COMMENTARY
Smartphones, scanners and how the converged device market is changing health IT
Nurses and medical caregivers historically have been saddled with an array of proprietary communication and IT devices to learn, in addition to manning their medical duties, including pagers, VOIP phones, barcode scanners, voice pendants and other hardware. But the trend today is rapidly moving away from proprietary technology and migrating to a smartphone-based new converged-device approach that can lighten the load for the nursing staff, both literally and figuratively.
What are converged devices? In essence, they are smartphones with added durability and other key features important for enhanced clinical workflows. These new mobile devices, which include a hospital-grade barcode scanner, provide extended battery life – lasting an entire shift on a single charge. They also have to be rugged enough to withstand drops to concrete and tile without shattering the display and be able to handle regular cleaning with caustic, hospital-grade disinfectant cleansers.
There are two approaches to deploying truly converged mobile computing solutions in a hospital today, and the choice depends largely on software, your hardware upgrade/refresh strategy, security requirements, remote management requirements and your choice of mobile device management solution.
While some hospitals are considering deploying Android phones for their clinical staff, using Android for mobile applications is being hindered by a lack of compatible EMR software. In addition, the options for adding barcode and disinfectant protection to consumer Android smartphones are limited.
Operationally, the converged mobile devices must be able to run a variety of healthcare applications and support multiple messaging platforms so that healthcare organizations can glean the full benefits of mobility. Optimally, users of a converged mobile device in a hospital setting should be able to:
• Receive a phone call from a doctor/clinician;
• Send a secure text message to another clinician;
• Scan a barcode on a patient wristband, blood bag, medication or medical chart;
• Enter patient data directly into the EMR system;
• Look up a drug using a pharmaceutical application such as Eprocrates;
• Receive and respond to alarms and alerts from medical equipment and patient rooms; and
• Talk directly to a patient who has pressed the nurse call button.
Combining the functions of the multiple devices that nurses carry now onto one converged smartphone device empowers clinicians to make more informed care decisions when they are on the move or at the patient bedside. In this way, hospitals can improve patient care in the most cost-effective way possible.
AWARDS
Sue Schade named CHIME-HIMSS 2014 CIO of the Year
Sponsored by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), the award recognizes healthcare IT executives who have made significant contributions to their organization and demonstrated innovative leadership through effective use of technology. The boards of directors for both organizations annually select the recipient of the award, which is named in honor of the late John E. Gall Jr., who pioneered implementation of the first fully integrated medical information system in the world at California’s El Camino Hospital in the 1960s.
Schade’s career in the healthcare IT industry spans 30 years, with 15 spent as a CIO. She joined University of Michigan Health System in November 2012 to oversee the launch of its new EHR system. Prior to joining U-M Health System, Schade spent 12 years as CIO at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of Partners HealthCare and a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. Under her leadership, Brigham received national recognition for its Balanced Scorecard initiative – a widely adopted best practice by provider organizations around the country. Schade previously served leadership roles with organizations including Advocate Healthcare in Chicago and Ernst and Young.
Schade will receive the award on April 14, 2015, at the 2015 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition in Chicago.
Rx
Five pharmacy trends to watch in 2015
The McKesson Pharmacy Optimization team has identified the top five trends set to impact the healthcare system and health system pharmacies in 2015. Organizations attuned to the following can uncover new revenue opportunities while providing best-in-class clinical services that help improve patient outcomes:
- Specialty pharmacy offers opportunity for expanded revenue, improved patient care. By 2018, specialty drugs are expected to make up 50 percent of overall drug costs for commercially insured individuals. The growth for medications treating cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and HIV represents one of the most significant revenue opportunities that health systems have seen in many years. Health system pharmacies have important and valuable advantages in further developing their specialty pharmacy capabilities, including clinical expertise, coordination of care, patient education and support, and contract and billing expertise. Evaluate the competencies needed, and determine whether to build them in-house or via a partnership.
