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Infographic: Protecting Patient Data in Today’s Digital Healthcare World

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The healthcare industry continues to ride the digital wave to improve patient care and organizational efficiency while reducing costs. Hospitals and health systems are relying on electronic health records, the cloud, and the Internet of Things (IoT) more than ever. While these technologies are convenient, efficient, and enable a higher degree of patient-centric care, they can be jeopardized by cybercriminals, according to a new infographic by Fortinet.

The infographic examines how healthcare organizations can protect their patients' data in a digital healthcare landscape.

2016 Healthcare Benchmarks: Data Analytics and IntegrationThe 2016 Healthcare Benchmarks: Data Analytics and Integration assembles hundreds of metrics on data analytics and integration from hospitals, health plans, physician practices and other responding organizations, charting the impact of data analytics on population health management, health outcomes, utilization and cost.

2016 Healthcare Benchmarks: Data Analytics and Integration examines the goals, data types, collection processes, program elements, challenges and successes shared by healthcare organizations responding to the January 2016 Data Analytics survey by the Healthcare Intelligence Network. Click here for more information.

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Guest Post: 5 Legal Considerations for Maximizing Telehealth Security

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Patient privacy and data security are key telehealth concerns providers must address.

Patient information privacy and security are key telehealth concerns for healthcare providers.

Telehealth is one of the fastest growing and developing areas of healthcare today. With this rapid growth come many questions and concerns that arise when legal and regulatory schemes are not able to keep up with the pace of development. One such concern is the legal and regulatory issues relating to the privacy and security of telehealth services. Telehealth services can be provided securely, but specific attention must be paid to information and application security in order to protect patient privacy and comply with laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA").

Healthcare provider executives who currently offer, or are considering offering, telehealth services to their patients should give attention and appropriate resources to the following areas in order to maximize the organization's security posture and operational efficiencies.

Arrangement Structure

One of the primary decisions for a healthcare provider organization to make with any telehealth arrangement is whether the organization will provide the telehealth services itself or in collaboration with a third party. Many considerations will be part of this decision, but information privacy and security should be one of them. An organization should only consider providing telehealth services on its own if it can dedicate sufficient resources and personnel to establishing and maintaining the secure transmission and storage of patient information. Only an organization with a competent and established information technology staff should consider providing telehealth services in this manner.

If an organization chooses instead to collaborate with a third party to provide telehealth services, there are several third parties with whom the organization can collaborate to provide those services securely. Those third parties can provide anything from equipment only to a full range of services, including digital infrastructure and professional physician services. When a third party is involved, the organization must also consider how to structure the arrangement for purposes of HIPAA, including determining whether the third party will be a business associate of the organization or whether the organization and the third party will function as a single Organized Health Care Arrangement ("OHCA") under HIPAA. These decisions will impact how information flows between the parties and who is responsible for securing that information.

Contractual Protections

Responsibility for securing information where the provider organization collaborates with a third party will be governed by the operative agreements between the parties, including the Business Associate Agreement, where applicable. Provider organizations should be sure that the agreements detail the third party's security-related obligations and establish the third party's responsibility for failing to meet those obligations. The operative agreements also should contain sufficient representations and warranties of the third party's security posture, including the technical specifications that the third party will implement in order to safeguard patient information. Equally important is making sure that the operative agreements include sufficient assurances that patient information will be accessible to the appropriate healthcare provider.

Technical Specifications

Telehealth arrangements will differ in the precise technical specifications that the parties implement to safeguard patient information. However, certain technical specifications are broadly applicable and can significantly reduce security risks. One example of such a specification is the use of encryption technology. Encrypting patient information, both while stored on computer systems and during transmission between systems, is an effective means of safeguarding the information from unauthorized third parties and preventing breaches from occurring. Another such specification is authentication of the participants in a telehealth encounter, the clinicians and patients themselves. It is important that technological measures are implemented to ensure the identity of both the clinicians and patients so that all parties can have confidence that the individuals involved in the encounter are actually who they appear to be. Provider organizations should strongly consider implementing such technologies in any telehealth services arrangement.

Security Awareness

Even the best technical safeguards can be compromised by human error, so it is imperative that effective security awareness training be provided both to workforce members as well as patients. Workforce members who participate in telehealth services arrangements must be made aware of their obligations to protect the privacy and security of patient information under their organization's policies and procedures and be sanctioned when a violation occurs. Likewise, patients should be provided with information about the security risks present in telehealth arrangements and advised of the steps they can take to mitigate those risks.

Security Risk Analysis

Provider organizations are required under HIPAA to periodically perform an enterprise-wide security risk analysis and to take steps to remediate any risks that are identified. The failure to do so can result in substantial fines and penalties to a provider organization. An enterprise-wide risk analysis considers not only the electronic health record but also any system or equipment that contains electronic patient information, which would include equipment and systems utilized in providing telehealth services. Accordingly, provider organizations should be sure to include telehealth systems in their risk analysis, including those utilized by a third party service and to address any identified risks and vulnerabilities in a timely fashion.

