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Most clinical laboratory managers know that the HITECH Act, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“ARRA”) of 2009, was designed to promote and expand the adoption of health information technology (“HIT”). To that end, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) was allotted $25.9 billion to create incentives and to fund the adoption of HIT. Expansion and adoption of HIT will necessarily impact the spectrum of healthcare providers, including hospitals, physicians, medical laboratories and pathology groups.
Of particular importance in incentivizing Electronic Health Record (“EHR”) adoption and overall HIT adoption, the HITECH Act created a set of Meaningful Use criteria that had to be met by healthcare providers in order to receive the government incentives. 2013 marks the year in which most eligible providers of care are required to begin implementing many of the components of Stage Two, Meaningful Use.
Part of the Meaningful Use requirements involves the adoption of computerized physician order entry (“CPOE”) and the ability of electronic health records (“EHR”) and laboratory information systems (“LIS”) to communicate and interface with each other, enabling effective and HIPAA-compliant transfer of private health information (“PHI”) between networks. There are a wide variety of networks involved in healthcare, from hospital networks, health information exchanges (“HIE”), accountable care organizations (“ACO”), laboratory networks, Medicare, Medicaid, and insurance networks. In order for all these different networks to communicate with each other, specific standards need to be met and new technological approaches must be utilized.
Challenges for Clinical Laboratories and Physicians
This white paper will introduce several of the healthcare networks that clinical laboratories will encounter, describe the challenges labs and physicians face in connecting to these networks, and provide examples of solutions for utilizing HIT and cloud-based network applications for leveraging this technology in order to cut costs, improve revenues, and increase reliable transmission of private health information (“PHI”).
In addition to these topics, the white paper presents two case studies. The first is the Florida Department of Health, a state agency with approximately 17,000 employees. An integrated public health system, the Florida Department of Health requires the coordination of 67 county health departments and the Health Management System (“HMS”), an Office of the National Coordinator certified Electronic Health Record. Because of its size and complexity of its laboratory information exchange needs, the Florida Department of Health sought a vendor that was reliable and would act as a partner in working through its private health information (“PHI”) solutions.
The second case study focuses on NCG Medical, a privately-held software company specializing in EMR’s and nationally-certified EHR. It serves over 7,500 medical providers throughout the U.S. NCG Medical was looking for an exchange and connectivity solution that would support their own EHR, EMR and Practice Management solutions.
The Dark Report is pleased to offer a recently published FREE White Paper that outlines several CPOE and cloud-based connectivity strategies laboratories and physicians can use to meet Meaningful Use requirements. It is titled, “CPOE and Meaningful Use Stage Two: How the Adoption of Cloud-Based CPOE Can Ease the Burden of Satisfying Meaningful Use Requirements for Your Lab and Your Physicians.” Published by The Dark Report and Dark Daily, it is available free to laboratory professionals as a PDF download.
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Along with other topics, this FREE White Paper specifically addresses:
- The various types of healthcare networks laboratories and physicians encounter regularly
- An overview of Stage Two Meaningful Use requirements and how it applies to laboratory and physician networks
- An evaluation of cloud-based healthcare networks and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) health IT solutions
- Case studies in which laboratories and institutions’ use of Emdeon’s Clinical Solutions CPOE system lead to greater efficiencies, lower costs, and better patient care
Table of Contents
Introduction — Page 3
Chapter 1:
Healthcare Networks, Laboratories, and Meaningful — Page 4
Chapter 2:
Healthcare Networks: The Shift to the Cloud — Page 10
Chapter 3:
Hospital Environments and the Integration of Laboratory Workflow — Page 15
Chapter 4:
CPOE and Clinical Laboratories: Impact on Economics — Page 17
Chapter 5:
Case Studies — Page 24
Conclusion:
— Page 30
References — Page 31
Appendices
A-1 About Emdeon — Page 33
A-2 About Mark Terry — Page 34
A-3 About DARK Daily — Page 35
A-4 About The Dark Intelligence Group, Inc., and THE DARK REPORT — Page 36
A-5 About the Executive War College on Laboratory and Pathology Management — Page 37
A-6 About Michele Judge — Page 39
Terms of Use — Page 44
