Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta reaches HIMSS Stage 7 of EMRAM

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, one of the greatest pediatric clinical care providers in the country, has reached HIMSS Stage 7 of Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM), becoming the 1st hospital in Georgia to acquire acute care Stage 7.

The 3-hospital pediatric healthcare system indicated advanced use of information technology (IT) to make better patient care and advanced data analytics capabilities to drive improvements predicting claim for emergency services and patient acuity changes, in accordance to HIMSS Analytics executives.

EMRAM of HIMSS Analytics is a methodology for verifying the progress and affect of electronic health record (EHR) systems at hospitals, which involves 8 stages (0-7) that measure a hospital’s implementation and utilization of information technology to optimize healthcare and the treatment sufferers get.

An Epic electronic health record system (EHR), which was 1st implemented in the year of 2004, integrates research, quality and clinical care components across Children’s several hospital and outpatient facilities in the region of Georgia.

“Particularly in the inpatient space, we’ve been a ground-breaking agency building out in pediatrics Epic content and workflows long before most folks were,” claims Jeremy Meller, vice president of information technology at Children’s. “It has assisted us to build a powerful foundation over time to be capable to execute the more advanced capabilities of Epic, including patient safety such as barcode medication administration.”

Among Children’s technology capabilities, the pediatric provider is capable to capture discrete information into the EHR as well as big data systems to give advanced analytical capabilities to improve care.

“We’ve a complete continuum of capabilities involving population and disease management, where we can take the data and recognize trends in sufferer health status, as well as the capability to integrate external data,” claims Meller.

“One of the regions of predictive analytics we’ve is predicting emergency department volumes,” he further adds. “Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has one of the busiest pediatric emergency departments in the whole country, and it is very significant that we’re capable to precisely predict volumes so that we can give suitable staffing and expertise to look after the patients. We are capable to take in everything from seasonal trends to disease or infection patterns, as well as air quality—which all have an effect.”

As the healthcare industry transitions from fee-for-service to value-based care, Meller asserts that Children’s Healthcare is well positioned to deliver quality care to its sufferers through advanced analytics capabilities.

“Their data analytics are cutting edge,” claims Philip Bradley, regional director in HIMSS Analytics’ healthcare advisory services group.

HIMSS Stage 7 represents the greatest EMRAM level. Only 4.6% of hospitals in the U.S. have acquired Stage 7 and with the designation Children’s Healthcare has become the 1st hospital in Georgia to achieve acute care HIMSS Stage 7.

Children’s Healthcare will be honored next month at the HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition in the place of Orlando, Fla.

 

UnitedHealth Group to exit Obamacare exchanges in all but a ‘handful’ of states

UnitedHealth Group, the nation's greatest health insurer, stated on the day of Tuesday that in the year 2017 it will exit most of the 34 states where it offers policies on the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges.

"We will be down to a handful of states that we will be actively engaging in the exchanges," Stephen J. Hemsley, chief executive officer of UnitedHealth Group claimed in an earnings call, noting that the small market size and greater expense of sufferers insured through the marketplaces led the insurer to make the decision.

UnitedHealth plans to withdraw from health insurance marketplaces in Arkansas, Michigan, Connecticut and parts of Georgia. The decision is a sequel to an declaration by executives late initial year that the insurer had suffered financial losses and might leave the health exchanges altogether in the year 2017. UnitedHealth reported that it hopes to lose $650 million in the exchanges in the year 2016.

Blue Cross of GA Uses Google Maps to Encourage Use of Urgent Care

You may have heard of a few enlightened payors who have sent letters to encourage their members to use urgent care instead of the emergency department. That makes perfect sense given the savings of 50-70% with urgent care. However, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia has taken this a step further by utilizing technology to launch a program aimed at educating their members on their health care options in order to prevent unnecessary ER visits. BCBS hopes to accomplish this through the launch of the website http://www.bcbsga.com/eralt that includes a Google Maps application – which will eventually include an iPhone app – that allows their members to find clinics in their area; online tutorials on whether to visit an ER or urgent care; and information on how to access their 24-hour nurse line for recommendations on where to go and directions to clinics. Read More

 

Feds Award More MU Planning Grants

Six more states will receive matching federal planning funds to implement programs to administer Medicaid incentive payments for meaningful use of electronic health records, bringing the total to at least 16 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is awarding the funds, authorized under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. States with new grants include Colorado ($798,000), Mississippi ($1.47 million), Nevada ($1.05 million), North Carolina ($2.29 million), Utah ($396,000) and Wyoming ($596,000).

States and territories must submit plans for CMS approval before receiving matching funds. They will use the funds for such activities as analyzing the current status of health information technology, examining barriers to EHR adoption, establishing eligibility for incentives and creating a long-term state Medicaid HIT plan.

States that previously received funds include Alaska, California, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Montana, New York, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin. More information is available at cms.hhs.gov/Recovery/11_HealthIT.asp#TopOfPage.

-- Joseph Goedert