This article is educational in nature and is not intended as legal advice. Always consult your legal counsel with specific legal matters. If you have any questions or would like additional information about this topic, please contact Ammon Fillmore at (317) 977-1492 or afillmore@hallrender.com or Mark Swearingen at (317) 977-1458 or mswearingen@hallrender.com.

About the Authors: Ammon Fillmore and Mark Swearingen are attorneys with Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman, P.C., the largest healthcare-focused law firm in the country. Please visit the Hall Render Blog for more information on topics related to healthcare law.

Mark Swearingen

Mark Swearingen

Ammon Fillmore

Ammon Fillmore















HIN Disclaimer: The opinions, representations and statements made within this guest article are those of the author and not of the Healthcare Intelligence Network as a whole. Any copyright remains with the author and any liability with regard to infringement of intellectual property rights remain with them. The company accepts no liability for any errors, omissions or representations.

Infographic: Futuristic Hospitals

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Hospitals across the globe are bringing together science and technology to improve patient care, according to a new infographic by Gap Medics.

The infographic explores some of the most futuristic hospitals in the world, where state of the art equipment and high tech medical care is advancing healthcare.

Remote Patient Monitoring for Chronic Condition Management: Leveraging Technology in a Value-Based System Encouraged by early success in coaching 23 patients to wellness at home via remote monitoring, CHRISTUS Health expanded its remote patient monitoring (RPM) enrollment to 170 high-risk, high-cost patients. At that scaling-up juncture, the challenge for CHRISTUS shifted to balancing its mission of keeping patients healthy and in their homes with maintaining revenue streams sufficient to keep its doors open in a largely fee-for-service environment.

Remote Patient Monitoring for Chronic Condition Management: Leveraging Technology in a Value-Based System chronicles the evolution of the CHRISTUS RPM pilot, which is framed around a Bluetooth®-enabled monitoring kit sent home with patients at hospital discharge.

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Infographic: What Hospital CIOs Think About Data Security and Clinical Mobility

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Effective patient engagement has been linked with increased adherence to medical plans, reduced hospitalizations, and higher revenues, according to a new infographic by ChartLogic. One way to generate these results is by meeting patients where they spend the most time, i.e. social media.

The infographic looks at which secure communication methods clinical staff use, the top four reasons hospitals use pagers and mobile health strategies.

Healthcare Trends & Forecasts in 2017: Performance Expectations for the Healthcare Industry Not in recent history has the outcome of a U.S. presidential election portended so much for the healthcare industry. Will the Trump administration repeal or replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA)? What will be the fate of MACRA? Will Medicare and Medicaid survive?

These and other uncertainties compound an already daunting landscape that is steering healthcare organizations toward value-based care and alternative payment models and challenging them to up their quality game.

Healthcare Trends & Forecasts in 2017: Performance Expectations for the Healthcare Industry, HIN's 13th annual business forecast, is designed to support healthcare C-suite planning during this historic transition as leaders prepare for both a new year and new presidential leadership.

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Infographic: Hospital Holes for Hackers

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Nearly 90 percent of healthcare organizations had a data breach in the past two years, and nearly half, or 45 percent had more than five data breaches in the same time period, according to statistics cited in a new infographic by SecureWorks.

The infographic examines the impact of data breaches and where hospital security holes can be found and what organizations should do to address these potential risks.

Covered Entity Manual Covered Entity Manual is a template-style download manual that can be easily adapted to align with your compliance needs as a covered entity. All content complies with the Omnibus Rule.

Covered Entity-Specific Manual provides you with a generic, comprehensive set of policies and procedures: 33 privacy policies; 30 security policies; 6 policies that address common requirements of both the privacy and security rules; 1 breach notification policy; and 12 forms and templates, including a notice of privacy practices.

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In Montefiore Social Determinants of Health Screening, Patients’ Needs Shape SDOH Workflow

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 Clinical factors drive 15 percent of a patient's well-being; social determinants of health like finances drive the rest.


Clinical factors drive 15 percent of a patient’s well-being; social determinants of health like finances drive the rest.

In Dr. Amanda Parsons’ twenty-something years in healthcare, she has never implemented a program as widely embraced as Montefiore Health System’s Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) screening.

“It was one of the few times in my career that I didn’t encounter physician resistance,” said Dr. Parsons, Montefiore’s vice president of community and population health. The health system’s screening assesses patients for a host of SDOH factors that drive 85 percent of their well-being, including housing, food security, access to care or medications, finances, transportation and violence.

Following assessment, the goal is to connect individuals who screen positively for SDOHs with assistance from the area’s robust network of community organizations.

