The Health Care RFID Blog

Do You Know How Your Organization Can Get a Piece of the Pie?

On Friday, Feb. 12, the White House announced nearly $1 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds designated for healthcare providers to use toward the implementation of health information technology (HIT) and to train thousands of workers for healthcare jobs. According to an article in HealthLeaders Media, these funds are expected to help make HIT available to more than 100,000 hospitals and primary care physicians by 2014 and to support the training of thousands of people for careers in healthcare and HIT. Of the $1 billion allocated for this initiative, $750 million is set aside in grant awards that will help enable more healthcare providers to have access to HIT and help facilitate healthcare providers’ adoption of electronic health records (EHRs).

With HIMSS 2010 right around the corner, funding will certainly be top of mind for healthcare providers looking at thousands of different HIT options. Do you know how to go about getting these funds for your organization? Do you know the types of HIT implementations that are eligible to receive these funds?

It’s somewhat ironic that so many exciting – and cost-saving – technologies are available to serve the health care industry, including advanced RFID and RTLS solutions, but in these economic times many health systems have been forced to cut technology investments. The White House announcement provides more opportunity for health care organizations to go beyond EMR implementation and look for additional HIT that will help drive efficiencies and ultimately improve patient care. Because the RFID/RTLS technology solutions that Dynamic Computer provides can greatly reduce costs, minimize risks and improve patient care, many of our prospects are eligible for these grants, but likely not aware of the guidelines.

In a past blog post we introduced our partnership with IMGrants, a funding research program offered by Ingram Micro to qualified resellers.  This relationship affords us the ability to help you identify, apply for and maximize federal funds, including those that are a result of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, as well as state and foundation grant sources for projects. IMGrants is helping us connect healthcare providers with the money they need to improve their bottom lines and delivery of service.

Through our IMGrants partnership we can help you answer your key questions about obtaining grants and the types of HIT eligible for the more than $750 million in new grant funds. We will be at HIMSS10 (booth 2920)and encourage you to stop by to learn more about how Dynamic can help your organization through this dramatic change in the healthcare industry.

HIMSS and ASQ announce 16 “Stories of Success!” case studies

HIMSS and ASQ (American Society for Quality) recently announced the selection of 16 real-world and peer-reviewed case studies that have been selected as Stories of Success! Introduced in October 2009, the Stories of Success! case-study program showcases outstanding accomplishments in the adoption and use of information technology to achieve improved patient safety, quality, effectiveness and efficiency. The call for case studies highlights the fulfillment of the national priorities established by the National Priorities Partnership (NPP) and The Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG).  Is your healthcare organization a success story?

Designed to emphasize the link between improvements in healthcare quality and patient safety and health IT, HIMSS and ASQ chose those who are using IT every day and could identify how technology helps support the six priorities of the National Priorities Partnership and the Joint Commission’s national patient safety goals and priorities.

What are the everyday IT applications that are enabling these healthcare organizations to be recognized as a success story? For one organization, it’s RFID. A few weeks ago we highlighted how RFID can help healthcare providers meet the National Patient Safety Goals in our blog post, “What will JCAHO’s National Patient Safety Goals inspire you to do?” These Success Stories! further emphasize how RFID directly improves patient care by minimizing risks and reducing costs.

What RFID solution would benefit your organization the most? A systems integrator can help you identify where you can reap the most benefits and address the areas that need the most work. As featured in the RFID case study, it is important to start with a targeted area when implementing an RFID solution and identifying what the challenges are and how they can be met before rolling out system wide. Make your organization a success story with RFID!

While EMRs have assumed a starring role in the ‘meaningful use’ conversation (and rightfully so – they could profoundly overhaul and streamline the industry), integrating additional health information technology (HIT) will be necessary to create a truly connected healthcare model. The most ‘meaningful use’ of HIT is in integrated systems, and the power of the individual solutions are most evident when used in combination with others, thus creating interoperability.  With HIT solutions that speak and respond to each other, the result can be greater accuracy, reach and effectiveness than that which any single technology could possibly achieve on its own –a classic case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

Interoperability is critical to making this next generation of the healthcare industry stronger, more efficient and safer for patients. At Dynamic, we all know how vital interoperability is and are excited to see the interactive demonstrations and exhibits at this year’s Interoperability Showcase that will be featured at the HIMSS10 Conference. If you are attending HIMSS this year, the Interoperability Showcase may help you envision how seemingly disparate HIT solutions can work together in harmony. The Showcase will, literally, bring to life standards-based connectivity in simulated healthcare environments. Dynamic will be exhibiting at HIMSS10 and will be showcasing a wide range of turn-key solutions incorporating RFID, RTLS, GPS and related technologies that enable real-time management of mobile personnel, assets and resources to government and commercial clients.

