HIMSS Davies Awards Winners: Leading Quality, Improved Patient Care

The HIMSS Davies Awards of Excellence recognize excellence in the implementation of and value from health information technology

CHICAGO (September 13, 2011) – The six winners of the 2011 HIMSS Davies Awards deliver quality and consistent care to the patients and populations they serve with information technology – specifically the electronic health record. These healthcare leaders, winners of the HIMSS Davies Awards of Excellence, appear below in the four award categories: organizational, ambulatory, community health organization and public health.

HIMSS Organizational Davies Award - Kaiser Permanente: Headquartered in Oakland, Calif., Kaiser Permanente is one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit health plans, serving more than 8.8 million members with its 36 hospitals and 454 medical offices and more than 15,000 physicians in all specialties. Founded in 1945, the organization followed a 10-year plan beginning in 2002 to implement KP Health Connect, its system-wide E-H-R now used by all hospitals throughout the Kaiser Permanente system to allow clinicians to focus on delivering quality care to patients.

“Congratulations to Kaiser Permanente, the winner of the 2011 Davies Organization Award, for achieving the goals of safer, high quality and patient-centered care. The innovative, comprehensive and consistent use of information technology across the Kaiser healthcare system represents a new standard all of us will strive to achieve,” said C. Eric Hartz, MD, Chair of the HIMSS Organizational Davies Award committee and Chief Medical Information Officer at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. The medical center is the 2008 winner of the Organizational Davies Award.

HIMSS Ambulatory Davies Award: With quality patient care at the forefront of their achievements, the two winners in the ambulatory category are:

Fallon Clinic in Worcester, Mass., is a physician-owned and run not-for-profit multispecialty group practice with 357 providers representing 30 specialties located in 23 sites throughout central Massachusetts. With a thorough needs assessment, vendor selection and EHR implementation, Fallon Clinic achieved measurable improvements in the quality, safety, efficiency and satisfaction of healthcare delivery.

James F. Holsinger, MD, FC, opened his solo family medicine practice in Keokuk, Iowa, a rural community of 20,000 in a county with the highest unemployment rate in the state. The practice started in 2003 with no patients and two part-time visiting specialists renting space in the same building. Now, Dr. Holsinger has 1,400 active patients and is the first fully automated clinic in the area. Profitable in its first 20 months, the practice implemented, and uses in its day-to-day operation, nearly every EHR function and interface available.

"This cycle of evaluating practices for the prestigious Davies Award for excellence in implementation of electronic records has again resulted in the recognition of two outstanding examples of how computerization is leading to improved patient care and outcomes. We congratulate this year’s winners for their hard work, innovation and dedication to improving patient care," said Daniel Griffin, MD, Chair of the HIMSS Ambulatory Davies Award committee and founder of Alpenglow Medical, PLLC, in Fort Collins, Colo., a winner of the 2006 Davies Award of Excellence in Ambulatory Care.

Community Health Organization Davies Award: The HIMSS Community Health Organization Davies Award Committee selected Hudson River HealthCare (HRHCare), in Peekskill, NY. Since its founding as the Peekskill Area Ambulatory Health Center in 1975, this healthcare organization has continued its ongoing commitment to improving the quality of care, patient experience and health outcomes for its underserved, uninsured and underinsured patient populations. The health center’s 16 primary care sites serve 64,000 patients, with over 275,000 annual visits, representing a diverse, low income population in rural, urban, migrant, homeless and public housing settings.

“This year’s Community Health Organization Davies recipient, Hudson River Healthcare, has raised the bar for others with the use of health information technology to improve healthcare delivery and increase clinical outcomes for their patients,” said Greg L. Wolverton, FHIMSS, Chief Information Officer, ARcare, in Augusta, Ark., and a 2008 HIMSS Community Health Organization Davies winner. “Congratulations to Hudson River Healthcare for its demonstration of best practice in action and being part of a very prestigious group of recipients that have excelled in implementation of electronic health records and shown sustainability in the use.”

Public Health Davies Award: Recognized in Atlanta at the Public Health Informatics 2011 Conference, sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two winners of the HIMSS Public Health Davies Award of Excellence now join 14 past public health Davies award winners, all honored for positively impacting population health by optimizing health information technology. The winners are:

•Florida Department of Health, Bureau of Epidemiology, Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics, Florida (ESSENCE-FL), and
•The New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, Primary Care Information Project.

Telemedicine for Peanuts !!

In our strive towards the utopian Affordable and Accessible Healthcare for the Indian populace, innovation is no longer a choice. The country has been abounding in ‘jugaad’ fixes which has impacted the life of many. One of such examples is the content of this post. This article has been contributed by Himadri Mukherjee on behalf of R C Aggarwal Memorial Hospital & Research Center. Himadri can be reached at himadri.mukherjee3@gmail.com

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Hospital Performance Indicators

Globally, are hospitals are being confronted with multiple pressures to increase operational efficiency as well as curb operating costs.Performance Indicators provide all healthcare executives with a baseline for their hospital's performance before they delve deep into root causes.This powerpoint takes a closer look at such metrics for hospital perf5ormance along with their defintions and impact in hospital operations

Hospital Performance Indicators

Consulting in Healthcare

Healthcare consulting is what I do and , thus was a natural choice for my first blog post !

While many believe that healthcare centers around the most important entity, the Patient, it is also a business and is subject to the same concerns as any other industry. The synthesis of business and healthcare can be a hard one to combine. This is why healthcare consulting has assumed unmatched importance.

Moreover, major global phenomenon including aging populations, rising affluence in emerging markets (and the accompanying “diseases of wealth”), and advances in medical techniques and technology have buoyed healthcare consulting through the recessionary period—and will continue to do so over the long term.

Putting numbers to its size, the current global healthcare consulting marketplace amounts to more than US$ 18 billion ( Source: Kennedy Healthcare Consulting Marketplace Report) with an unprecedented growth rate in following years.

Given the fragmented nature of the mammoth healthcare industry, its important to understand the structure of consulting practice in healthcare.

As depicted in the adjoining schematic, the
healthcare industry can be broadly categorized into 4 segments. Healthcare consulting firms typically work with clients based out of any of these segments. A closer look would help better understanding.PAYERS comprise of any entity/organization who pays/finances for the healthcare services rendered. They include insurance companies, TPAs', claims clearing houses etc. This is especially relevant in health systems having a third party payment system such as the United States.All MNC consulting firms ( Mckinsey, Accenture, Deloitte etc) have a dedicated payer practice for serving such clients. PROVIDERS are organizations and individuals providing healthcare services. It could be anything ranging from a physician to multi specialty networked hospitals. All homegrown healthcare consultancies ( Apollo Global Projects, Hosmac MedicaSynergie ) primarily work for clients in the provider space with different capabilities.GOVT/REGULATORY BODIES envisage all government machineries involved in public health policy planning, strategy formulation and other regulatory activities. Public health consulting falls under this domain.LIFE SCIENCES include the bio pharmaceutical industry and medical devices.

Within each of the industry segments, consultants have different engagements with their clients. The India healthcare consulting market is dominated by Providers and Government segments followed by Lifesciences and an insignificant Payer share while globally there are equal opportunities in all segments

While deciding upon a career path in healthcare consulting its important we realize which segment do we intend to focus !