Dr. Parsons outlined her organization’s SDOH screening process, findings, challenges, and future plans during Assessing Social Determinants of Health: Collecting and Responding to Data in the Primary Care Setting, a June 2017 webcast by the Healthcare Intelligence Network now available for rebroadcast.

To get started, Montefiore piggybacked on the efforts of a few provider sites already screening for SDOHs. It then offered providers a choice of two validated screening tools, the first developed at a fifth-grade reading level, the second a more sophisticated “stressor” screen. Thirdly, it built a two-tiered triage system that leveraged social workers for individuals with very high SDOH needs, and community health workers to assist with lower-level needs.

Referrals would come from existing data banks or a host of new online referral tools, many of which Dr. Parsons mentioned during the webcast.

Interestingly, while Montefiore is fully live on an EPIC® electronic health record, SDOH screenings are currently conducted on paper, noted Dr. Parsons. This decision was one of multiple considerations in workflow creation, including respect for patient privacy.

For the time being, each Montefiore provider site selects a unique population to screen—or opts not to screen at all, if staffing is lacking. For example, one site screens all patients scheduled for annual physicals, while another screens patients recently discharged from the hospital.

In an initial readout of both screens, SDOH positivity was highest for housing and finances.

By the end of 2017, Montefiore expects to have completed more than 10,000 screenings. The health system, which serves some 700,000 patients, also plans to boost its ranks of community health workers, broadening its referral network.

Looking ahead, Montefiore will address a number of key administrative and emotional barriers. Some patient issues, like overcoming the stigma of seeing a social worker, can be minimized with a simple scripting change. Others, like alleviating an individual’s financial pain or putting a roof over a family’s head, are much more complicated.

Also needed is a process to confirm a patient has “gone that last mile” and obtained the recommended support, Dr. Parsons added.

As it expands SDOH screening, Montefiore is banking on that swell of engaged providers. As part of its mission to provide comprehensive, ‘cradle-to-grave’ care for its mostly Medicaid and otherwise government-insured population, Montefiore “intervenes even when there is no payment structure for that work,” said Dr. Parsons.

Falling into that category is SDOH screening. “Much of the Social Determinants of Health work is not very billable in the traditional paper service model, but it is incredibly important to do, regardless.”

Listen to an interview with Dr. Parsons on adapting SDOH screenings for different populations.
TW_Montefiore_SDOH_webinar0617

Infographic: Healthcare Technology Trends 2017

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With it’s renewed focus on patient engagement and experience, the healthcare industry is adopting the latest in digital technologies to enhance the quality of patient care, data security, and cost control, according to a new infographic by Experion Technologies.

The infographic examines how nine key technology trends are impacting the industry.

2016 Healthcare Benchmarks: Digital HealthDigital health, also referred to as ‘connected health,’ leverages technology to help identify, track and manage health problems and challenges faced by patients. Person-centric health management is slowly acknowledging the device-driven lives of patients and health plan members and incorporating these tools into care delivery and management efforts.

2016 Healthcare Benchmarks: Digital Health examines program goals, platforms, components, development strategies, target populations and health conditions, patient engagement metrics, results and challenges reported by more than 100 healthcare organizations responding to the February 2016 Digital Health survey by the Healthcare Intelligence Network.

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Infographic: Managing Medical Data on a Blockchain

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Shared infrastructure for information exchange via a blockchain in healthcare can eliminate duplication of healthcare services among treating physicians and improve care coordination, according to a new infographic by Gem.

The infographic demonstrates how the blockchain is used as a common registry for medical records between providers.

Remote Patient Monitoring for Chronic Condition Management: Leveraging Technology in a Value-Based System Encouraged by early success in coaching 23 patients to wellness at home via remote monitoring, CHRISTUS Health expanded its remote patient monitoring (RPM) enrollment to 170 high-risk, high-cost patients. At that scaling-up juncture, the challenge for CHRISTUS shifted to balancing its mission of keeping patients healthy and in their homes with maintaining revenue streams sufficient to keep its doors open in a largely fee-for-service environment.

Remote Patient Monitoring for Chronic Condition Management: Leveraging Technology in a Value-Based System chronicles the evolution of the CHRISTUS RPM pilot, which is framed around a Bluetooth®-enabled monitoring kit sent home with patients at hospital discharge.

Get the latest healthcare infographics delivered to your e-inbox with Eye on Infographics, a bi-weekly, e-newsletter digest of visual healthcare data. Click here to sign up today.

Have an infographic you’d like featured on our site? Click here for submission guidelines.


Infographic: The Prescription for Getting ROI From Analytics

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As the amount of patient data increases, healthcare organizations are investing in healthcare analytics solutions, according to a new infographic by IBM. To allow organizations to draw complex data insights from intricate, personal and rapidly changing data, healthcare organizations can benefit from a complete business intelligence (BI) solution.

The infographic looks at the trends driving this investment in analytics.

