Several presenters at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s 2010 conference offered advice and guidance for health care workers who oversee electronic health record purchasing, implementation and maintenance. Summaries of selected presentations are provided below.
Data Management, IT Planning Key to Avoiding Litigation
Matthew Curtin –forensic investigator and founder of Interhack — suggested that effective data management and IT planning can help health care providers avoid potentially catastrophic lawsuits, Health Data Management reports.
Curtin suggested that health care providers can take steps to avoid such situations by:
- Ensuring that IT systems maintain data integrity during upgrades and migration;
- Recruiting a team of clinical, IT and legal consultants to examine how information can be displayed and interpreted; and
- Planning for lawsuits and conducting drills to highlight potential vulnerabilities (Gillespie, Health Data Management, 3/3).
Speaker Warns Hospital Executives About Stark Relaxation
Also during the HIMSS 2010 conference, experts warned hospital executives to exercise caution when deciding whether to take advantage of the relaxed Stark rules allowing hospitals to subsidize EHR purchases for physicians, Health Data Management reports .
The rules were eased in August 2006. Prior to the changes, the Stark Act and federal anti-kickback rules were interpreted to bar hospitals from donating technology or making other gifts to doctors or independent physician practices (iHealthBeat, 6/10/2009).
Elise Spoto, director of IT and physician practice applications at Sentara Healthcare, encouraged hospitals that are considering EHR subsidies to first evaluate EHR costs related to:
- Implementation;
- Licensing;
- Maintenance;
- Server support; and
- Staffing (Baldwin [1], Health Data Management, 3/3).
Vendors, CIOs Report Difficulty Filling Health IT Jobs
Many CIOs and IT vendors attending the HIMSS 2010 conference said they are having trouble recruiting talented workers to help them implement and maintain health IT systems and projects, InformationWeek reports.
CIOs also noted that their current IT workers are having a hard time staying up-to-date with the newest skill demands.
Observers said there is growing uncertainty about what kind of talent organizations will need in the near future, particularly because the federal government has yet to finalize guidelines on the “meaningful use” of EHRs (Kolbasuk McGee, InformationWeek, 3/3).
Benefits of Real-Time Claims Adjudication Highlighted
During the HIMSS 2010 conference, experts said real-time claims adjudication systems can allow health care providers to obtain almost instant payment authorization information from health insurers, Health Data Management reports.
Health Data Management highlights Florida internist Pradeep Vangala’s description of how such a system operates at the Orlando Internal Medicine physician group (Baldwin [2], Health Data Management, 3/3).
Survey Finds Physicians Open to EHRs, Hesitant About Cost
Although 80% of physicians believe EHRs can improve patient care, a higher percentage are concerned about health IT costs and 60% say EHR systems can distract from personal interactions with patients, according to a physician survey released at the HIMSS 2010 conference, Health Data Management reports.
The survey was conducted by health IT software vendor athenahealth and Sermo, an online physician community.