records (EMR) and can stay on as continued providers of efficient documentation of patient records. Using a medical scribe can take away the obstacles that many physicians face in treating the patient while also using EMR technology. Healthcare efficiency is an important topic in today's world, and while the technology can be helpful in documenting patient records and staying organized, using the technology can be time consuming without the assistance of scribes. 

According to the article, the AMA has pushed for end-to-end ICD-10 testing, which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced would take place from Jan. 26-30, April 26-May 1, and July 20-24. Also, the article notes that many are starting to make the shift to ICD-10, citing figures by CMS, which revealed that acceptance rates during the November ICD-10 acknowledgement testing week improved to 87 percent. 

Tags: healthcare, ICD10, meaningful use, 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

Efficiency: Revenue Cycle Management, ICD-10, and Financial Position

Posted by Allison Dewan on Tue, Dec 02, 2014 @ 11:58 AM

Recent reports show that ICD-10 may not break the bank as badly as the AMA once predicted, but the new code set still presents a number of challenges to financially vulnerable healthcare organizations. 

ICD-10 has pushed hospitals and physician providers to evaluate their core competencies while preparing for infrastructure upgrades and training needs.

This, however, has led to revenue cycle issues and has put many providers in a bind. So, in order to deal with this issue, providers have been turning to specialized partners for clinical documentation improvement (CDI), revenue cycle management (RCM), and expert coding advice.  According to EHR Intelligence,"a new Black Book estimate projects that the RCM outsourcing market will grow from $7.7 billion to $9.9 billion by the middle of 2016." In looking at this data, the big question is: will these efforts help providers overcome the financial impacts of the ICD-10 switch, and how much will they help?

EHR Intelligence also found "that twenty percent of hospitals that have recently embraced RCM outsourcing are still critically afraid that they are facing closure or bankruptcy within the next four years if their RCM technology, in-house or outsourced, isn’t cutting edge." Needless to say, ICD-10 is a big change, and it can raise concern over finances and organizational management procedures.

We don't know if RCM outsourcing is the answer, or the sole solution to the problem. But, working as an organization to anticipate any financial impact of ICD-10 would be a good precautionary measure. Also, medical scribe services may also benefit the financial health of your organization. A scribe program and RCM outsourcing could be the answer. This complex issue is unique in nature and each organization will be impacted differently. Stay up to date on ICD-10 and how to prepare. We will feature more posts on ICD-10...stay tuned! 

Tags: healthcare, ICD10, healthIT, Scribe, revenue cycle

The Importance of ICD-10 in Big Data's Future

Posted by Allison Dewan on Thu, Nov 20, 2014 @ 11:40 AM

ICD-10 and Big Data

Some doctors might find ICD-10 to include too many codes, but these codes and the new advances of ICD-10 are necessary for big data success in the medical field.

According to resident physician William Rusnak as quoted in a FierceHealth IT article, "doctors will never detect the one-in-a-million disease when it matters". 

Change isn't always easy, but it is here to stay. ICD-10 will be beneficial to doctors and in the big picture the shift to ICD-10 can allow for more efficient and precise coding.

The resident physician quoted in the article, Rusnak, went on to explain the big data benefits of ICD-10, emphasizing that with advanced computing power that can accurately record human behavior, ICD-10 can aid in crucial healthcare situations and lead to further efficiency. 

Rusnak states that there needs to be a code for even the rarest condition that a patient may have, and that a code should represent specific details of any procedures performed as well.

Following Rusnak's advice that codes need to represent all conditions and procedures and even the variations of both, doctors can then collect big data in a precise manner. 

This, in turn, will lead to proper and more accurate decisionmaking when reporting on health. 

ICD-10 will help with big data because the coding will lead to clear-cut reporting on health events and outcomes. 

Tags: wellness, ICD10, healthIT, patient satisfaction, EHR

Doctors are Burning Out: But why?

Posted by Allison Dewan on Thu, Nov 13, 2014 @ 06:08 PM

America's doctors are burned out. Well, America's healthcare workers are burned out as a whole. 

Just how burned out are American healthcare workers? According to an article by Kimberly Palm on LinkedIn, 50% or more of doctors, nurses, and other health care workers are burned out; in stating this, Palm is referring to the latest research. 

Palm cites reasons such as builtup stress that lingers from med school into residency into practices. She notes that often times "doctors are not prepared to take on the stresses and responsibilities of running a business". 

We get it. Palm is right when she says that doctor burnout can be attributed to the difficulties of running a business, something doctors learn nothing about during med school. 

Another stressor that Palm doesn't mention: data entry into EMRs. 

Add EMRs to the long list of reasons for doctor burnout. But, there is a solution and an easy fix to help keep our gifted doctors practicing and doing what they love. 

Scribes can be the solution. Medical scribes can take away the additional stress that EMRs may cause for doctors today. 

Tags: healthcare, EMRs, Scribe