Health Analytics in Accountable Care: Leveraging Data to Transform ACO Performance and Results Between Medicare’s aggressive migration to value-based payment models and MACRA’s 2017 Quality Payment Program rollout, healthcare providers must accept the inevitability of participation in fee-for-quality reimbursement design—as well as cultivating a grounding in health data analytics to enhance success.

As an early adopter of the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) and the largest sponsor of MSSP accountable care organizations (ACOs), Collaborative Health Systems (CHS) is uniquely positioned to advise providers on the benefits of data analytics and technology, which CHS views as a major driver in its achievements in the MSSP arena. In performance year 2014, nine of CHS’s 24 MSSP ACOs generated savings and received payments of almost $27 million.

Health Analytics in Accountable Care: Leveraging Data to Transform ACO Performance and Results examines program goals, platforms, components, development strategies, target populations and health conditions, patient engagement metrics, results and challenges reported by more than 100 healthcare organizations responding to the February 2016 Digital Health survey by the Healthcare Intelligence Network.

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Infographic: What Benefits Do Patient Portals Offer Hospitals and Health Systems?

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As the use of electronic health records (EHRs) has increased, so has the functionality of patient portals that are often integrated with EHRs, according to a new infographic by UbiCare.

The infographic examines patient portal usage trends.

Understanding the factors that cause patient disengagement is a crucial first step in improving engagement rates, critical in today’s accountable healthcare systems.

Drilling into the customer comments from its Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) survey helped PinnacleHealth System frame the components of its patient engagement strategy…targeting patients with gaps in care and providing information and education to clinicians throughout the system on their role in increasing engagement rates.

During A Two-Pronged Patient Engagement Strategy: Closing Gaps in Care and Coaching Clinicians, a 45-minute webinar on August 17th at 1:30 p.m. Eastern, Kathryn Shradley, director of population health, PinnacleHealth System, will share her organization’s patient engagement framework, including its two-pronged approach to increase engagement rates across the health system.

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Infographic: ROI from Data-Driven Clinical Optimization

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Although the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act gave health systems a financial incentive to achieve Meaningful Use of EMRs, many healthcare organizations have struggled to capture value. As the capabilities and sophistication of EMRs continue to grow, there is a widening divide between healthcare organizations that harness the capabilities for a competitive advantage and those that are crippled by poor usability, workflows and adoption, according to a new infographic by Galen Healthcare Solutions.

The infographic looks at the impact of clinical EMR optimization on quality improvement and return on investment.

Health Analytics in Accountable Care: Leveraging Data to Transform ACO Performance and Results Between Medicare’s aggressive migration to value-based payment models and MACRA’s 2017 Quality Payment Program rollout, healthcare providers must accept the inevitability of participation in fee-for-quality reimbursement design—as well as cultivating a grounding in health data analytics to enhance success.

As an early adopter of the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) and the largest sponsor of MSSP accountable care organizations (ACOs), Collaborative Health Systems (CHS) is uniquely positioned to advise providers on the benefits of data analytics and technology, which CHS views as a major driver in its achievements in the MSSP arena. In performance year 2014, nine of CHS’s 24 MSSP ACOs generated savings and received payments of almost $27 million.

Health Analytics in Accountable Care: Leveraging Data to Transform ACO Performance and Results examines program goals, platforms, components, development strategies, target populations and health conditions, patient engagement metrics, results and challenges reported by more than 100 healthcare organizations responding to the February 2016 Digital Health survey by the Healthcare Intelligence Network.

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Infographic: 5 Questions Patients Should Ask About Healthcare Information Security

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Patients need to understand the information security protections by their healthcare providers, according to a new infographic by ISACA.

The infographic outlines a few questions that patients can ask of their providers to ensure that those organizations are applying
appropriate and diligent stewardship of the data that they hold in trust.

UnityPoint Health has moved from a siloed approach to improving the patient experience at each of its locations to a system-wide approach that encompasses a consistent, baseline experience while still allowing for each institution to address its specific needs.

Armed with data from its Press Ganey and CAHPS® Hospital Survey scores, UnityPoint’s patient experience team developed a front-line staff-driven improvement action plan.

Improving the Patient Experience: Engaging Front-line Staff for a System-Wide Action Plan, a 45-minute webinar on July 27th, now available for replay, Paige Moore, director, patient experience at UnityPoint Health—Des Moines, shares how the organization switched from a top-down, leadership-driven patient experience improvement approach to one that engages front-line staff to own the process.

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Infographic: The Healthcare IT Journey

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Healthcare is undergoing a digital transformation as a growing number of organizations leverage emerging technologies to create care models that are more patient-centered, according to a new infographic by Insight.

The infographic explores seven key stops on the consumer-driven healthcare IT journey and illustrates how technology is supporting this evolution.

