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Cerner’s blog
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August 3, 2016
MACRA: Keep your head and stay focused
By John Travis, Vice President, Regulatory and Compliance Strategy, Cerner
In all the discussion about the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) and making the transition to the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), most of the dialogue has been about how much is going to change and how there is so much upheaval for physician payment under Medicare. Most of the conversations have focused on delay or moderation of the requirement. In all of this, is anyone pointing out how many Eligible Clinicians (EC) may be strongly positioned to begin participating in MIPS as early as 2017? It’s possible, if ECs have a good track record of participation in the value-based programs that preceded MIPS under the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS). Here are five key reminders to keep your head while others may be losing theirs.
1. Remember where MIPS came from.
It’s an established fact that three of the four measure domains under the MIPS composite measure come from existing CMS value-based programs under the PFS in 2016. To provide a short translation, these include:
July 27, 2016
Giving physicians the opportunity to lead
By Michael Ugwueke, M.D., President, Chief Operating Officer and future Chief Executive Officer, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare
Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis, Tenn., believes that great culture and empowering physicians to play a bigger role in making decisions is crucial for a successful health care system. Dr. Michael Ugwueke, President, COO and future CEO of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, discusses how he is leading these efforts to strengthen physician and patient satisfaction.
You’ve spoken about the importance of the hospital-physician relationship. What is Methodist Le Bonheur doing to strengthen this relationship?
Our philosophy is to be a physician-led organization. Many of our physicians serve on our board of trustees, the highest decision-making leadership team in the organization. We also have six physicians who serve on the leadership team of our strategy group. The leadership team meets weekly and is responsible for the management of our systems operations, which include resources allocations and are accountable for our balanced scorecard goals. Our physician’s involvement with these teams gives them the opportunity to weigh in on important decisions and provides a valuable physician perspective for the rest of our leadership. Our physicians are true partners in our decision-making process, and that’s what we wanted to achieve as an organization.
July 25, 2016
Improving patient outcomes in New York with DSRIP
By Katie Chaffee, Senior Vice President, Population Health, Cerner
Many of us can share a health care experience, either personally or professionally, that was disjointed and lacked communication between the care team and various venues across the continuum. The frustration, confusion and helplessness we’ve felt is unforgettable. As we continue to drive toward a value-based health care system, it’s more important than ever to connect health and care across the continuum and ensure care is provided at the right time, in the most appropriate venue. In an effort to support this transformation, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has expanded the Section 1115 waiver to include a program to incentivize organizations to improve how care is provided to Medicaid and uninsured patients. Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) programs focus on four main areas of improvement: infrastructure development, system redesign, clinical outcome improvements and population-focused improvements:
July 25, 2016
Banner Health connects care across the continuum
By William HollandM.D., Vice President and Chief Medical Information Officer, Banner Health
Banner Health has seen tremendous growth over the past 10 years. With 29 hospitals spanning seven states, over 200 clinics and rapid growth of the Banner Health Network, it has expanded its ability to care for patients across the continuum.
In an interview with EHR Intelligence, Dr. William Holland, VP & CMIO at Banner Health, spoke about Banner’s recent implementation of Cerner’s electronic health record (EHR) system in its ambulatory facilities, crediting its success to great engagement with Banner Medical Group physicians and operations, as well as a clear focus on leveraging technology to drive clinical improvement. This strategy, coupled with a new type of relationship with Cerner, drove both organizations to new levels of success.
Here are a few additional insights from Dr. Holland:
July 20, 2016
Health apps in every flavor
By Dr. David Nill, Chief Medical Officer, Cerner Health
Who would have ever thought Pokémon could be promoting health? The viral adoption of the new app is a prime example of technology innovation by the private sector influencing the health of populations.
With the Pokémon Go phenomenon, there was a convergence of key ingredients at a perfect time. The strong existing trademark of the brand, plus mobile devices equipped with cloud computing and GPS, inspired the creation of an app that allowed gamification to drive healthier behaviors.
July 19, 2016
Taking revenue cycle management to the next level
By Zane Burke, President, Cerner
On July 19, Cerner named Jeff Hurst its new senior vice president of Cerner Revenue Cycle Management and president of Cerner RevWorks, effective Sept. 1. Hurst is currently the senior vice president of finance at Florida Hospital, part of Adventist Health System. Cerner President Zane Burke and Jeff recently chatted about his new role.
Zane Burke: We’ve made a lot of progress in revenue cycle, and our recent trajectory has been very positive, but there is still so much to go do. The business model is evolving, and as you look forward at what our clients are facing with changing payment models and regulatory changes and you throw things like population health into the mix and consumers having a much louder voice – it continues to be a tough and challenging environment for providers. We created this new role to show our continued commitment to providing the best resources to help our clients be successful.
