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.

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. 

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. 

October 1, 2015 is a big date. Things will change. Be prepared!

AthenaHealth recently hosted a webinar on transitioning to ICD-10. According to AthenaHealth, "the new code set, ICD-10, increases the number of reporting codes from about 13,600 to more than 69,000"; so as you can see, there are some complexities to changing from ICD-9 to ICD-10. 

As you can see in the increase in number of reporting codes, there will be an increase in reporting detail with ICD-10. This transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 could be very costly for your organization, but there are some preventative measures you can take as a precautionary step.

As a precaution, you and your organization need to converse with your vendor and keep up with the vendor as you transition to ICD-10.

In order to avoid unnecessary costs and headaches, you should ask your vendor some important questions. Here are some helpful questions you should ask your vendor to allow for a smoother transition to ICD-10:

1. What is covered by contracts?
2. What are plans and timelines?
3. How will systems work with both ICD-9 and ICD-10?
4. What does implementation process entail?
5. What are costs, if any, for training and support in shift to ICD-10?

Info gathered at AthenaHealth webinar. For more info on AthenaHealth visit their website http://www.athenahealth.com/

Patient engagement is a hot topic today. But, while patient engagement is still important, it might not be the only hot topic when it comes to the term "engagement". 

Employee engagement is another "engagement" that today's businesspeople need to give some attention. The health and lifestyle of employees need to be key to management if staff. With today's everchanging health landscape and the risks of epidemic and antimicrobial resistance on the rise, prevention is vital when it comes to employee health. 

According to a Fierce Healthcare special report, leaders in the health care space can achieve goals of engaging employees for wellness by laying out employee wellness programs.

This is very important in the healthcare industry, because a recent study shows that healthcare professionals are no healthier than their patients.

ACOs have been mentioned recently, so it is important to understand just exactly what ACOs are...and CMS lays it out for us.

ACO stands for Accountable Care Organization. According to the CMS website, here is the definition of ACOs: Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who come together voluntarily to give coordinated high quality care to their Medicare patients.

Coordinated care is meant to make sure that patients, particularly the chronically ill, get the right care at the right time, while avoiding duplication of services and preventing medical errors.

When an ACO both delivers high-quality care and spends health care dollars more efficiently, it will share in the savings it achieves for the Medicare program.

For more info, see the CMS link where this information was gathered: ACOs link 

You may be surprised to learn that the majority of U.S. medical records are not available electronically. Despite this alarming fact, the U.S. medical industry is increasingly switching to EHR. According to the American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC), in 2008, fewer than 10% of hospitals utilized a basic EHR system.

But, by 2009, doctors and hospitals were starting to adapt and began to switch to EMR due to funding from the stimulus from Medicare and Medicaid payments. 

The EMR switch is sweeping the U.S. medical space, with 60% of hospitals having adopted at least a basic EHR system today, according to AJMC. 

Health IT is becoming more important each and every day. As doctors and hospitals become more and more accountable to the quality of the care they provide to patients, high-tech, high-performing electronic medical records will be key to successful treatment and management of patients.  

Revenue Cycles and Hospital Management

Often times one might not associate revenue cycles with hospitals, because hospitals are many times understaffed and lacking resources, thus making revenue cycle management difficult.

But this is constantly changing and hospitals are becoming, and have become, more efficient.

Yes, hospitals are places where patients receive treatment - pretty clear definition. But, when it comes to managing hospitals, one thing always arises and is a key component to most, if not all, decisions made when operating hospitals.

With the new federal mandates, comes more and more EHR implementations, and coming from this is meaningful use and ICD-10 and their associated changes. Some see these changes as burdensome, but with the help of medical scribes, these new changes can actually lead to more streamlining and efficiency, and to better doctor patient interaction.

Despite some hospitals viewing EHRs and electronic charting in general as a hassle, some hospitals are actually profiting more from these changes. Revenue cycle management and financial metrics are important to hospital administrators, and though new changes may lead to new organization and management of health care, as seen in analysis, using EHRs and medical scribes can lead to growing profits. EHRs can clearly be productivity-boosting and especially so when viewing EHR through the lens of patient coordination.

For more info on this click here to see an article by EHR Intelligence.

Patient Satisfaction & Thoughts on Improvement

Hospitals can always improve when it comes to patient satisfaction.

Administrators and consultants are always looking for ways to become an even better provider to their patients. With ever changing technology and new requirements for documentation, it can make it even more difficult to achieve high patient satisfaction. As a writer for MedCity News put it, “ I’ve felt that there’s not been enough next-generation tech being applied to the low margin, high volume business of hospital supply management.” Supply chain automation is important to gain higher patient satisfaction, and even though it is often viewed as being the responsibility of the administration, it is directly tied to patient and nursing satisfaction.

• Supply chain expert Harold Richards explains that thinking about patient satisfaction and supply chain can be compared to ant hill management:“You may have had an ant farm as a child and marveled at the cooperative efforts and precisions of the ants as they went about their daily activities...so it is with the hospital supply chain, full of hard working individuals who run into daily challenges just as ants do. Both rely on excellent systems of communication to get things accomplished. However, ants do not have to deal with bureaucracy, integrating of mismatched systems, missing supplies, and other time-wasting system failures (at least not as far as we can tell).”

The ant farm comparison seems to be on point when it comes to managing busy ER departments and the like. Today more than ever, patients are converging on emergency rooms across the country seeking treatment for their ailments. Resulting from this is - you guessed it- overcrowded ERs filled to capacity and short staffed in many cases. According to the USA TODAY, some hospitals are faced with spikes as high as 12%.

It is apparent that an increase in volume can cause problems, and without proper planning and supply chain management, there could be inefficiencies such as shortage of staff and medical supplies in emergency situations. So, look at hospital management from the ant farm perspective if you will...it might just make it a little clearer...and little more fun to analyze efficiency. Make sure you know what is happening in your ant hill.

Meaningful Use & Dealing With Technicalities

Meaningful use is using certified electronic health record technology for a number of tasks in health care. Technology plays a clear role not only in day-to-day life, but also in the way business is done. In terms of healthcare, this means that technology and the medical world are intrinsically linked. EMRs and EHRs are more popular and readily available.

But just having these systems in place is not the only piece to the puzzle. Providers need to take control of their Health IT plans to ensure that data is reported properly. Correct reporting to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is key in order in order to collect incentive payments. This could be complicated if proper planning and management isn’t in place.

Without proper planning and management, a breakdown in coordination could lead to failure to properly report data. This is particularly important for critical access hospitals. Health IT consultant Marcia Cheadle, who is Senior Director of Meaningful Use and Advanced Clinicals for Engage, explains “The CAHs in particular are challenged there because of the way the government views their cost accounting...They also have to go to the fiscal intermediary related to the depreciation of assets required for each of the stages.

The landscape of the Health IT industry is constantly changing and thus it is important to keep up with meaningful use news and maintain planning and coordination efforts at your organization.

Technology is strongly present in meaningful use, and it is imperative that it be properly administered to allow for efficiency in reimbursement.

Stage 2 Meaningful Use has made it obvious that the administrative function of your organization must flow in an organized manner in order to flourish in the current healthcare environment.