2016 Healthcare Benchmarks: Digital HealthDigital health, also referred to as ‘connected health,’ leverages technology to help identify, track and manage health problems and challenges faced by patients. Person-centric health management is slowly acknowledging the device-driven lives of patients and health plan members and incorporating these tools into care delivery and management efforts.

2016 Healthcare Benchmarks: Digital Health examines program goals, platforms, components, development strategies, target populations and health conditions, patient engagement metrics, results and challenges reported by more than 100 healthcare organizations responding to the February 2016 Digital Health survey by the Healthcare Intelligence Network.

Get the latest healthcare infographics delivered to your e-inbox with Eye on Infographics, a bi-weekly, e-newsletter digest of visual healthcare data. Click here to sign up today.

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Infographic: Healthcare Consumer Behavior and Technology

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Healthcare consumers are familiar with and trust cloud technology, yet nearly one in three still can not easily access their medical records, according to a report released from Ambra Health, “Era of Change: Today’s Healthcare Consumer.” The survey of over 1,100 healthcare consumers found that a whopping 97 percent across all age and gender demographics are familiar with cloud technology, yet 31 percent can not easily access their medical records and only half of those can access medical records online via their healthcare provider.

The infographic breaks down three key aspects of healthcare consumers and technology, including: finding healthcare providers online; how consumers are looking for more innovation; and moving medical imaging to the cloud.

Patient-centric interventions like population health management, health coaching, home visits and telephonic outreach are designed to engage individuals in health self-management—contributing to healthier clinical and financial results in healthcare’s value-based reimbursement climate.

But when organizations consistently rank patient engagement as their most critical care challenge, as hundreds have in response to HIN benchmark surveys, which strategies will help to bring about the desired health behavior change in high-risk populations?

9 Protocols to Promote Patient Engagement in High-Risk, High-Cost Populations presents a collection of tactics that are successfully activating the most resistant, hard-to-engage patients and health plan members in chronic condition management. Whether an organization refers to this population segment as high-risk, high-cost, clinically complex, high-utilizer or simply top-of-the-pyramid ‘VIPs,’ the touch points and technologies in this resource will recharge their care coordination approach.

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Guest Post: Combining Big Data, EHRs and IoT for Chronic Disease Management

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Providers and developers can work together to create solutions that leverage big data, EHRs and the IoT.

Have you ever used a Fitbit® or an Apple Watch®, or downloaded a mHealth app? If so, are you using these tools as an integrated way to improve your health?

The more we use technology, the more we want it to do for us. With millions of people living with complex diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease, the development of intuitive and secure chronic disease management tools has become indispensable.

Yet, these tools may not support successful, sustained disease management—at least, not without the help of providers themselves.

More than 40 percent of patients who had downloaded an mHealth app had stopped using it when the app failed to provide accurate, personalized and actionable strategies for achieving their health goals. High data entry burden, hidden fees, and poor usability were other sticking points for these patients.

Another study carried out by an international team of researchers tracked 800 people for a year to see what impact Fitbit had on their health. The experts concluded that such devices are unlikely to be a magic bullet for the early detection and monitoring of chronic diseases.

So how can providers and developers work together to create engaging and supportive solutions that leverage big data, electronic health records and the Internet of Things (IoT) to utmost effect?

Using Big Data to Make Wiser Medical Decisions

Big data analytics allow providers to discover certain patterns that assist them in making better predictions about certain diseases.

With the help of big data and IoT, including patient records, clinical trials, insurance claims, and wearables, providers can discern the extent to which each intervention, as well as its associated expenditures, contribute to the improvement of their patients’ health.

However, in order to achieve measurable cost savings and long-lasting chronic disease control for patients, software models are required to help clinicians organize the data, recognize patterns, interpret results, and set thresholds for actions.

For example, to avoid the failure of an EHR to keep up with one’s sudden healthcare changes, hospitals should look at its software as being only the foundation of their health information, risking a negative impact on patient care.

Through department-appropriate software customization, hospitals can cut down wasted time spent scrolling through irrelevant screens and unnecessary fields, tracking down patient histories and reviewing duplicate data.

Having an intuitive, user-friendly EHR software also helps patients be more informed about their own health and prevents potential issues. They can access test results to see when follow-up appointments are due or communicate with their doctors to bring up any issues that may show significant health problems.

5 Things to Look for When Choosing an EHR System

    • Firstly, your EHR system should integrate easily with other systems within the hospital, such as clinical discussion support systems, laboratory information systems and other tools.
    • Further to considering the individual and specific departmental needs in a hospital, the other important feature of EHR software is customization (e.g. streamlining manual data entry). This is also advantageous for patients, as a customizable EHR system can be tailored to suit specific needs for data access, education and portability.
    • To make the most out of technological advancements and the benefits of customization, constant performance reviews of the chosen EHR systems in real-life scenarios are highly important. For example, when Medica conducted a research study to identify how they could improve their blood gas analyzer product line, it found out that its user interface needed a refresh. The outdated push button control system caused a lengthy training process for new users, so it required a radically improved user interface.
       
