Network Infrastructure

The public platform, DTSec, contains a set of security performance requirements to prevent cyberattacks and data breaches.

Iowa- and Illinois-based Genesis Health Systems has joined forces with visibility and analytics provider, STANLEY Healthcare, and nurse call platform provider, Critical Alert, to streamline clinical workflows using STANLEY'S RTLS platform and Critical Alert's Nurse Call tool, the companies announced last week.   Using the native integration from Critical Alert and the staff workflow function of STANLEY's RTLS platform, the staff at Genesis can locate clinicians and respond to bedside patient alerts and requests. Maureen Nylin, nursing clinical informatics specialist at Genesis Health System told Healthcare IT News that Genesis expects the implementation will improve HCAHPS scores and staff and patient satisfaction.   "The implementation was a collaborative approach," Nylin said. "Alarm management is a hot button issue from everyone across the board; it's getting tongue-in-cheek. It's not about managing alarms, but making sure what you're doing is meaningful."   "For our clinicians, when they're getting messages, they know exactly what the patient needs," she added. "Trying to overcome alarm fatigue is about getting the right message to the right person, at the right time."   Implementation began in June of 2015 at Genesis' DeWitt Community Hospital. According to Nylin, one of the greatest improvements is that patient calls are canceled as the nurse walks into a room, which frees up time for the clinician.   Furthermore, the data is being collected for a knowledge base to "see the low-hanging fruit," Nylin said. "We'd like to use the analytics to see where we can improve efficiencies."   The Critical Alert tool captures data from clinical workflow, allowing staff to analyze the data points into the nurse call system, according to Josh Troop, marketing director for Critical Alert.   "We're working with companies like STANLEY, to create something much more valuable than two equal parts," Troop said. "In this case, we were able to leverage the STANLEY investment that Genesis already made to ramp up our tools already. Our systems work together seamlessly in the background."   For STANLEY, it's about making sure "clinicians have more time to spend with the patient to improve the care arena," Nadav Barkaee, product manager for integrations, STANLEY Healthcare said. "One of the major benefits of being able to offer an enterprise-grade RTLS solution is to make sure the investment can be used across multiple solutions for staff efficiencies and workflow."   Genesis plans to implement the systems at four more of its hospitals in the near future.

Lake Health, with 14 facilities, staffed by more than 600 physicians and 2,700 healthcare professionals, will be rolling out a Cerner EHR. The goal: support the Lake Health system and its employed providers, as well as create greater integration with its community physician network and to provide the best patient experience possible. Also, patients will benefit from a single health record accessible from a patient portal. “A strong relationship with our medical staff is the cornerstone of who we are, evidenced by their role in our mission and vision statements and in working with us to provide high-quality patient and family-centered health care in Lake County,” Jerry Peters, VP and CIO for Lake Health, said in a statement. The EHR will enable the health system to share and receive patient health records with affiliated providers, other area hospitals and participating healthcare entities nationally. Patient data is produced, managed and stored across multiple care organizations in Lake County, Peters noted, and Lake Health was focused on selecting an IT platform that could collect and analyze data from multiple disparate systems. “Lake Health determined that Cerner’s EHR and Healthelntent population health management platforms were the best choice to support its future initiatives and business model,” Peters said. “Understanding that this investment would most likely shape the future of Lake Health and the care we provide to patients, we completed a thorough evaluation of leading health IT suppliers and collaborated with our physicians and ultimately determined that Cerner was the right choice to support our needs now and into the future.” Peters did not reveal the anticipated cost of the technology. Cerner’s Healthelntent platform aggregates and normalizes data from various sources in near real time, regardless of EHR supplier and is designed to provide physicians and mid-level providers with meaningful data to identify and stratify populations to locate gaps in care.

Jeffrey Carr, most recently the entrepreneur-in-residence at a startup incubator, has joined Mercy Health as the health system's first chief innovation officer, the health system announced Tuesday. Mercy Health, a Catholic healthcare system, serves Ohio and Kentucky with 21 hospitals in Ohio and two in Kentucky. In his new role, Carr will be responsible for fostering a culture of innovation and investment throughout the system, officials said. "With more than 18 years of technology, consulting and executive experience, Jeff Carr understands the importance of developing strategic, innovative approaches to strengthen an organization," said Drew Banks, Mercy Health's chief strategy officer and Carr's boss, in a statement. [See also: Running list: 2016 notable hires, promotions in health IT.] Before joining Mercy Health, Carr worked as entrepreneur-in-residence at Cintrifuse, which provides services to Cincinnati's burgeoning start-up community. He mentored start-ups, led the effort to create a digital health venture studio and also supported a number of the region's leading organizations working with innovative startups. Carr was one of the founders of the startup Intelemage, which was acquired in April by Medidata, the SaaS technology company that specializes in developing and marketing a cloud-based platform of applications and data analytics to address operations throughout clinical trials. Early in his career, he was one of the leaders at Zoomtown, the high-speed internet access company and startup incubator whose model closely mirrors the open innovation approach he will take at Mercy Health. He has also served as a senior vice president and chief technology officer at Cincinnati Bell, where he led the sale of Cincinnati Bell Wireless to Verizon. Other positions included chief information security officer at GE Aviation, and senior executive at Accenture.