July 18, 2016
The internet of things
By John Gresham, Vice President, DeviceWorks, Cerner
Cars that brake on their own. Alarm clocks that tell your coffee maker it’s time to brew your morning cup of jo. Smart toothbrushes that encourage proper brushing. From controlling the thermostat on your phone to monitoring your health with technology, the Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming the way we work, live and interact with the world around us. IoT is a network of devices, technologies and databases embedded with software, sensors and connectivity that enable greater value and insight by exchanging data with other devices or with a central location.
Simply stated, the IoT can be most easily described as smart connected things. The real value of the IoT in health care is expanding its technology uses to provide better care for the person that ultimately drives more intelligence and predictive information back to the care provider in near-real time to make more informed decisions, improving clinical outcomes and lowering the cost of care. By unlocking data in near-real time from disparate systems, new insights and intelligence can be harnessed to more proactively care for the patient. In health care, we are taking all of that data and pushing it back into the context of clinical workflows.
July 11, 2016
Transforming population health: A platform for innovation
By Bharat Sutariya, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Population Health Leadership, Cerner
As healthcare continues to shift to value-based care, organizations are recognizing the need to transform their current care models. Many organizations are finding success employing strategies to more efficiently address the health of the populations they serve – and technology is playing a vital role.
Geisinger Health System, in Danville, Pa., and Memorial Hermann Health System, in Houston, are two organizations using innovative technology to take their population health management strategies further.
July 8, 2016
Building a championship culture
By Dayton Moore, General Manager and Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations, Royals
Royals General Manager and Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations Dayton Moore is in his 10th season with the Kansas City Royals. From Day 1, the goal Dayton set out to accomplish was bringing a World Series championship back to Kansas City, a dream brought to fruition in 2015 when the Royals bested the New York Mets in five games to win the franchise’s first World Series championship in 30 years.
Cerner Co-Founder and Vice Chairman of the Board Cliff Illig sat down with Dayton to find out how culture, a focus on vision and a plan led to the Royals’ dramatic turnaround.
July 7, 2016
Our commitment to combating and increasing awareness of PTSD
By Dr. Will Stadler, Solution Executive, Behavioral Health
On June 27, we celebrated National Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Awareness Day in the U.S., the culmination of PTSD Awareness Month. Each June, the government, military and behavioral health providers and advocacy groups take steps to educate the public about PTSD, a serious health condition affecting many lives. Cerner recognizes the importance of PTSD and other behavioral health conditions as part of the health information technology (IT) requirements that many of our clients face daily.
PTSD is a debilitating mental and physical illness often suffered in response to witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event. These traumas often include combat or military experiences, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, physical or sexual assault, serious accidents or other forms of criminal victimization. It can even be triggered by simply learning about an injury, illness or death of a loved one.
July 6, 2016
Meet us – Andrea shares her experience as a doctor
By Cerner
Andrea trained as a general surgeon in Brazil and practiced at Santa Casa Hospital in Sao Paulo before moving to the UK. She joined Cerner in 2006 as a Healthcare Executive after completing her Master’s degree in Healthcare Management at Imperial College in London.
From the very start of my career, when I was a junior doctor, I was passionate about providing the best possible patient care in an environment that was often quite challenging because of time and resource constraints.
I’ll always remember being in A&E in the middle of a night and struggling to make the best clinical judgements, trawling through piles of paper records, trying to piece together and understand the complete picture of the patient in front of me.
July 5, 2016
HIMSS Report: Emerging strategies to manage performance and cost in a new health care economy
By Erica Gregory, Senior Director, Financial Management Consulting
The move toward a new health care economy is underway. Value-based and other alternative payment models are replacing fee-for-service. Health care organizations can succeed in this new environment by:
- Rethinking traditional success metrics
- Using strategies that focus on performance and cost
- Tightly integrating electronic health record (EHR), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and revenue cycle management (RCM) systems
- Better understanding the needs of consumers
- Empowering resource managers to lead their organizations toward improved care, enhanced patient experiences and reduced costs
June 30, 2016
Cerner’s response to the MACRA quality payment program
By John Travis VP, Regulatory and Compliance Strategy
The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) gives the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) authority to alter the payment system for Eligible Clinicians (ECs) who accept Medicare payments under the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS). The agency introduced its proposed methodology via CMS’ Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the new Quality Payment Program, comprised of two tracks for EC payment under the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) or through Alternative Payment Models (APM). The MIPS program consolidates existing PFS-related quality- and value-based payment programs to emphasize quality over quantity of care, as well as the effective use of resources and certified EHR technology (CEHRT). Cerner submitted detailed comments on the NPRM, highlighting areas of the proposed rule where we believe clarification and improvements could be made to ensure both MIPS and APMs meet legislative intent and continue to move our health care system in the right direction.
Below is a summary of the key points made in Cerner’s comments, which were submitted to CMS on June 24, 2016:
June 29, 2016
Bundled payment models in healthcare
By Troy Phillips, Director of Revenue Cycle Solutions Development, Product Management and Operations, Cerner
Over the past several years, the path from volume to value for providing health care has become more defined. While several different models remain and are being implemented, the overall strategy is intended to use the reimbursement system to incentivize providers to coordinate and be accountable for patient outcomes. As these models develop, health systems are adapting by modifying their integration strategies across the continuum of care.