Our business does not operate in a vacuum; just like the connectivity being encouraged throughout an entire system, Dynamic believes in understanding the entire HIT universe in order to provide our customers informed, contextual information and guidance. Leveraging opportunities like the Showcase will help our own team better understand other solutions along the HIT continuum…after all, in a truly connected system, we may work together one day.

HIMSS 2009 is over and attendees have headed home with a host of information on health information management topics.  I felt the key messages were centered on the benefits of forming a Governance Board and keeping them involved in projects assuring there success and acceptance.  Another key topic was shifting focus to enterprise level solutions rather than individual solutions unto themselves.

I was a little surprised on the lack of focus on helping attendees to understand the successful methods used to gain funding support for project that cut costs and improve processes vs. just cutting operational overhead to reduce costs. Most department heads have been called on to lower or cut costs in their departments. Many look at ways to cut overhead instead of ways to improve processes to reduce time spent on non-patient related tasks.

Cutting process costs while improving results are long term improvements while laying-off staff are short term reductions that burden the system resulting in decreased performance and jeopardize patient safety and patient satisfaction scores.  Knowing how fellow HIMSS members were successful in communicating this message to gain approval for spending on projects that had a quick ROIs would be helpful.

With stimulus funding becoming a reality, providers will be challenged to find uses for it that result in long term benefits for the provider, patients and payers.  This can be done by taking advantage of solutions that decrease the likelihood of a negative patient outcomes happening while under a providers’ care. As we move to change the way our citizens receive their health care coverage providers need to have already put in place solutions to help lower the average length of stay, improve staff efficiencies and lower patient risks. These are the areas that providers should be looking for solutions in to address and use their stimulus funds for. If providers look hard enough they can find solutions that address these areas and qualify for stimulus funding.

HIMSS 2009 will be remembered because of the state of the economy and the discussions around stimulus funds and EMRs.  But my hope is that attendees come away with a sense of WHY health care needs to change the way processes and process improvement are managed.

Health care IT team members will play key roles in shaping the future of all of health care delivery not just the IT environment itself.   I know most HIMSS 2009 attendees now understand how they too can play a key role in shaping the future of how providers will deliver improved patient care.

It is not surprising that stories that keep coming up involve government officials and lawmakers stating their disappointment with the state of the US health care system, and promising to address the problems of “cost, quality and access” (DerGurahian, Jan. 2009).

What is surprising is the lack of progress on the solutions to these problems.

We know that campaigns to promote evidenced-based practices at best yield only about a 50 percent compliance rate, and that hospital acquired infections and conditions continue to increase year after year.

We also know that electronic medical records (EMRs), in and of themselves, are not the solution. While more and more money is poured into adoption of EHRs, lack of interoperability, data overload, lack of change management and other factors prevent them from actually improving patient care.

According to a recent National Research Council report, the Healthcare IT (HIT) systems being widely adopted “fall short” of meeting healthcare improvement goals (DerGurahian, Jan. 2009). The report cites a need for decision-support applications and data sharing.

If safe, “effective and quality healthcare” is the goal, why is HIT not being applied as a tool to support evidence-based practices and decision-support rather than technology for the sake of technology?

It requires more than putting EHRs in place to improve health care, yet this is all we keep hearing about being funded to reform the system. President-elect Obama is now pushing for all medical records to be electronic within five years, and all research and projections forecast exponential growth in HIT spending for EHRs and e-Presciption systems. In the meantime, the basic problem of developing standards for these systems to communicate has not been solved.

In addition, until spending for HIT expands to include advanced technologies to provide decision-support and exception-report functions, the efforts toward better healthcare via EHRs alone will continue to be ineffective.

Improved patient care, reduced costs and minimized risks can be achieved through innovative HIT technologies like Radio Frequency Identification, Infrared technology, Ultrasound technology and other sensor networks that can automate processes and eliminate human error. Waste in healthcare is the biggest problem. Billions of dollars are wasted from unnecessary and duplicate tests and treatment, asset and inventory loss and shrinkage, and due to hospital acquired conditions and infections. The latter alone costs the system over 5 billion dollars annually (AHRQ).

When will our leaders listen to the HIT experts evidence and recommendations for expanded HIT funding to include these types of advanced technologies? Many HIT organizations like the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) recently submitted a recommendation for $25 billion in funding. And many who understand the industry took the time to put our heads together and come up with meaningful recommendations for advanced HIT reform.

We’re ready to help make healthcare safer, better and more affordable.