    • Make EHR software accessible with smartphones and tablets and provide easy access from connected devices, freeing clinicians from their workstations and creating access to patient data remotely. With accessibility, productivity soars and doctors can provide better care and reduce the lag between diagnosis and treatment, while lowering healthcare costs and improving patient’s compliance with treatment through consistent two-way communication.
    • Last but not least, a customized solution for your EHR can align workflows with the current processes a staff is already following, which can save time and prevent confusion when training users on the new EHR.

    By ensuring all your staff members receive thorough training and have access to ongoing support when questions or problems arise, the risk of the EHR becoming outdated is also minimized. Situations such as missing patient history or test results, which can lead to delayed diagnosis, unnecessary tests or even a misdiagnosis, are avoided.

    IoT Benefits for Healthcare Providers and Patients

    Doctors, nurses, and caregivers are not the only benefactors of IoT and healthcare apps. These devices can alert medical staff to wandering patients, monitor ICU patients or potentially dangerous procedures and treatments.

    Moreover, if a patient with a chronic illness needs immediate attention, the IoT can alert medical experts, and even connect the two to talk them through an emergency.

    In terms of direct patient benefits, IoT devices can remind patients when to take their medications, alert them about pending prescription refills or train them about upcoming medical procedures, while transferring relevant medical information back to the patient’s healthcare provider.

    To sum up, big data, electronic health records, and IoT devices have the potential to save money and often, even people’s lives. Together they contribute to increased efficiency, improved patient satisfaction and more time to focus on patient care.

    About the Author: Brian Geary is a senior account manager for AndPlus, LLC. Brian is a true believer in the Agile process. He often assists the development process by performing the product owner role. In addition to his technical background, he is an experienced account manager with a background in sales and customer service, as well as graphic design and marketing. Brian’s role at AndPlus ranges from marketing to sales and everything in between. Brian brings 10+ years of graphic design, marketing and account management experience to AndPlus.

    HIN Disclaimer: The opinions, representations and statements made within this guest article are those of the author and not of the Healthcare Intelligence Network as a whole. Any copyright remains with the author and any liability with regard to infringement of intellectual property rights remain with them. The company accepts no liability for any errors, omissions or representations.


  • Healthcare Hotwire: Blockchain Technology and AI in Healthcare

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    Blockchain technology and artificial intelligence are healthcare game-changers.

    Blockchain technology is a game-changer with the potential to impact not one or two industries, but the complete landscape of how business is done. When 200 healthcare executives were recently surveyed by IBM, 16 percent expect to have a commercial blockchain solution at scale sometime this year.

    And artificial intelligence (AI) and robots that support, diagnose and treat people are already in homes, workplaces and clinical environments all over the world, according to PWC.

    Still in their infancy, early adopters of these technologies are starting to report promising results.

    In the new edition of Healthcare Hotwire, you’ll learn more about the patient benefits of blockchain technology, how AI is being used to identify high-risk colon cancer patients and improve medication adherence and other healthcare blockchain and AI trends.

    HIN’s newly launched Healthcare Hotwire tracks trending topics in the industry for strategic planning. Subscribe today.

    LVHN Portal Places Healthcare Control in Patients’ Hands, Liberates Staff

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    patient portal rolloutConsumers accustomed to communicating, shopping, banking and booking travel online increasingly expect those same conveniences from their healthcare providers.

    And as Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) has learned, despite the myriad of benefits a patient portal offers, the most important reason to incorporate this interactive tool into a physician practice is because patients want it.

    “As much as we emphasize the marketing aspect of [the portal], having a nice, functional technology that we get in other aspects of our life has really been an enabler,” notes Michael Sheinberg, M.D., medical director, medical informatics, Epic transformation at LVHN. Many LVHN patients found the portal on their own, independent of the tool’s formal introduction, he adds. “Patients really wanted this. Our patients want to be engaged, they want to have access, and they want to own their medical information.”

    Dr. Sheinberg and Lindsay Altimare, director of operations for Lehigh Valley Physician Group at LVHN, walked through the rollout of the LVHN portal to its ambulatory care providers during Patient Portal Roll-Out Strategy: Activating and Engaging Patients in Self-Care and Population Health, a November 2017 webinar now available for rebroadcast.

    The 2015 launch of LVHN’s patient portal and its continued user growth has earned it the distinction of being the fastest growing patient portal on the Epic® platform.

    As Ms. Altimare explained, LVHN first launched its portal with limited functionality in February 2015 as part of the Epic electronic health record that had gone live two years earlier. But even given the portal’s limited feature set, LVHN quickly recognized the tool’s potential to enhance efficiency, education, communication and revenue outside of traditional doctor’s office visits.