Bundled payment models are quickly becoming the new norm because of their potential to enhance care coordination. The May issue of Healthcare Financial Management Magazine discusses this emerging trend of bundle payment and CoxHealth’s voluntary bundled payment agreement: “CoxHealth, a five-hospital health system in Missouri, entered a voluntary bundled payment arrangement—a joint quality improvement project with Cox HealthPlans—in 2014 with a primary goal of reducing readmissions,” the article reads.
June 16, 2016
A letter to our shareholders, clients and associates
By Neal Patterson, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer & Co-founder
Note: This letter was originally published in Cerner’s 2015 Annual Report on April 21, 2016.
2015 was a year of increase for Cerner as we experienced strong financial growth along with record numbers of new clients and new associates. It was a year in which we completed our largest strategic acquisition ever with the purchase of Siemens Health Services while also enjoying a competitive position in a strong replacement market for electronic health records (EHRs). It was also a year in which we saw increased appetite for new types of health IT solutions and services.
Some highlights:
June 16, 2016
It’s time to connect data among every care setting
By Adam Laskey, Sr Director, Long-Term & Post-Acute Care
The time has never been better for hospitals, long-term post-acute care centers, behavioral health providers and other organizations to engage together through health information technology to improve care coordination, care delivery, patient outcomes and the patient experience. Nearly 300 associates at Cerner spend every day focused on delivering truly integrated solutions to the continuum of care.
At Cerner, we believe that the proper coordination of electronic health information can help prevent adverse events such as medication errors and enable an improved level of care. For example, did you know that an estimated 66 percent of medication errors take place during times of transition (upon admission, transfer or discharge of a patient)?
June 13, 2016
Fresh air on rural quality
By Brock Slabach, SVP for Member Services, National Rural Health Association
I have seen a trail of research over the last decade that inaccurately portrays the quality of services provided in rural hospitals. Many of these articles would use literature reviews and data summaries that inappropriately describe rural services or applied crude metrics, such as mortality rates, to render poorly constructed conclusions.
As a breath of fresh air, The Journal of the American Medical Association recently reported that Medicare patients undergoing four commonly performed surgeries in a Critical Access Hospital (CAH) had no significant difference in 30-day mortality rates, had a decreased risk-adjusted serious complication rate and perhaps more interesting, a lower Medicare spend for the studied patients. The four procedures in the study were appendectomy, cholecystectomy, colectomy and hernia repair.
June 10, 2016
Nearly 100 health care organizations now adopting Cerner’s Model Experience
By Hillary Biskner, Vice President, Clinical and Global Strategic Business Units
We’re a community. Cerner and the provider organizations who operate its solutions share common values and collaborate for mutual success. We are all better for being a part of this community. Those provider organizations – from independent primary care practices to large integrated care delivery networks – benefit in many ways. One of them is with the Model Experience. Since Cerner introduced it last summer, nearly 100 health care organizations have started adopting Model Experience recommendations.
Yes, Cerner has a strong history as a leading, innovative company. But we innovate with the benefit of the inputs from hundreds of health care organization partners and their clinical, financial and other team members. The size of the community also enables Cerner to access industry expertise, as well as retain and develop our own experts and provide sophisticated analytics.
June 2, 2016
Sharing health data
By Bob Robke, Vice President, Interoperability
Anyone who has experienced the health care system knows there isn’t enough information sharing. Your medical history is typically regurgitated every place you go, usually by you via paper forms. Over and over again. A health information exchange (HIE) can alleviate some of that hassle. In the simplest terms, an HIE solution is infrastructure that coordinates the movement of clinical data to the appropriate care setting. HIE is not a workflow; it is data orchestration. An analogy often used is that HIE is plumbing and the user workflows are the shower heads, faucets, etc. It ensures appropriate information is available at the time it’s needed. Providers use HIEs for efficient movement of clinical information among other providers.
One major benefit health care facilities gain in leveraging an HIE is patient safety. Think of a doctor placing orders in their electronic health record (EHR) system. Orders for medications and lab work could potentially cause harm, depending on their combination. We wouldn’t dream of having a system that didn’t check for potential harmful effects between medications. But, clinicians experience this blindness every day. For example, if I’m allergic to a certain kind of drug that isn’t recorded in my physician’s EHR and the drug is ordered, I’ll have an allergic reaction. Without an HIE, the system of checks and balances in patient safety isn’t available in all care settings.
June 1, 2016
Building a community health system
By Cerner
Interview with Brian Sandager, chief information officer at Circle Health
In an evolving market, Circle Health uses information technology (IT) as a strategic asset in its partnerships with affiliated physician practices in its community of Lowell, Mass. In an affiliated practice model, integration of patient records and the corresponding improvement of patient care creates long-term alignment in a physician community. We spoke with Brian Sandager, chief information officer at Circle Health, on using an affiliated model strategy for its community and the role of interoperability in its success.
