Senator Russ Feingold’s office contacted Ministry Health Care to get our reaction to the regulations. We greatly appreciate the Senator taking the time find out how such rulings impact our organization and our ability to live out our mission of improving the health of the patients we serve, especially the poor. Here is our response:

Thank you for asking for Ministry Health Care’s reaction to the Final Rule on HIT – Meaningful Use.

Our overall reaction is favorable.  While there may still be challenges associated with timing and certification, we do believe some specific comments from Ministry Health Care and others were heard and addressed in the Final Rule.

Under the Draft Rule, we viewed the Meaningful Use regulations as a disincentive, requiring too-much-too-quickly for an entire healthcare industry.  Given the changes in the Final Rule, we are re-evaluating our plans with an eye toward accelerating Electronic Health Record plans at many of our hospitals.  This is good news for our patients!

The true measure for us is Ministry Saint Clare’s Hospital in Weston.  Under the Draft Rule, Ministry was challenged just to reach Stage 1 meaningful use in Weston, where Ministry Saint Clare’s is Wisconsin’s first all-digital hospital and the only hospital in the state recognized by The Leapfrog Group as having fully implemented Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) (by the way, the invitation for the Senator to visit Ministry Saint Clare’s to see this firsthand is always open).  This was a sign that the originally-proposed incentives were not rational.  Under the changes in the Final Rule, the path to Stage 1 meaningful use is more easily accomplished for Ministry Saint Clare’s: Wisconsin’s most IT-advanced hospital that has been perfecting its EHR since opening in 2005.

Likewise, Ministry Medical Group would not have been able to easily achieve Stage 1 meaningful use despite our project to deploy the Marshfield Clinic’s EHR (CattailsMD). We were not sure that the 1,000 Wisconsin doctors were going to be able to receive EHR incentives using that system.  Under the Final Rule, we feel there is an achievable effort to reach Stage 1 Meaningful Use, which is an incentive to start improving the system in order to meet Stage 2.

Our only significant concern at this point in time is the EHR certification process.  We are now nine weeks from the October 1, 2010 start of the EHR Incentive Program, and none of the EHR products on the market today are certified to meet Stage 1 meaningful use criteria.  As of today, ONC has yet to identify an Authorized Certification Body.

Ministry could implement the most sophisticated and beneficial Electronic Health Record in the world and still be denied EHR incentive payments due to the EHR certification requirements.  These requirements, in our opinion, have not been well defined or well conceived.  The certification process does not seem to take into consideration that a large sophisticated health system, such as Ministry, implements EHRs using a combination of commercial products and internal software development.  While no single piece of the puzzle is a certified EHR, the combination of these solutions result in an Electronic Health Record that exceeds the certification requirements.  The uncertainty over the certification process is now a much greater concern than the final meaningful use requirements.

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A Break From the Routine

IT managers increasingly see their role as delivering business value rather than managing technology. According to the same research, their business priorities reflect this. The top five objectives are business process improvement, reducing enterprise costs and increasing the use of information/analytics, improving workforce effectiveness and attracting new customers. Everyone around the boardroom table shares these goals.

But when you look at where IT departments actually spend money, a different story emerges. Around 90 percent goes on routine maintenance and administration costs2. Only a small fraction is available for innovation. When money is tight, it sometimes seems easier to cut this part of the budget when, in reality, smart decision-making can turn early investments in change and improvement into big savings later by reducing the long-term burden of routine maintenance.  Read more >>

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Consolidate Messaging Systems with Google Apps

MWV, a global leader in packaging solutions, was suffering with 10 messaging systems, including Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook, when it explored moving to Google Apps. In addition to messaging, MWV now uses Google Apps for spreadsheets, document creation, mobile solutions and more. Learn about the lessons learned on the technical, training and project management levels by watching this webcast.

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Preparing Your Organization to ‘Go Google’

Check out this webcast if you’re thinking about cloud computing to help your organization reduce costs and save on costly IT infrastructure. Learn about the process for moving to a cloud-based infrastructure for e-mail and collaboration. See how the Mind Research Network (MRN) went about educating its employees in advance for a move to Google Apps and prepare your employees for a transition to cloud-based productivity applications.

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Fairchild Semiconductor Saves $500K with Google Apps

Faced with implementing cost reductions in the economic downturn, but also suffering from outdated applications for communications, collaboration and email archiving, Fairchild Semiconductor deployed the full Google Apps suite to all of its users and Postini email archiving for more than three thousand employees. What the company got in return was $500K in savings, the retirement of 40 Domino servers, 4 TB of reclaimed storage and fewer IT support issues.

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Executing Strategy for Supporting Meaningful Use

Operational plans shall describe how the state will execute the state’s overall strategy for supporting Stage 1 meaningful use including how to fill gaps identified in the environmental scan.  Specifically, states and SDEs shall describe how they will invest federal dollars and associated matching funds to enable eligible providers to have at least one option for each of these Stage 1 meaningful use requirements in 2011:

1. E-prescribing
2. Receipt of structured lab results
3. Sharing patient care summaries across unaffiliated organizations

I first heard about this guidance to the states about a month ago. At the time I was puzzled how ONC thought state HIEs would ever be involved in ePrescribing. Providers do not need assistance from the HIEs to implement ePrescribing.  This is solely the domain of the provider EHR and the existing Pharmacy exchange managed by SureScripts. I thought that they would realize this and back away, but surprisingly it made it to writing.

So, what does ONC expect the state-designated HIE to do regarding ePrescribing? If you read the entire Program Information Note there isn’t any sort of clue. Does anyone have any insight regarding this?

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Email archiving; Its easier than you think

Thinking about email archiving? There are many issues to consider; installation & set-up, data storage & security, search & retrieval capabilities; it can be a complex part of your email system, yet one that is a priority as use of email in the workplace continues to grow.

With a cloud based archiving service much of this complexity disappears. Installation is quick & easy, storage is unlimited and search results are returned in seconds.  Email archiving can be easier than you think.

Make informed decisions about archiving requirements in your business >>

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Web threats 2010

Web threats don’t just hide in the darkest corners of the internet. The vast majority of malicious web attacks are legitimate, compromised websites; the kind of sites your employees visit all the time.

Web threats exist where we go for information; where we go to read news; where we do our online research. The threat landscape is changing fast with even the most careful web users are now at risk.

Read our whitepaper to understand the web threat in 2010 & equip your business to defend against it >>

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Calculating the cost; Email threats & financial risks

Hackers steal thousands from insurance firm! Cyber-crooks steal millions from small companies! Health records compromised by computer virus!

Headlines like this convey the impression that businesses are constantly falling foul of email-borne security threats and paying a punishing price as a result. But is this just another classic case of media hype? Is the threat exaggerated?

This White Paper will help you understand not just your level of exposure to email-borne threats but also the potential cost if your business becomes a victim. Download for free >>

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