Posted by Colleen Terry on Wed, Mar 24, 2010 @ 07:51 AM
The bill has been signed, yet the country is divided on the methods, outcome, and success of bringing affordable healthcare to all. So, what do providers and suppliers think? How will the reform affect their bottom line?
While the landmark legislation promises to bring healthcare to some 32 million currently uninsured, the heated question remains how much this benefit will cost the individual consumer and industry --notably pharmaceutical and medical suppliers. For providers, the reform potentially means more customers with the resources to pay for services rendered and supplies used. With reimbursements a troubling concern for many hospitals, the reform may alleviate some of the financial pressures for hospitals administering care to the uninsured. Yet, how much will caring for this influx of newly insured cost the provider? A potentially dramatic increase in customers requires more clinicians, more space, and more supplies. What are hospital administrators saying? How will clinicians be affected by the reform?
Meanwhile, healthcare suppliers have been quite vocal in their concerns, as it appears they may bear the brunt of the cost through increased taxes on drugs and devices. The supplier fear and concern is that this legislation may very well stifle innovation --as the imposed tax is likely to have devastating affects on smaller drug manufacturers and medical device suppliers--and potentially threaten patient safety and care. Do the suppliers see any good in this reform?
There is still so much to learn and understand about the impending legislation that most lay people are taking a wait and see attitude. Want to weigh in on the discussion? Share your views here.
Posted by Colleen Terry on Wed, Mar 17, 2010 @ 10:02 AM
While some may prefer a pot of gold, most of us would rather a bank of knowledge to help in choosing a healthcare IT vendor. A thorough review, evaluation and understanding of the healthcare technology offering can save thousands of dollars, improve clinical workflow and prevent lots of headaches down the road.
KLAS, an organization dedicated to helping healthcare providers make informed technology decisions by reporting accurate, honest, and impartial vendor performance, provides this information to providers, at no cost. While KLAS offers a convenient service to providers at the right price, their scope is limited by the breadth of their researchers and depth of provider participants.
Combine what you learn from KLAS, peers, and your own evaluation to make a smart decision by considering these important vendor qualities:
- Vendor reliability, trustworthiness and follow through-talk to peers, search the web and read reviews on vendor performance to ensure you are partnering with a responsive, professional and progressive organization.
- Product/Service/Solution features and functionality-read product reviews, visit showcase sites, view product demonstration webinars, or get a trial version to fully understand the feature set and how it will be implemented and used in your specific setting.
- Training- a top notch vendor will offer initial training, whether on-site, via phone or as a digital training session. Find out what will be covered and if it can be customized to your situation.
- Systems integration-be sure to understand how the new solution integrates with your existing systems to maximum your financial benefit and improve workflow.
- Post sales support-- in the form of on-going training, technical assistance and product maintenance. In some cases, your purchase may include both hardware and software, and understanding the upgrade path, maintenance plan, and technical assistance for each is critical.
To read vendor reviews currently available in KLAS, click here.
To add a vendor to KLAS and provide feedback, click here.
To learn more about how peers can assist in choosing a vendor, read this article.
Posted by Colleen Terry on Thu, Mar 11, 2010 @ 03:02 AM
IDN Summit just released the leading submissions of this year's Search for Supply Chain Excellence in Healthcare Awards. This elite award recognizes the leading healthcare systems in the US who are advancing patient care with cutting edge initiatives as judged by their healthcare peers. This award provides a substantive example of the powerful affect an optimized healthcare supply chain can have on cost containment and patient care.
While each of this year's 5 finalists focused on Strategic Sourcing, the range within was quite varied, including internalizing the supply chain, developing an e-sourcing auction, strategic partnership with a supplier, and more. The commonalities in the success of each of the winners is summarized:
- Clearly defined goals and objectives; a very specific problem area was identified, analyzed and then optimized.
- Firm buy-in from executive management and all parties across departments to be affected.
- Actively engage the Clinical stakeholders in the process; clinical support and feedback are paramount to ensuring success of the project which ultimately impacts the patients.
- Cooperatively work with suppliers, manufacturers and vendors to ensure best product, pricing and placement.
- Clinical process improvements and workflow optimization are direct outcomes of the above.
While these submissions only represent a small fraction of the opportunities and innovations for improvement, they demonstrate that significant cost savings and quality improvement opportunities abound in the supply chain arena. Why not take a look at your supply chain and choose a specific area of focus?
To help in deciding, read how this hospital achieved cost containment, patient safety and regulatory compliance, with the automation of product usage tracking and hospital systems integration through optimized inventory management and control.
Read each of the finalist submissions here.
Posted by Colleen Terry on Wed, Mar 03, 2010 @ 08:05 AM
The annual ACCA Cardiovascular Leadership conference gets underway next week at the Sheraton Atlanta Hotel in Atlanta, GA. Always a hot topic, healthcare reform opens the door's to this year's conference.
Opening keynote speaker, Jack Lewin, MD, CEO, American College of Cardiology, will offer an insider's view of the healthcare reform agenda, including how current legislation could affect your organization. Addressing the tough issues-from disparities to cost-effectiveness to physician payment-Dr. Lewin reviews ACC tools and initiatives to help you implement evidence-based guidelines, measure quality and improve patient care. Also, hear how to prepare yourself to face the increased scrutiny of the CMS Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program.