What is Circle Health’s affiliated model strategy?
The majority of our marketplace is independent practices. Of nearly 600 physicians in our community, only 54 are employed by the hospital, with around 430 that Circle Health shares risk with through joint agreements. Circle Health’s core culture as a community health system is part of what makes an affiliated model work. We are entrusted by our affiliated practices to take care of their patients in the acute space. There is a lot of choice in our market for where these practices can send their patients, so we rely on referrals and partnerships to be successful.
May 24, 2016
Leveraging PDMPs to curb drug abuse
By Kashif Rathore, Sr. Director, Interoperability
In order to help curb drug abuse, almost all states have created prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP) that collect, monitor and analyze electronically transmitted prescribing and dispensing data. Some state legislators, which includes some Missouri lawmakers, refuse to support PDMPs due to privacy concerns. In July 2012, Congress passed legislation that required the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop and report to Congress, with recommendations that enhance interoperability standards for interstate exchange of PDMP information. In accordance with state laws, PDMPs monitor controlled substances that have been defined by federal and state controlled substances laws.
Within Millennium, our electronic health record, a prescribing physician can query a PDMP and leverage that data to inform their clinical decisions when prescribing new medicines and/or managing a patient’s current drug list. Tethered to e-prescribing best practices, we leverage Appriss to analyze state PDMP data, normalize it and provide trends. Clinicians can see the data in the workflow in a presentable manner, which empowers them to provide optimized care for patients when prescribing medications.
May 20, 2016
Trust and collaboration: Keys to success in patient-physician engagement
By Cerner
Interviews with Dr. Douglas Ashinsky, Warren Internal Medicine and Dr. Daphne Bascom, Cerner
The patient-physician relationship is a key factor in improving the quality of care. The emphasis on patient engagement in the health care industry has made it clear that patients play a bigger role than ever in their own health. As a caregiver, it’s easy to get distracted with daily tasks and busy schedules, but it’s important to make sure patients know they come first.
“The patient-physician relationship is based on a trusted collaborative partnership with open lines of communication,” said Dr. Daphne Bascom, VP and CMO for Cerner. “It’s shifted from a paternalistic relationship – I’m going to tell you what to do to get better – to a partnership between patient and physician on how to work together to improve the health of the patient.”
May 13, 2016
An Introduction to MIPS and APM
By Jeff Smith, Vice President of Public Policy, AMIA ;Jake Ellis, Manager, Regulatory Compliance Practice
Jeff Smith, VP of Public Policy at AMIA, and Jake Ellis, manager of regulatory compliance practice at Cerner, recently presented a primer on the Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) to attendees of Cerner’s CPC and Ambulatory Summit. Smith discuss the new policy from an industry perspective while Ellis shares how MACRA will effect Cerner clients.
May 13, 2016
Improving quality and safety standards in health care
By Cerner
The Joint Commission accredits and certifies more than 21,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, providing the tools and resources needed to deliver safe, high-quality patient care. We spoke with Dr. Ana McKee, executive vice president and chief medical officer of The Joint Commission, about the organization’s commitment to improving care for all patients and what it means to be a high reliability organization.
May 13, 2016
Physician leaders panel recap: Physician support, training and communications
By Cerner
During Cerner Ambulatory Summit, physician leaders Levi Gause, MD, chief medical information officer, Great River Health Systems, Eric Hartz, MD, chief health information officer, Trinity Health and Paul Fu, MD, chief medical information officer, LA County hosted a leadership session on how each of their organizations supported physicians and leaders through recent go-lives, EHR projects and optimization to improve future performance. Success stories covered support models, communication plans, and training prior to, during and beyond go-lives.
May 2, 2016
#IntegratedCare2020
By Dr. Will Stadler, Solution Executive, Behavioral Health
Success in promoting population health cannot be achieved unless we are able to engage in true coordination across the health care continuum. In order for clinicians and care teams to provide the best possible treatments for an individual, they need to understand the whole patient. Yet, despite the prevailing focus on population health across the broad health care landscape, existing payer and delivery models neglect nearly all of what takes place beyond the walls of the hospital. Thus, the current delivery system is deeply fragmented with sizeable portions of a patient’s data held in different silos, especially data derived from the interactions people have with behavioral health providers – those that provide services for mental health, addictions, and developmental disabilities. This partitioning of information has resulted in a piecemeal understanding of an individual’s personal health story, as well as the inability of care providers to address the holistic needs of those they serve.
April 29, 2016
CPC+ will lead to collaboration and payment reform
By John Travis, VP, Reg & Compliance Strategy
Recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center announced a new, five-year advanced primary care medical home model that will begin Jan. 1, 2017. The Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) model represents the adoption of new payment mechanisms that incentivize primary care practices to invest in clinical practice improvements and payments for Medicare beneficiaries around comprehensive care management. The model is built on the foundation of the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative, which is scheduled to run through the end of 2016.