    At its providers’ request, however, LVHN first piloted the portal within 14 of its 160+ physician practices, using feedback from providers in the two-month trial to further tweak the portal before next rolling it out to its remaining clinicians, and finally to patients.

    LVHN supported each rollout phase with targeted marketing and education materials.

    Today, LVHN patients and staff embrace the functionality of the portal, which offers an experience similar to that of an online airline check-in. Via the portal, LVHN patients can self-schedule appointments, complete medical questionnaires and forms, even participate in select e-visits with physicians—all in the comfort and privacy of their own homes.

    Not only are about 45 percent of LVHN’s 420,000 patients enrolled in the portal, but self-scheduling doubled in the first six months of use. Additionally, upon examining a segment of portal participants over 12 months, LVHN identified a steady rise in portal utilization for common tasks like medication renewals and medical history completion.

    The portal “liberates our patients from the need to access our providers in the traditional way,” says Dr. Sheinberg. Appreciation of this freedom is reflected in improved patient experience scores, he adds.

    “The portal is a patient satisfier, and certainly a staff satisfier, because it reduces patient ‘no-shows’ and liberates our staff from more manual processes, putting them in the hands of our patients.”


    Infographic: The Pursuit of Healthcare Interoperability

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    Healthcare organizations are working toward interoperability by investing in electronic health records, as a first step toward eventual data integration. However, the challenges to achieving interoperability go beyond EHR implementation, according to a new infographic by Transcend Insights.

    The infographic examines five of the biggest interoperability challenges.

    Trends Shaping the Healthcare Industry in 2018: A Strategic Planning SessionUncertainty regarding the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), combined with industry market forces, including consolidations and strategic partnerships, positioning for value-based healthcare, cost containment efforts, an emphasis on technology and efforts to understand and address the whole patient as part of population health management have been the key drivers in the healthcare industry this year.

    With the efforts to repeal and replace the ACA now focused on the elimination of the cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments to insurers and changes to regulations governing association health plans, short-term, limited-duration insurance and health reimbursement arrangements, the healthcare industry can put aside the uncertainty of this year and move forward with the market forces in play.

    During Trends Shaping the Healthcare Industry in 2018: A Strategic Planning Session, a 60-minute webinar on December 7th, two industry thought leaders, David Buchanan, President, Buchanan Strategies, and Brian Sanderson, managing principal, healthcare services, Crowe Horwath, will provide a roadmap to the key issues, challenges and opportunities for healthcare organizations in 2018.

    Get the latest healthcare infographics delivered to your e-inbox with Eye on Infographics, a bi-weekly, e-newsletter digest of visual healthcare data. Click here to sign up today.

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    Guest Post: Are You Preparing to Fail Healthcare Compliance in 2018?

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    A 2018 roadmap to healthcare compliance should focus on cybersecurity, vendor management and telehealth.

    As the year winds down, we see numerous lists of priorities healthcare organizations should focus on in the coming year. However, if you are looking to those end-of-year lists for guidance on what your organization should pay attention to in 2018, you are already behind. If you do find yourself playing catch-up, drafting your 2018 compliance work plan is the best place to start.

    As the roadmap for your compliance efforts throughout the year, your annual work plan should indicate key high-risk areas. The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has indicated that developing an annual compliance work plan is integral to the administration of an effective compliance program (Measuring Compliance Program Effectiveness – A Resource Guide).

    The annual work plan and compliance program administration are but one portion of what is required for an organization to have a robust and effective compliance program. The required elements of a compliance program are the following:

    • Standards, Policies and Procedures;
    • Compliance Program Administration;
    • Screening and Evaluation of Employees, Physicians, Vendors and Other Agents;
    • Communication, Education and Training;
    • Monitoring, Auditing and Internal Reporting Systems;
    • Discipline for Non-Compliance; and
    • Investigations and Remedial Measures.

    These elements provide a broad framework for your organization to identify risk, proactively remediate and provide a response mechanism to mitigate when there is an exposure. Working the plan and program throughout the year helps your organization achieve a state of ongoing readiness.

    Cybersecurity

    Cybersecurity is one item that will likely factor more heavily in your work plan, and appropriately so. Last June, the HHS Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Task Force released a report on improving cybersecurity in the industry. The Task Force concluded that cybersecurity, at its core, is a patient safety issue and a “public health concern that needs immediate and aggressive attention.”

    Some of the areas to address in the broader realm of cybersecurity include:

    • Ransomware;
    • Email security, including phishing;
    • Internet of Things (IoT) and devices;
    • Bring your own device (BYOD); and
    • Medical identity theft.

    As the Task Force report notes, cybersecurity must be thought about across the continuum of care in your organization. Work to shift the culture and thinking that cybersecurity is simply a technology issue, of concern only to the IT department.

