For the majority of attendees, the most needed topics right now are either EHR-S contract negotiation or implementation related, but these topics have already been delivered and repeated over the last few years.
Product Demonstrations:
I was not able to attend all the scheduled demonstrations, but here are the three I did attend.
Anasazi - the highlights of this product demonstration were integrated e-prescribing and their new Clinician's HomePage. The new look and feel of the HomePage will be used throughout the product over time. It is customizable by user role (e.g. all clinicians, all nurses, etc.) so that each user type can have a home page designed for their needs. The Doctor's HomePage tracks the particular doctor's most frequently prescribed medications. The product has SureScripts built in for e-prescribing and Anasazi includes monthly updates to their drug database. As the doctor e-signs a prescription, the system presents drug warnings and alerts specific to the client's chart, e.g. allergies.
Welligent - the highlights presented were their progress in LA County with 8 contract provider agencies in assorted phases of contracting and implementation now. Welligent announced an "IS Billing Replacement Service" through Emdeon, a claims clearinghouse, with no upfront costs. Their California Users Group was also highlighted, which prioritizes the development wish list. They support several different implementation models typically taking 6 months, including clinical first, billing first, or clinical and billing program by program. They also indicated their commitment to support all California State and LA County DMH change management for no additional fees.
Defran Systems - the highlights of this product demonstration included the Treatment Planning module, which enables both e-libraries of goals and interventions as well as the ability to customize the goals individually. Reporting was also highlighted, demonstrating the power of real-time data availability. STARS Behavioral Health Group is now a Value Added reseller (VAR) for the Defran product in California, providing product licenses, set-up, training, hosting, and other services.
Exhibit Hall Highlights:
Although there is never enough time to spend with each product, I did my best to visit as many as possible to see what they were highlighting.
Askesis - they are working on porting their client server (self hosted) application to a web platform for an ASP (or SaaS) implementation, which should be ready for test this summer.
ClaimTrak Systems - highlights included the incorporation of some of LA County DMH data collection requirements.
Exym - highlighting their LACDMH EDI certification experience, with more certifications than any other vendor.
Foothold Technology - new to LA County, this product has some very basic features for data collection.
Netsmart Technologies - new user interface was being highlighted, which functions over their existing product. Looks good.
Qualifacts - their implementation using mini-laptops for field based workers was highlighted in their booth.
Sequest - their new scheduler upgrades were highlighted, which were very Outlook-like and customizable. I consider Sequest to be a high end product, but they discussed with me some pricing and product strategies they are working on to be more competitive in the mid-range. Their new COO, John Raden, was the previous CEO at Echo.
UNI/Care - Microsoft staff were in the booth highlighting their .NET HHS Framework product integration, enabling data mining and other automation features. For example, when a call comes in, the phone system can be integrated to pull up the chart with the caller's phone number.
Highlights from general and concurrent sessions:
These are not meant to be comprehensive session notes, but a few bullets of interest that I noted in the sessions I attended.
- Dr. Jurgen Unutzer and Dr. Ronald Manderscheid discussed, in two separate sessions, the HITECH provision in the ARRA Act and its lack of Behavioral Healthcare inclusion. The "Kennedy" bill, as its being called, was introduced this week by Reps. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) to allow behavioral, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers to qualify for incentive payments for the “meaningful use” of electronic health records. This bill needs co-sponsors. http://blog.executivebiz.com/house-bill-to-expand-meaningful-use-eligibility-introduced/8815
One "Meaningful Use" example given was that a client request for a copy of their e-record must be provided at least 80% of the time within 48 hours. http://www.himss.org/economicstimulus/ And the 5 goals are: 1) Improve quality, safety & efficiency; 2) Engage patients and their families; 3) Improve Coordination of Care; 4) Improve population & public health (improving any disparities of care); 5) Ensure privacy and security of data. - Tom Trabin gave an update on the California Treatment Planning Coalition. They plan to develop common treatment plan guides for inclusion in the EHRs of their county operated and contracted provider programs. A 'toolkit' should be available to vendors in 2011, including plan template standards and content samples, however, details of the plan structures and library tiers were not available. http://www.cimh.org/Initiatives/County-Treatment-Plans.aspx
- I found Laura Landry from Western Health Information Network http://lbnh.org/ to be most interesting. She spoke about the history and status of Health information exchange (HIE), what's happening in our state and mentioned several EHR-S grants, product discount programs, and funding opportunities that I plan to follow-up on. The nonprofit "Cal eConnect" will oversee HIE exchange in California. http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2010/03/08/daily14.html
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