Two very significant program elements differentiate CPC+ from prior Innovation Center models and from other CMS delivery and payment system reform efforts, indicating CPC+ is a program to watch as a signal of things to come.
April 28, 2016
The journey to revenue cycle improvement
By Troy Phillips, Director of Revenue Cycle Solutions Development, Product Management and Operations, Cerner
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) this month released its annual hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long Term Acute Care Hospital (LTCH) proposed rule for 2017. The elements of the LTCH rule outline the continued focus on transforming our reimbursement system. With the health care industry moving from volume- to value-based care, the importance of revenue cycle organizations to transform and improve is greater than ever. To effort these improvements, we must address core knowledge, skills and capabilities that are transferable across the organization.
April 26, 2016
Children’s Mercy moves from volume to value with integrated system
By Cerner
Children’s Mercy Integrated Care Solutions (CMICS) is transforming the health care delivery system for pediatrics by moving from volume to value. Their mission is to improve the health and well-being of children through an integrated pediatric network that is value-based, community-focused, patient-centric and accountable for the quality and cost of care. CMICS is building a network of community primary care physicians, implementing new provider payment models for Medicaid and exploring new payment models for commercial payers.
Bob Finuf, vice president of payer relations and executive director of integrated care solutions at Children’s Mercy in Kansas City, discusses how he is leading these efforts.
April 14, 2016
LMG Construction makes waves with Cerner project
By Cerner
As Cerner’s new campus takes shape, we’re proud to highlight the many subcontractors that are contributing to the project.
Sixteen thousand copper pots! That’s the estimated number of copper pots that would equate to the nearly 25,000 pounds of copper pipe installed by LMG Construction for the new campus plumbing system.
You may not see the impressive plumbing system as you notice Cerner’s new campus emerging among the skyline in south Kansas City, but that doesn’t make it any less important than other building components. Plumbing systems are the hidden piping that go unseen in every office building, restaurant, day care, home and so many other locations used on a daily basis. These systems provide everything that involves running water, from the safe drinking water in the break rooms to the water the café barista will use to make your morning coffee.
April 12, 2016
Implementing HL7 FHIR standards
By Michelle Miller
Michelle Miller is one of Health Data Management’s 2016 Most Powerful Women in Health Care IT.
I still remember attending my first Health Level Seven (HL7) work group meeting in Paris, wearing a bright pink “First-Time Attendee” ribbon. I was not new to HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), as I had been participating in the HL7 ballot process, but I was new to the face-to-face HL7 work group meetings. Luckily, the HL7 and FHIR communities are extremely welcoming to first-time attendees, which served as the foundation for me to continue to provide feedback and ultimately, influence the HL7 FHIR specification.
HL7 is an American National Standards Institute-accredited, consensus-driven organization whose mission is to empower global health data interoperability by developing standards and enabling their adoption and implementation. The in-person HL7 work group meetings occur three times a year. Each work group is responsible for defining their specific agendas, but generally speaking, ballot resolution is a top priority because work groups must resolve negative votes (i.e., determine if the vote is persuasive enough to warrant changes to the standard).
April 1, 2016
How healthcare IT can help reduce cardiovascular disease
By Cerner
Deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD) have decreased in the U.S. the last three decades, as a result of advancements in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Despite this progress, CVD remains the country’s leading cause of morbidity and mortality and accounts for one in every six dollars spent on health care in the U.S.
The efficient combination of different types of data can help clinicians treat CVD patients more efficiently. The first step is the integration of the electronic health record (EHR) with a large portfolio of solutions to combine clinical and imaging data. Linking computerized images and diagnoses with clinical records enables a faster, lower cost and more consistent care model.
April 1, 2016
European Collaboration Forum 2016 – 3 days focusing on the future of healthcare
With more than 400 attendees, 35 client-led education sessions, 17 countries represented and the 1st ever European Cerner Physician Community (CPC) meeting – the Collaboration Forum 2016 was a real success. This event gave attendees the opportunity to discuss the latest challenges in health care and share their experiences and insights with peers.
The theme this year focused on Connecting What Matters – the people, information and solutions that work together to drive continuous advancements in health care.
March 31, 2016
Advancing patient-centered care through Adventist Health’s Care Management Resource Center
By Cerner
Patient engagement is a crucial component of improving patient care and attaining Meaningful Use. In 2015, Adventist Health, based in Roseville, Calif., launched an intense effort to assess and revamp its patient engagement strategy. A major component involved redesigning how patient care management is delivered.
With the Cerner RevWorks Care Management team, Adventist Health created a centralized Care Management Resource Center (CMRC) with the goal of supporting coordinated progression and transition of patient care, both clinically and financially. In order to accomplish this, the RevWorks team improved clinical care management of acute care managers who work directly with patients. Administrative burdens also needed to be centralized to non-patient facing staff with specialized knowledge.