    Do this by implementing policies and procedures for key cybersecurity issues and then communicating them across the organization. Follow that with training, including everyone in your organization, from staff to board members. The training should: define cybersecurity; explain how it may manifest in the organization, and address your policies and procedures, making it evident to all what they can and cannot do and how to respond.

    Third-Party Vendor Management

    The outsourcing of services to third-party vendors is increasingly common and for good reason. Such relationships offer great benefits, but at the same time, these relationships also carry legal, financial, reputational and compliance-related risks. Here are seven questions to evaluate your third-party vendor relationships:

    • Does your organization, as a covered entity (CE) under HIPAA, have a vendor compliance program to help you identify, manage and report on these risks?
    • Do you review and assess your vendors’ risk profile?
    • Are you familiar with each vendor’s hiring practices?
    • Do you know which vendors’ products connect to other IT systems that contain critical data, including protected health information (PHI)?
    • Do you have insight into each vendor’s information security and data privacy capabilities?
    • Do you know with which vendors you have a business associate agreement (BAA)?

    For many healthcare organizations, the answer to several of these questions is likely “no,” which creates risk for those organizations. The OIG’s position is clear: healthcare entities have a responsibility to proactively identify, assess and manage the risks associated with their vendor relationships.

    All vendors are NOT created equal. A good starting point in managing an effective and efficient third-party compliance program is to perform a risk-ranking of vendors based on their access to critical assets or information. By segmenting your vendor population into “risk tiers” you can focus limited resources on the most serious exposures.

    Components of third-party compliance assessment should include, among other things:

    • Due diligence (background, reputation, strategy);
    • Knowledge of, and compliance with, security and privacy requirements;
    • Operations and internal controls (policies and procedures);
    • Workforce controls, background and exclusion checks; and
    • Training and education.

    And, of course, with every vendor that meets the criteria of a Business Associate, ensure that a written BAA is in place. BAAs can be complex and are often daunting, but they must be carefully negotiated and acknowledged by both parties.

    By ensuring your vendors have strong compliance programs in place and that they are following through on the BAA requirements, your organization is meeting its compliance obligations and doing its best to minimize its risks.

    Telehealth

    The compliance concerns related to the delivery of care via telehealth are numerous and include the following:

    • Licensing;
    • Credentialing;
    • Security;
    • Regulatory requirements for billing; and
    • Fraud and abuse.

    An area to focus some attention on is payment under federal healthcare programs. The OIG currently has two active work items on telehealth, one for Medicaid and one for Medicare. Both of the items relate to the propriety of payment for telehealth services.

    If your organization provides telehealth services, consider conducting a risk assessment to determine if you have any exposure in the area. Risk assessments are not strictly one of the 7 required elements of a compliance program, but they are often referred to as the “8th Element” given the focus on them in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and OIG documents.
    Risk assessments, along with the other elements of a compliance program, provide your organization the means to identify, prioritize, remediate and/or mitigate the myriad on-going risks it will encounter. If you are not working your compliance program and specific risk areas throughout the year, you are failing to adequately prepare for an event. By failing to prepare, as one wise man said, you are preparing to fail.

    About the Authors: Tim Feldman is Vice President and General Manager of Healthcare Compliance & Reimbursement at Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. He oversees product development across a vast suite of practice tools and workflow solutions to help professionals stay ahead of regulatory developments and effectively manage compliance activities. Darci L. Friedman, JD, CHPC, CSPO, PMC-III, is the Director of Content Strategy & Author Acquisitions for Healthcare Compliance, Coding & Reimbursement at Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. She is responsible for supporting the overall strategy for developing new content and features, innovating new product models, and recruiting top content contributors.

    HIN Disclaimer: The opinions, representations and statements made within this guest article are those of the author and not of the Healthcare Intelligence Network as a whole. Any copyright remains with the author and any liability with regard to infringement of intellectual property rights remain with them. The company accepts no liability for any errors, omissions or representations.

    Infographic: Hospital CIOs’ 2018 Priorities

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    Hospital CIOs are wrestling with a wide range of technology challenges, according to a new infographic by Spok.

    The infographic details the trop priorities of hospital CIOs this year, including the progress toward a mobile health strategy.

    Remote Patient Monitoring for Chronic Condition Management: Leveraging Technology in a Value-Based System Encouraged by early success in coaching 23 patients to wellness at home via remote monitoring, CHRISTUS Health expanded its remote patient monitoring (RPM) enrollment to 170 high-risk, high-cost patients. At that scaling-up juncture, the challenge for CHRISTUS shifted to balancing its mission of keeping patients healthy and in their homes with maintaining revenue streams sufficient to keep its doors open in a largely fee-for-service environment.

    Remote Patient Monitoring for Chronic Condition Management: Leveraging Technology in a Value-Based System chronicles the evolution of the CHRISTUS RPM pilot, which is framed around a Bluetooth®-enabled monitoring kit sent home with patients at hospital discharge.

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