One of the few conferences focused on the issues and concerns relevant to cardiovascular administrators, here are 4 reasons you should consider attending ACCA this year:
•Pre-conference tour of CDC with a guided tour from Belinda Minta, MPH, MBA, Program Consultant, Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, CDC - Health Perspective on Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention.
•Listen to top keynote speakers address pressing healthcare issues including healthcare reform and new reimbursement models.
•Network with other administrators and build relationships with a peer group that can become your sounding board and think tank as you face future challenges.
•Browse the exhibit floor to learn about new technologies, products, and listen to poster demonstrations hand-picked by editorial staff for their relevance in providing valuable insights to cardiovascular administrators.
Memorial Healthcare System in Chattanooga, TN will be presenting a poster on how RFID in healthcare is helping to reduce costs and improve care in the cath lab. To learn more, read this article.
Visit the ACCA Conference page for event details.
Posted by Colleen Terry on Wed, Feb 10, 2010 @ 12:18 PM
RFID has gained significant traction in the healthcare market. Many publications are dedicated to delivering content about RFID, while others report regularly on the technology. By knowing the identity, location and conditions of assets, tools, inventory, people and more, organizations can optimize workflow and reduce operational costs. Bookmark these 4 sites to learn more about RFID in healthcare:
RFID Journal For eight years, RFID Journal has been the trusted source that potential users of the technology turn to for objective information. The Web site features thousands of free news articles, as well as opinion pieces, expert views, videos, white papers and more. RFID Journal hosts the RFID in Healthcare events in January and September, with its flagship event -RFID Journal Live--in April, having a special Healthcare track.
RFID Monthly RFID Monthly covers recent industry developments, including industry commentary and thought leadership articles as well as a summary of relevant news flow. Healthcare has been an increasingly important area for RFID adoption as more hospitals and providers consider investing in automatic identification technology for asset management, operating room inventory management and specimen tracking. RFID Monthly offers a quick and easy summary on the latest industry and healthcare news and comment.
Switchboard Media Is a community dedicated to providing educational content and news items to its visitors and subscribers. The website offers a section dedicated to healthcare, along with ROI success stories. You can also ask the expert to have your questions answered.
RFID in Healthcare Consortium The RFID in Healthcare Consortium (www.rfidinhealthcare.org) is organized under the auspices of The RFID Educational Foundation, a non-profit charitable educational institution. The vision of the RFID Healthcare Consortium is to globally advocate the safe and effective use of wireless-based technologies in healthcare delivery.
The following sites offer an in-depth look at the technology, how it works, standards, and more.
Aim Global
MIT Auto-ID Center
EPC Global
To learn more about how RFID is used in hospitals, watch these videos.
Posted by Colleen Terry on Wed, Jan 13, 2010 @ 11:18 AM
When it comes to managing inventory in a specialty department such as the cath lab, a variety of systems are in use. From the cost effective, yet cumbersome and error-prone manual system, to semi-automated bar code, to a more fully automated RFID solution, departments use a variety of means to manage inventory for regulatory compliance. The Joint Commission, an accreditation and regulatory body, has developed and documented specific protocols for compliance to achieve their National Patient Safety Goals.
"Errors are usually the result of a breakdown in a process, ... medical errors can still occur even when extensive systems and safety infrastructure processes are in place," said Peter Angood, MD, FRCS(C), FACS, FCCM, chief patient safety officer and a vice president for The Joint Commission.
With respect to inventory in specialty departments, here are 3 tips that can help you maintain compliance by automating the process of locating products:
- Real-time expiration tracking - Nowadays, many implantables have expiration dates for identify safe use. Unlike everyday food products that have a "sell by date" with an acceptable "use by date" of several days later, an expiration date on an implantable is a hard date. To be in compliance, labs cannot have any product with an expiration date older than today's date on the shelves. Having such can put patients at risk.
Many hospitals are having great success using RFID to track products and their individual expiration dates. The use of RFID enables individual item-level tracking where expiration dates are captured upon receipt at the hospital and then monitored throughout the lifecycle. RFID allows for the real-time tracking of expiration dates and subsequently an alert system to be implemented. While staff still needs to be trained in the process of capturing and tracking dates, a major obstacle has been removed with the automation of product visibility.
- Product recall locator - Whether it's issued by the FDA or the manufacturer, product recalls need to be addressed with the utmost efficiency. The greatest challenge in swiftly responding to recalls is knowing exactly where such items are stored-in which procedure rooms and/or store rooms and on which shelves-to ensure prompt removal.
RFID has proved to be an effective technology for recall management, again, because of its item-level tracking capability. RFID allows for the lot and serial #s of each individual item to be tracked and made accessible for easy look-up to everyone responsible for inventory management. The capture and tracking of individual items enables staff to identify exactly where a recall product is located, and remove it expeditiously.
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Know Universal Protocol procedures - The Joint Commission published the Universal Protocol for Preventing Wrong Site, Wrong Procedure and Wrong Person SurgeryTM as a result of frequent medical errors, and in an effort to improve patient safety. While the specific wording of the Universal Protocol does not state the verification of the availability of specific items to be used in a case, many departments have included such in their time-out procedures.
Hospitals are also using RFID to track product usage. This information is used to match inventory levels with usage patterns to smooth order patterns and enable departments to ensure the right products are available at the right time.
For a more complete listing of compliance regulations, please check with your Quality team and refer to the Joint Commission's website.