March 21, 2016
Leading the industry in end-to-end support
By: Steve Eckman, SVP, Application Management Services
Cerner’s Application Services organization was recently recognized as the industry leader among top inpatient health information system suppliers in a technical support services report released by Black Book, an independent health care research company. Through this report, Cerner was the “only EHR/HIT offering comprehensive, full, four-level technical support with established clients among the 2,200 survey participants in Q4 2015.” This was a significant win for Application Services. Not only does this demonstrate the power of our end-to-end support approach, it proves that our focus on driving high client satisfaction is paying off.
Application Services is a “one-stop support shop” for Cerner clients. We provide an integrated closed-loop support model to deliver the best support and end user experience. Having all levels of support available to Cerner clients enables them to customize their level of support service to their organization’s needs. Tightly aligning our support organizations has led to cross-organizational collaboration and innovation, resulting in faster and better issue resolution for clients.
March 15, 2016
Patient Safety Awareness Week
By: Cerner
The National Patient Safety Foundation is hosting Patient Safety Awareness Week from March 13-19 to remind clinicians to “strive for patient safety and the reduction of harm.”
But it’s not just one week. The foundation is based on the thought that patient safety should be a focus every day. We’re reminded of the impact of the largest patient safety risks. Falls, medication errors, infection control, alarm fatigue and the safety of clinicians can all make the difference between a successful clinical visit and an unnecessarily dangerous experience.
March 10, 2016
Leveraging HIEs, Enabling Pop Health and Improving Physician Satisfaction in Ambulatory Venues
By: Cerner
During HIMSS16, Cerner Ambulatory executive Kim Hlobik, spoke with leaders from Dignity Health, Banner Health and Memorial Hospital at Gulfport on the status of their respective Cerner solution implementations and future roadmaps in both acute and ambulatory venues.
Dr. Shez Partovi – Chief Health Information Officer, Dignity Health
Dr. William Holland – Chief Medical Information Officer, Banner Health
Dr. David Northington – Chief Medical Information Officer, Memorial Hospital of Gulfport
March 9, 2016
Connecting what matter – Welcome to the Connections Gallery!
During the Collaboration Forum 2016 you will have the opportunity to attend inspirational talks, network with peers from all across Europe, and dive into the functionality Cerner has to offer.
Our Connections Gallery will showcase functionality as well as complete workflows based on real scenarios. All demonstrations and tours will revolve around our theme ‘Connecting What Matters’. Find below an overview of what you will be able to see during the Forum.
March 7, 2016
Connecting what matters – A world without medical error
By Richard Francken, Senior Consultant, Cerner Benelux,
In the strive for improving patient care the availability of correct patient data is a crucial component. We are constantly working to ensure that your medical history is available to those who need it the most when you need it the most, as it could be a matter of life or death.
As society becomes more digitalized, the expectations we as consumers have to the services available to us become greater. Healthcare is no exception. If you or a loved one have suffered a complex health issue, you can probably relate to numerous visits to various healthcare providers that did not have your medical history and records readily available. Perhaps you brought your records, pictures and results with you on an USB-stick to ensure that the clinician would have the necessary information available. If you are nodding your head in recognition, it means that interoperability was not in place at the care facilities you visited, meaning they were not connecting what matters.
Cerner continuously works to put an end to patients having to carry around their medical records by participating in the industry initiative called Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE). IHE enables interoperability, which is the ability for patient information to move between health care entities regardless of the technology platform in place or the location where care has been provided. Interoperability occurs when information flows freely across organizational, vendor and geographic barriers.
March 1, 2016
Connecting what matters – Meet one of our keynote speakers, Intermountain
By Kim Henrichsen, Vice President of Clinical Operations & Chief Nursing Officer, Intermountain,
With a shared vision to improve quality, safety and make healthcare costs sustainable, Intermountain Healthcare and Cerner have been working together since 2013.
To prepare for the future of healthcare, Intermountain needed a system that was flexible and allowed them to innovate quickly and measure their successes. Cerner Millennium is adaptable, allowing clinicians to develop innovative workflows and processes.
Intermountain has very similar values to an NHS hospital, it operates as a non-profit organisation whose mission is to treat every person, regardless of circumstance. The organisation has a long history of driving quality in health care and has become an international leader in providing optimal care at the lowest appropriate cost. Multiple clinical programmes and related clinical governance are in place across all the clinical settings, including primary care, behavioural health, acute care and more.
February 29, 2016
Pledge to Interoperability
By Cerner
Today, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced that companies that provide 90 percent of electronic health records used by U.S. hospitals, the nation’s five largest private healthcare systems, and more than a dozen leading professional associations and stakeholder groups have pledged to implement three core commitments that will improve the flow of health information to consumers and healthcare providers.
