At HCI, we rely on our readers to help make our stories deeply useful and effective. Please take a close look at the lineup. If you are a C-suite technology leader, consultant or analyst interested in participating, please e-mail the writers listed below. Inquiries regarding these stories are welcome until March 13.
Cover
Educate to Elevate
As clinical and financial software implementations move forward and the work of the IT team in hospitals and health systems becomes ever more complex and challenging, CIOs are looking at a variety of educational opportunities for themselves and their teams. So, what kinds of educational opportunities exist both within the industry (CHIME, HIMSS) and without (traditional University healthcare IT programs)? This cover story will look at what IT executives are doing in this area, and how CIOs' strategies are evolving.
— Mark Hagland ([email protected])
Clinical
The Great Aggregation
The dream of one enterprise system for different clinical applications has not exactly turned out the way many in the industry had hoped. Indeed, a recent KLAS report speaks to clinicians’ increasing frustration with multiple views of disparate systems. One solution that some are embracing is aggregation, which can bring clinical information together and put it at a doctor’s fingertips — without multiple sign-ons or screens. HCI will talk with some early adopters of clinical data integration to find out lessons learned. We’ll also see what experts predict many hospitals will be doing in the future.
— Daphne Lawrence ([email protected])
Financial/Administrative
Patient Portals (A Two-Part Story): Overview
A growing number of hospitals and health systems are implementing portals to improve the patient experience and streamline clinician workflow. This multi-departmental feature will examine the various functionalities offered by portals as they apply to both administrative and financial departments; discuss the benefits they offer for both patients and hospital staff; and explore the CIO’s vision of the ultimate patient portal.
Portals, Part 1
Footing the Bill
CIOs need to remember that the financial end of a patient portal is more than just paying a bill. Useful business results in this space can run the gamut from insurance pre-authorizations to improved collections and significant savings in call center workload and appointment scheduling. The blossoming of consumerism is making the patient portal ever more important — and tying the financial functions into the overall portal strategy will be key. We’ll talk to some organizations that are already using a comprehensive patient portal to find out how they structured their strategy.
— Daphne Lawrence ([email protected])
Portals, Part II
Is It Registering?
In this department, we will examine how portals can be leveraged to increase efficiency and improve patient satisfaction by enabling patients to pre-register, manage appointments, view laboratory results online and receive targeted education prior to visits. We will look at the benefits of implementing a patient portal, both in the short-term (by reducing call volumes for billing and appointments) and in the long-term (by helping patients to become more active in their care and better prepared for visits), and will identify potential sticking points. We will also examine the ways in which forward-thinking CIOs hope to expand and evolve this technology in the near future.
—Kate Huvane Gamble ([email protected])
Wireless
The Social Revolution
The social networking revolution has hit hospitals. Dozens of health systems across the country are leveraging online tools such as Twitter — a blogging service that can be accessed from cell phones, laptops and desktops — to engage patients, promote hospital accomplishments and events, and recruit employees. In today’s ultracompetitive environment, applications like Twitter offer a way for tech-savvy hospital executives to connect with patients by providing health tips, linking to hospital publications, and informing them about fundraising events and classes. Organizations can also leverage the tool to facilitate improved communication among hospital staff members. In this article, we will look at the capabilities and potential of such a service, while also addressing key concerns such as patient information and confidentiality, and examine how this fits into the CIO’s overall strategy.
— Kate Huvane Gamble ([email protected])
Imaging
Fitting the Image
As CIOs try to architect truly enterprise-wide imaging management for their organizations, they remain faced with some very practical challenges. One of them is that among the key people whom they need to help implement such strategies are PACS administrators, who by and large still go by that title, and often still report to radiology department heads. Indeed, most of these professionals not only report to the radiology department; they've usually come up through the ranks in radiology administration, and are most often still seen as “belonging to” the radiology department. As CIOs move to enterprise-wide imaging management, the reporting and role aspects of this key position will be critical to making change and creating integration. What are leading-edge CIOs doing about this, and what's their advice? We'll find out.
— Mark Hagland ([email protected])
Policy
Tapping the Stimulus
The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 promises a $20 billion shot in the arm for healthcare information technology. But how can CIOs and other e-health leaders take advantage of this funding opportunity? Healthcare Informatics will interview CIOs who have been consulting with government officials about where the opportunities will be, which agencies the money will flow through and how quickly it is likely to happen.
— David Raths ([email protected])
