Another Client Joins the AMS Community

Posted by AMS at 29 JUL 8:00 am

American Medical Software is pleased to announce the addition of Pediatric Care from Provo, Utah to the AMS client community.

The office was very interested in our Lease-to-Purchase option which makes our already affordable software even more affordable. After experiencing our software through a live, personalized web demonstration, the practice noted that there is nothing our software can’t do that they need. The practice was very impressed with the functionality, integration, and customization of the entire system. When it was time to purchase, the practice administration complimented AMS on how “straight forward” our purchase orders are. All costs presented clearly with zero hidden fees.

Welcome to Pediatric Care from all of the staff at American Medical Software.

Meaningful Use Paves Way For Health IT Megatrends -Part 2

Posted by AMS at 26 JUL 7:46 am

Patients Want Access to Data

The third big trend will be “an enormous explosion in patient engagement,” including requiring that patients get access to all their data, anytime, without limitations.

“Patients will have unfretted and instant access to their information in multiple formats,” Calman said. “The advocate community is very powerful [and] they are saying ‘what right does a doctor have to keep my data locked up either in their computer or in their file cabinet when it’s my data, it’s my information. I want total access to it,’” he said. Both HITECH and HIPAA are moving in that direction and “don’t be surprised” when the requirements are part of Stage 3 MU, he said.

In fact, just last week, the HIT Policy Committee approved recommendations from its Privacy and Security Tiger Team that includes a proposed MU requirement that certified e-health records software in Stage 2 have the technical capabilities to accept corrections and changes in information from patients and providers, and by Stage 3 be able to transmit those amendments and updates to others that may have received previously transmitted the data in question.

“If there’s one thing that is going to revolutionize healthcare–from IT, accountable care organizations, or any aspect of health reform–you’re going to see patients taking back healthcare from their providers,” he said.

But that brings us to sensitive questions about security and privacy, and how do providers give patients full access to what might be the equivalent of hundreds of pages of records or more–and then allow the patients to add their own comments, corrections, and amendments.

“That’s something we’ve been looking into,” said Karen Marhefka, associate CIO at University of Massachusetts Memorial Healthcare System in Worcester, Mass., another panelist at the InformationWeek Healthcare IT leadership Forum.

UMass Memorial–the largest healthcare system in central and western Massachusetts–has been exploring several options for patient portal technology that would give individuals secure access to their information. Among the solutions Marhefka’s organization liked best was one that also allows patients to enter information into their records. However, in the end, UMass Memorial’s lawyers didn’t approve of that capability because of worries about liability, she said.

“The lawyers freak out,” said Calman, agreeing that attorneys, including malpractice lawyers, are often more resistant than doctors to the idea of providing patients with access to their full medical information–and especially the notion of patients being able to include their own comments in their records.

As for security of patient data, even though e-health records bring fears of hackers accessing personal health information, the most common privacy violations today involve healthcare employees doing stupid things, like looking at the medical records of people they know, said Calman.

In fact, Calman’s organization fired eight of its 900 employees over the last four years due to record snooping. “That’s almost 1% of our workforce,” he said. Firing people for snooping at health records is a powerful way to drill home the rules of HIPAA within a health organization, he said.

As for HITECH Act regulations, it’s important to remember that no matter what stage of MU compliance you’re struggling with, make sure you have the support of the organization’s top leaders, said Marhefka.

At UMass Memorial, the organization for years has been struggling with a 20-year-old e-medical record system that needs to be replaced. The system “was like MacGyver,” said Marhefka referring to the fictional TV hero famous for fighting danger with duct tape.

Until recently, a project to replace and integrate the organization’s e-health records “had zero support” from UMass Memorial’s top executive team. “We’re jamming EMRs into broken processes,” said Marhefka of the struggle. But with the HITECH Act’s mandates on the horizon–and millions of dollars of incentive money on the table for UMass Memorial–”leadership is coming along,” she said.

The spotlight now for the IT organization is shining brightly on HITECH Act compliance. “It’s drop everything, let’s focus on meaningful use,” she said.

But organizations like UMass Memorial and others who are sprinting toward Stage 1 compliance have to remember that MU–with upcoming Stages 2 and 3–is a marathon. And as other megatrends for healthcare transformation take shape, it’s more like an ultramarathon.

Source: www.informationweek.com

More Clients Join the AMS Community

Posted by AMS at 22 JUL 8:00 am

American Medical Software is pleased to announce the additions of the Woodland Family Practice in Farmville, Virginia and Ahmad and Rana Pediatrics in Granite City, Illinois to the AMS client community.

The office manager at Woodland Family Practice had used AMS at another practice and preferred it over other, slower ASP based systems. Using AMS, she will now be able to streamline the billing process and the nurse will be able to task duties to improve follow up on labs and other patient clinical information. The physician works primarily with a keyboard and likes the flexibility of being able to use “hot keys” in the AMS system to navigate quickly through the patient note without having to use the mouse.  He was also very impressed with how reasonably priced American Medical Software is.