- Growing pharmacy revenue, controlling costs and doing more with less. Health system leaders are beginning to realize how much the ambulatory pharmacy can do for them. Not only can it be an additional source of revenue, but it also can help assist discharged patients with medication adherence, a critical means of reducing avoidable readmissions. Streamlining operations is a must to be able to “do more with less” and will continue to gain importance as pharmacy is looked at less as a cost center and more as a profit generator.
- Evolving payment models. As health systems move toward value-based reimbursement, the business model and the care model become increasingly intertwined. The pharmacy care model must evolve to be fully integrated between inpatient and outpatient as a part of the care team – with the patient in the center. Health systems need tools that help them identify their revenue and cost drivers and provide insight regarding how cost, quality and care decisions impact the network as a whole. There is an increased focus on the provision of optimal medication therapy management in the ambulatory care setting to improve continuity of care, medication adherence and reduce readmissions.
- Effectively managing 340B safety net programs. 340B-covered entities must ensure optimal processes and compliance for all split-billing and contract pharmacy scenarios. The 340B drug-pricing program is complex and requires cooperation among health system departments. Health system pharmacies that operate 340B programs need to ensure continual preparedness for audits by using internal compliance programs and technologies.
- Big Data. Data rules everything – patient safety, the continuum of care, payment models and reimbursement rates. The challenge is linking all the data together and getting the appropriate stakeholders to communicate. Pharmacy needs to be involved in the Big Data movement with an increasing organizational focus on pharmacy analytics. As health systems take on higher levels of financial risk, they will rely on a comprehensive analytics platform to track and monitor patient cost and quality.
SECURITY
Forty-two percent of all major data breaches reported in 2014 involved the healthcare industry. To help business executives prevent and manage all that potential data chaos, Experian Data Breach Resolution has released its second annual “Data Breach Industry Forecast,” a white paper outlining key issues and trends to watch in 2015.
Evolving factors such as new threats, regulatory changes and technological advances make the data-breach landscape hard to navigate. Experian predicts these six trends will dominate the security scene this year:
1. The rise and fall of payment breaches;
2. More hackers will target cloud data, so passwords must be safeguarded;
3. Healthcare breaches will persist – and grow;
4. Accountability will shift, putting business leaders under increased scrutiny;
5. Employee mistakes will be the biggest company threats; and
6. The rise in third-party breaches via the Internet of Things.
To learn more details, download the full report at http://bit.ly/2015IndustryForecast.
FINANCE
Accounts payable is No.1 target
According to a new survey report issued by Canon Business Process Services, a majority of senior finance executives say that their top priority for improvement in 2015 is the accounts payable (AP) function. In the study, executives revealed that AP represents their organization’s most time- and labor-intensive finance function, as well as the most manual and paper-intensive process.
The report, “Finance Executive Survey: Priorities, Challenges and Technologies for the Year Ahead,” was designed to help clarify the greatest pressures and highest concerns of CFOs, controllers and other senior finance executives. In one key finding, executives specified that errors are the AP department’s biggest challenge, closely followed by two other major concerns: lack of visibility into invoices and payables, and difficulty handling, managing and finding invoices.
To help solve these challenges, many organizations are planning to increase their investments in accounts payable automation in 2015. Canon advises organizations to:
- Strategically consider in-house and outsourced support. Finance executives and AP practitioners generally are much more concerned with issues such as accuracy, compliance and supplier relationships than about optical character recognition software, data extraction, workflow and automation. Delegate the latter.
- Centralize invoice receipt. Implementing a process in which suppliers send invoices directly to the AP department adds a layer of control to the entire AP process – and also provides the ability to save significant time and money.
- Leverage AP automation to capture and extract data, route invoices for approval, match invoice data and resolve discrepancies. Advancements in workflow automation continuously improve the AP process.
Find this and other Canon industry reports at https://cbps.canon.com/resources/index.aspx.