We share the principle that, to achieve an open, connected care for our communities, we all have the responsibility to take action. To further these goals, we are pledging to the following commitments to advance interoperability among health information systems enabling free movement of data, which are foundational to the success of delivery system reform.
February 29, 2016
Periscope at HIMSS16
By Cerner
Follow Cerner on Periscope during HIMSS16 for exclusive access to Cerner executives, health care providers and third-party industry influencers. Each scope will highlight a key trend impacting the HIT industry in 2016.
February 25, 2016
Open platforms, developer collaboration will accelerate health care innovation
By Sam Lambson, Business Strategist, Open Development Services
Innovation is a core virtue at Cerner, which is one of the reasons we are committed to advancing standards-based, open APIs like SMART on FHIR. Open standards create new avenues for the developer community to design apps that can improve patient outcomes and create efficiencies to reduce the cost of health care.
Just as mobile app platforms transformed the consumer experience, app-enabled health IT platforms have the power to expedite the creation of a wide variety of apps that solve all types of business needs within health care. That’s why we created code_.
February 25, 2016
MU Health Care tells its Davies Award story
By Cerner
In March 2015, University of Missouri Health Care will receive the HIMSS Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence for its outstanding achievement in health technology innovations. Dr. Thomas Selva, chief medical information officer for MU Health Care, will accept the award for the health system at the 2016 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas. In this interview, Dr. Selva gives us a behind-the-scenes look at why his organization won this honor.
What is unique about the Davies Award, and why did MU Health Care apply?
Dr. Selva: The Davies Award is really, “Are you getting value out of the technology we’ve implemented?” That’s the question that everybody across the country has been asking since the rapid adoption of electronic health records (EHRs). The award is a recognition that we have clearly demonstrated that our EHR investment shows value, whether the value is hard dollars, patient safety or clinical outcomes.
The award process gave us the ability to step back and say, “Do we have a story to tell?” At MU Health Care, we had lots of stories to tell, we just had to learn how to tell our story. The award submission process created the structure to be able to really dig in and tell the story we wanted to tell.
February 24, 2016
Stronger authentication of EHR access and patient information
By Cerner
Most computer systems and applications authenticate a user by requesting and validating a username and password during the login process. This authentication process uses a single authentication credential – the password the user knows.
The process called multifactor authentication is a stronger approach to user authentication because it uses multiple credentials to identify the user. Multifactor authentication has three primary categories of authentication:
- Something the user knows (such as a password)
- Something the user has (such as a one-time password token)
- Something the user is (such as a biometric)
February 23, 2016
Connecting what matters – Meet two of our speakers, Virginia Mason Medical Center
In March 2014, the Right Honourable Jeremy Hunt, MP, England’s Secretary of State for Health, visited Virginia Mason, in Seattle, as part of the Sign Up to Safety campaign. In the same month, Jim Bender, MD, delivered a keynote speech in London at the Cerner Collaboration Forum 2014, describing how the tragic death of a Virginia Mason patient — caused by a preventable medical error — became the catalyst for the organisation’s renewed focus on patient safety more than ten years ago.
This year, Virginia Mason will be back at the Collaboration Forum. Dr. Jim Bender, Medical Director of Clinical Informatics and Charleen Tachibana, DNP, RN, FAAN, Senior Vice President, Quality and Safety, and Chief Nursing Officer, will discuss staffing models, sepsis reduction, and patient engagement.
February 22, 2016
Treating a community of 19,000
By Cerner
Patients and providers in rural communities often struggle with access to health care. Unlike living in a large city, patients don’t have numerous health care offerings at their fingertips. “There is a shortage of providers in a rural community, which limits access to acute care services for patients,” said Greg Reinart, CEO of Hereford Regional Medical Center.
Hereford Regional Medical Center is a full service rural health care facility in Hereford, Texas. It offers a full range of services from allergy clinics to home health care services and serves a community of 19,000 people.
While access is a major challenge for rural hospitals, knowledge is another unique challenge these hospitals face. “Getting information out to patients around the services we offer isn’t easy,” said Anthony Tijerina, CNO of Hereford Regional Medical Center. “We could go five years and a patient may never know we have surgery offerings.”
February 19, 2016
2016 Health Care Marketplace observations
By Zane Burke
This week, we finished off what was, in many aspects, the best year in Cerner’s history with our Q4 2015 earnings call. In one respect, we began twice as many new client relationships in 2015 as we had in any other year in our history. The number of clients we work with is important for several reasons, not the least of which because our efforts to shape the future of health care accelerate with each provider who understands, agrees with and helps drive Cerner’s vision forward.
Cerner also experienced 30 percent growth in our population health business – a strong indicator that today’s most innovative health care leaders clearly see what’s on the horizon and are looking for strategic partners, like Cerner, to help them navigate the change that’s coming quickly, regardless of what EHR platform they may be using today.