Ahmad and Rana Pediatrics contacted other pediatric offices for references and American Medical Software was the only software that came highly recommended. After going through a live demo of AMS with one of our sales associates, the practice was very impressed with the integration of each system and the user friendly interface. Ahmad and Rana Pediatrics sat through a total of 5 different EMR software presentations and chose AMS as their preferred medical software provider!

Welcome to Woodland Family Practice and Ahmad and Rana Pediatrics from all of the staff at American Medical Software.

Meaningful Use Paves Way For Health IT Megatrends -Part 1

Posted by AMS at 19 JUL 8:06 am

Even if you’re still struggling to comply with Stage 1 Meaningful Use requirements of the HITECH Act’s $27 billion financial incentive program, there’s no time like the present to be looking ahead to Stages 2 and 3. And while the criteria for the next two stages won’t be finalized by the federal government for at least another year or two, better get ready for what’s in store. It may be a painful and bumpy ride.

That’s the advice given earlier this week at the InformationWeek Healthcare IT Leadership Forum in New York City by speaker Dr. Neil Calman, founder and CEO of the Institute for Family Health, which runs 16 community health centers and three homeless healthcare sites in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Hudson Valley.

Calman should know. He’s also a member of the Health IT Policy Committee that’s working with the Office of National Coordinator for Health IT on the upcoming Meaningful Use Stages 2 and 3. Calman wasn’t disclosing information that’s top secret. But in case you’re not plugged into the HIT Policy’s Committee’s public meetings and teleconferences, you might not be aware of what’s been discussed for the upcoming stages of Meaningful Use.

Calman sees clearly where things are going, both in terms of the nascent Stage 2 and 3 regulations, and in terms of big market trends that are propelling changes ahead for healthcare and health IT.

For starters, people tend to forget that compliance with the HITECH Act’s $27 billion MU financial incentive programs is voluntary. You don’t have to go after the bonuses. But remember that eventually you can be penalized with reduced payments from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) if you don’t demonstrate Meaningful Use.

With or without the HITECH Act, Calman thinks the healthcare industry would’ve been headed in the direction of e-health records and digitization anyhow. Early-adopter organizations like Calman’s have been using e-health records for more than 10 years. And isn’t every other industry computerized and Web-enabled in the 21st century? Don’t customers across other sectors, like financial services, expect to access their relevant information via the Internet? Why should healthcare be any different?

However, without the multi-billion-dollar carrot from the feds, digital transformation of the health industry would’ve just continued to move at a snail’s pace and, in the meantime “people are dying … and people are being hurt” by medical mistakes and other lapses in quality care and safety that could’ve been prevented with health IT, he said.

So, that brings us to some of the big megatrends that Calman predicts. Some of these trends will be accelerated by the HITECH Act’s likely requirements in Stages 2 and 3, but are also happening due to larger healthcare reform and market dynamics.

One key trend to look for is that providers will need to become much more public in their reporting. It won’t be good enough to submit quality reporting (including measures required for MU compliance) to CMS. Those reports will eventually become public, just as the Dept. of Health and Human Services recently began reporting privacy and security data breach incidents on its new HIPAA violation website. “Open access and public disclosure to outcome data … nothing forces us to improve what we do as when we have to show it others,” said Calman.

Another megatrend is healthcare providers who “brag about how fantastic they are” will be forced to back up their bravado by “being tied to the health outcomes of the communities that they serve,” he said.

“I can tell you that one of the big tragedies in New York that are replicated across the country is that we see these huge academic medical centers sitting in the poorest neighborhoods with the highest rates of hospital readmissions for ambulatory-sensitive conditions–highest rates of hospitalizations for asthma, highest rates of amputations due to diabetes,” and other problems related to disparities in care, he said.

Healthcare providers will be held responsible for “not just the people who walk in the door,” but for the health of the communities in which they serve, he said. There will be increased accountability for providers to show not only outcomes but also impact, he said.

Source: www.informationweek.com

More Clients Join the AMS Community

Posted by AMS at 15 JUL 8:00 am

American Medical Software is pleased to announce the addition of 3 Behavioral Health providers in the Gastonia, North Carolina Area.

Dr. Ramesh Gihwala viewed an online demo of the ONC certified AMS Electronic Medical Records Software. He really liked the Psych evaluation template and shared his experience with his colleagues at Impact Carolina in Lincolnton and Outreach Management in Gastonia. They too saw a demo and liked the template format and how they could be customized for each provider. All 3 practices were able to benefit from a group purchase discount of the fully integrated, AMS Practice Management ULTRA system.

Welcome to Dr. Gihwala, Impact Direct, and Outreach Management from all of the staff at American Medical Software.