All Blog Posts (23)

5 questions about #HIT100 2012 - healthcareitnews.com

Anyone interested in social media and healthcare IT has most likely seen the hashtag #HIT100 floating around the Twittersphere within the past few days. Wondering what it means, and how to become involved? You're not alone. To...…

I always tend to “cringe” when I read about comparisons between Health IT, medical devices and other healthcare related software with respect to other verticals (e.g., finance, insurance, retail).

Why compare?

Saying that the financial industry is many “light years” ahead is extremely inaccurate. Comparing the processing of debits, credits, interests, etc. with medical information and imagery is like comparing apples to guanabanas (a tropical fruit found…

Many health care provider organizations have not been overly eager to jump onto the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) bandwagon, citing high startup costs and uncertain returns on investment given the complexity of the program.  Well, recently, the CMS Center for Innovation has announced the…

The glitz and the promises have passed and you now have an EMR/EHR launch date 3 months hence. How do you configure your internal customer support to meet your users' needs.

1. Vendor Support 

Collaborate with the vendor. This means that you know what they are committing to you as a customer and how much you have to commit. In most cases, the vendor will try to offer the fewest resources and hoping that you, the customer will take up the large part of the support. In…

Ever since the California Department of Motor Vehicle computer project nightmare in the 1980's, doubts linger as to the veracity or trustworthiness participants in any large-scale information technology purchase. A duality exists that is neither spoken nor reported.  Key individual decision makers or experts often have hidden motives and may vie for the attention of either party (vendor or…

Can something as mundane as an electronic medical record (EMR) be glamorous or glitzy? Can it match the pizzazz of a new smart phone or the graceful lines of a modern sports car? Probably not. A swirling array of regulations such as HITECH, ARRA, meaningful use and HIPAA compliance are masters that vendors must play to before any customer concern or complaint.

Clayton Christensen, the renowned author of innovation, concludes that innovation is possible in any kind of business or…

Electronic medical/health record (EMR) software is supposed to work as advertised. It is supposed to make the doctor work more efficiently and productivity. When EMR software doesn’t work, doctor productivity, bill collection and insurance reimbursement suffer. How software is produced may determine these failures.

EMR software, like most software, is designed by engineers and used by non-engineers. Bridging the two groups is critical to…

GE Healthcare IT has been working in the years leading up to the HITECH Act on a number of initiatives to enable meaningful use of health care IT -- or as Senior VP and General Manager of eHealth Earl Jones puts it, building the "connected health care ecosystem."…

From discussions I have had with physicians it seems that their main impetus for implementation of an EHR system is to garner stimulus funds. At this point in time I am trying to steer them from this line of thought. Given the technical considerations and the disruption and re-invention of workflow we as consultants certainly have our work cut out for us to educate our clients on the potential…

I belong to the Business Process Management Professionals Linked-In group, but discovered today that they have a Healthcare Sector Subgroup for anyone who is interested in joining.

Digital dashboards are becoming a popular accompaniment to “lean” health care

operations today.

The dashboard’s job is to track metrics, such as physician productivity, staffing,

shift changes, referrals, scanner utilization, patient volumes and wait times.

the list is endless, as digital…

Ultimus has been in the business of helping companies automate and optimize their business processes for over 15 years. As this is a key part of EHR initiatives, we believe that our software has much to offer healthcare organizations. See for yourself by signing-up for an Ultimus Process Designer Test Drive!

What is the Process Designer Test Drive?

The Test Drive is a self-guided demo of Ultimus Process Designer. No salesmen, no…

Electronic Health Records allow comprehensive management of medical information with a secure exchange between health care consumers and providers. Broad use of EHR improves health care quality, prevents medical errors, and increases practice efficiency.