The platform has the potential to create a national virtual healthcare system, American Well chief Roy Schoenberg says. 

Veterans Affairs Under Secretary for Health David Shulkin said it will establish the centers this summer in South Carolina, Utah, Pennsylvania and the Pacific Northwest. 

The platform will enable payments to be processed faster, reduce risk for hospitals transitioning to value-based care and ultimately decrease the cost of bundled procedures, the companies said. 

The CERT Division of Carnegie Mellon's Software Engineering Institute has released its list of 10 technologies emerging in the next five years with the greatest vulnerabilities in terms of cybersecurity, finance, personal health and safety.

Implementation of MACRA will impact not only physicians, but also the hospitals with whom they partner, the American Hospital Association told Andy Slavitt, acting administrator of CMS, and the U.S. House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health on Wednesday. Health Subcommittee members met with Slavitt Wednesday on the implementation of the Medicare Access and the CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. MACRA's Quality Payment Program, released by CMS on April 27, consolidates a patchwork of programs into two paths for physicians receiving Medicare payments: the Merit-based Incentive Payment Systems (MIPS); and an Advanced Alternative Payment Model (APM). The AHA said it applauds MACRA's streamlining of the physician reporting burden, but still has concerns, especially for smaller practices, and is disappointed the federal government is providing no financial incentives for upfront investments in technology to meet the demands of implementation. The estimated investment is $11.6 million for a small accountable care organization and $26.1 million for a medium ACO, the AHA said. [See also: A deep dive on the 'overwhelmingly complex' MACRA proposed rule.] "Hospitals that employ physicians directly may bear the cost of implementation of an ongoing compliance with the new physician performance reporting requirements under the Merit-based Incentive Payment Systems, as well as be at risk for any payment adjustments," the AHA said in a statement. "Moreover, hospitals may be called upon to participate in alternative payment models so that the physicians with whom they partner can qualify for bonus payments and exemption from MIPS reporting requirements that accompanies the APM 'track.'" House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health Chairman Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, asked Slavitt about concerns he's heard about the difficulty smaller practices may have coming into compliance, saying the rural provider, and one or two-person provider group "has a bunch of angst right now." Slavitt said the data shows that smaller and solo practices can succeed as well as physicians in larger-size groups as long as they report. It's up to CMS to make the reporting burden as easy as possible, Slavitt said. "Importantly we are looking for additional steps and ideas as people review the rules, but I will say that we are focusing on technical assistance, providing access to medical home models, opportunities to report in groups and using a reporting process that automatically feeds data, reduces the number of measures and overall lowers the burden for small practices," Slavitt said. Small physicians can report in groups and other physicians may not have to report at all because they're under a minimum threshold for the number of Medicare patients they see, Slavitt said. Slavitt said he's heard from physicians that they want to focus on care, not reporting. Congress has provided funding for MACRA technical assistance to small practices, rural practices and others, he said. MACRA replaces the sustainable growth rate and changes the way physicians and providers are paid, moving the healthcare system closer to CMS's goal of tying 50 percent of Medicare payments to alternative payment models by 2018. CMS is taking comment on the MACRA proposal for 60 days. "Success will come from adopting approaches that are practice-driven," Slavitt said. "It is our intent to align the MIPS and the Advanced APM components of the Quality Payment Program, allowing maximum flexibility for clinicians to switch between MIPS and participation in Advanced APMS based on what works best for them and their patients." To spur motivation, MACRA established an 11-member independent advisory committee, the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee, PTAC, that will meet quarterly to review payment models. [See also: A deep dive on the 'overwhelmingly complex' MACRA proposed rule.] The AHA has formed its own clinical advisory group to identify  important policy and operational implications of MIPS and APMS for hospitals. The AHA recommends hospital-based physicians be able to use their hospital's quality reporting and pay-for-performance program to measure performance in MIPS; employ risk adjustment rigorously, including for sociodemographics to ensure providers do not perform poorly simply because they care for more complex patients; and align EHR Incentive Program changes for physicians with those of eligible hospitals. The AHA applauded CMS's proposal to reduce the number of measures for quality reporting from nine to six, and also for its recent work with private insurers and physician groups to reach agreement on a common set of physician quality measures that can be used in both CMS and private payer pay-for-performance programs. "Physicians and hospitals alike spend significant resources reporting on multiple versions of measures assessing the same aspect of care to meet the differing requirements of CMS and individual private payers," the AHA said. The AHA is disappointed CMS has proposed a narrow definition of financial risk in advanced APMs for purposes of MACRA bonus payments, in not recognizing the upfront investment made by providers to implement alternative payment models. The AHA also said fraud and abuse laws need to be modified for a "legal safe zone" where physicians and hospitals can share information Twitter: @SusanJMorse

Nashville-based Ardent Health Services, which operates hospitals in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas, plans to unite all its hospitals and physician groups on an Epic Systems EHR platform.