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Hospital EHR Device Integration

This week has been pretty crazy for me as I’ve been attending three conferences back to back. Plus, the conference in the middle is the 120,000 person CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas. The healthcare section of CES has been growing like crazy. Those who had 10×10 booths last year now have 20×20 booths and the number of health IT related companies at CES has grown 20%.

As I’ve been browsing these ever growing booths about consumer health I’ve been smothered in various consumer focused devices. I’ve seen every sort of FDA cleared device including: Blood Pressure Cuffs, Scales, Dermascopes, Otoscopes, Pulse Oximeters, Stethoscopes, and Thermometers. The innovation with these devices is amazing. The integration with these devices and other device is amazing. The price point for these devices is dropping.

With all of this in mind, I’ve wondered why more hospitals aren’t taking a larger interest in what’s happening here. Not to mention why more hospital EHR vendors aren’t integrating with these devices as well. Someone asked me what’s the difference in these devices versus the ones that are being used in healthcare today. The obvious answer is price and brand recognition (trust). Although, they are all FDA cleared devices, so is there really a difference in the results? The FDA clearance process is quite rigorous. I don’t have the full answer to this question, so I’d love to hear from some hospital people and other device manufacturers to hear your view on it.

Maybe the answer is that hospitals are buying the big expensive devices because those are the devices that integrate with their hospital EHR system. If that’s the main reason, then we need more of the major hospital EHR vendors to start doing the medical device integration with these low cost alternatives. Imagine the cost savings.

The other side of the coin is hospitals deploying these devices to the patient. I’ve seen this in a few cases where the hospital wants to reduce readmissions. Although, it’s an interesting dance since it is largely under the purview of the primary care doctor. It’s always felt awkward that the hospital’s readmission issues are dependent on a group of doctors that don’t work in the hospital. Maybe this will change as hospitals buy up more doctors offices.

It’s an exciting time to see the devices coming to healthcare. I just wish I saw more hospitals and hospital EHRs involved in what’s happening. I wonder how many healthcare CIOs are seeing what’s happening and planning for it.

I predict 2013 will be the year of the consumer health device and I don’t think most hospitals or doctors are ready for it.

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January 11, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: Healthcare CIO  Hospital CIO  Hospital EHR  Hospital EHR Company  Hospital EHR Vendor  Hospital Electronic Health Record  Hospital Electronic Medical Record  Hospital EMR  Hospital EMR Company  Hospital Healthcare IT
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EMR Helps Philly Hospitals Reduce Readmissions

The pressure is on to reduce readmissions, and hospitals are hoping to leverage their ginormous investments in EMRs to help the job along.  Well, here’s a case where that actually happened.

A recent survey of 29 Philadelphia-based hospitals concluded that facilities submitting patient readmission data to the Health Care Improvement Foundation had seen a significant drop in readmissions over 18 months, according to Information Week.  The project, known as PAVE (Preventing Avoidable Episodes: Smoothing the Way for Better Transitions), focused on medication management, personal health record use and care transitions.

(Editor’s note: While IW once focused on broad enterprise IT issues, I’ve been impressed lately by the excellent job it’s done covering health IT. You may want to check it out.)

The 18 Philly hospitals that submitted the data saw a 7 percent drop in 30-day same-hospital readmission rates. More than 400 patients avoided readmission, representing a savings of $4 million just for the third quarter alone. That fell short of the project’s goal of a 10 percent reduction rate, but it’s pretty neat anyway, no?

The hospitals accomplished the readmissions reduction by building on tried and true quality improvement processes, largely focusing on transitions of care. But their efforts were enhanced greatly by EMRs and other forms of health data management, the magazine reports.

Having seen what can be done, nearly all of the hospitals are now implementing or evaluating a series of “passports,” documents compiling critical information on hospital care transitions, payor relations/utilization management, discharge and medication management. (My hunch is that the passports are being turned into pathways within the EMR; if I’m right, that seems like a real missed opportunity.)

Unfortunately, neither the  Health Care Improvement Foundation nor the magazine spelled out how the hospitals used their EMRs, though it’s obvious that they must of used data analytics tools.  And we don’t know which EMRs the hospitals have in place, which might offer some insights.

By the way, the PHR pilot was a bust. Researchers found that patients who’d get the most out of PHRs were least likely to maintain one. The group threw in the towel and developed a heart failure education book designed to educate patients in self-management.

All told, it’s good to see concrete demonstrations of  how EMRs can help hospitals meet critical goals.  While EMRs may still be a resource drain, perhaps they’ll finally be able to give something back.

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December 23, 2011 I Written By

Katherine Rourke is a healthcare journalist who has written about the industry for 30 years. Her work has appeared in all of the leading healthcare industry publications, and she's served as editor in chief of several healthcare B2B sites.

Filed Under: Healthcare CIO  Hospital EHR  Hospital Electronic Health Record  Hospital Electronic Medical Record  Hospital EMR  Hospital Healthcare IT  Meaningful Use
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