February 17, 2016
Connecting what matters during acute stroke treatment
By Dr Leonard Fuhry, Senior Physician, Neurological Department, Klinikum Ingolstadt,
Dr Leonard Fuhry, Senior Physician in the Neurological Department at Klinikum Ingolstadt, discusses how his organisation is improving stroke patient outcomes by integrating and connecting vital patient data across 15 hospitals in rural Bavaria.
Acute stroke treatment has dramatically changed during the last decade. Specific therapy is now available within the first few hours after stroke onset.
Systemic thrombolysis is easy to handle, but indication should be made by an experienced neurologist. And there is little question that it’s important to rapidly identify severely affected patients that would benefit from mechanical thrombectomy.
In order to combat the challenge of providing these treatments not only to the population of metropolitan areas with specialised neurological stroke units, but also to patients in rural districts, stroke networks have been established.
February 12, 2016
New campus becomes crystal clear with AGP Glass
By Cerner
One of the most essential parts of a building design is the windows. The decisions of where they go and how they look end up playing a big part of the office environment. Local company Architectural Glazing Professionals (AGP) is responsible for installing nearly 750 windows at the new Cerner campus.
Established in 1999, Dan and Sherry Hankinson started their commercial glazing company out of their garage. They specialize in general glass and also provide skylights, handrails, mirrors and custom pattern glass.
“Basically, anything to do with glass and glazing,” said Dan Hankinson.
The skin of the new campus will be detailed with 749 DNA-inspired window openings. That’s more than five times the windows in the White House.
February 4, 2016
Improving the patient experience … For good
By Jake Poore, Founder and President, Integrated Loyalty Systems
Was one of your New Year’s resolutions to improve the patient experience at your hospital or care facility? If so, I have some sobering news: a scant 8 percent of New Year’s resolutions are actually successful, which translates to a 92 percent failure rate.
According to an article in Psychology Today on why resolutions fail, “Making resolutions work involves changing behaviors—and in order to change a behavior, you have to change your thinking (or ’rewire’ your brain) …change requires creating new neural pathways from new thinking.”
The majority of resolutions fail because when we aspire to make dramatic changes, we need more than just good intentions. In order for a New Year’s resolution — or any kind of major change — to be successful, we need to dig a little deeper. We need to go beneath the surface and begin to change our mindset and our behavior at a more granular level.
January 28, 2016
Connecting what matters – Connecting London with St George’s
The clinical exchange platform (CEP) is in full swing at St George’s, giving clinicians access to their patients’ GP record:diagnoses, diagnostics, medications and other clinical information. Information stored in GPs’ practice systems are now visible in Cerner Millennium®. This has been enabled by the implementation of Cerner’s Health Information Exchange (HIE) platform.
In return, GPs can view their patients’ records stored in Millennium from within their practice system. Information includes diagnoses, problems and procedures, laboratory and radiological diagnostics and discharge documentation, including emergency department and discharge summaries.
January 27, 2016
Zane Burke’s top 5 from 2015
By Zane Burke, President
I want to thank all of our Clients for their contributions to a very good year. With our clients’ amazing achievements, our entrepreneurial spirit and drive to improve health care is stronger than ever. We’ve built our credibility in the industry because of our track record for delivering value to our clients – something we are very committed to. I couldn’t be more proud of all the work our clients have achieved in 2015. Let’s reflect on some of that exciting work:
Awards
We’re fortunate to work with amazing clients. I was thrilled to hear that Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC) was named a 2015 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient. This is a prestigious honor with only four recipients in 2015, and CAMC is the first organization in West Virginia to be honored. Additionally, University of Missouri Health Care was awarded a HIMSS Davies Enterprise Award in October. Lastly, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives and American Hospital Association recognized a longtime Cerner advocate, Dr. Brian Jacobs, vice president, CIO and chief medical information officer at Children’s National Health System. It’s an honor to work with so many talented clients.
January 26, 2016
Mark One lighting the way for Cerner’s new campus
By Cerner
As Cerner’s new campus continues to take shape, we’re proud to highlight the many subcontractors that are contributing to the project.
If you want to know who’s lighting most of Kansas City, it’s Mark One Electric Company. With a stellar reputation and involvement in some of the city’s largest projects, Mark One was chosen as the primary electrical contractor for phases 1 and 2 of the new campus.
Their work includes all lighting for the first two office towers, parking lot lighting for the 3,500 spaces on campus, street lighting and duct banks, piping designed to protect and consolidate cabling. This piping will deliver power and distribute data throughout the site.
January 20, 2016
Florida Hospital Tampa goes back to basics to achieve ICD-10 success
By Cerner
Florida Hospital Tampa, a member of Adventist Health System (AHS), found it best to go back to basics during its preparation for ICD-10. As part of ICD-10 training, AHS provided refresher courses in anatomy and physiology to help its coding staff improve efficiency prior to the code set transition.
As of November 2015, AHS hospitals have improved discharged not final coded time to 2.4 days, the discharged not final billed time to 4.3 days and its accounts receivable process to 55.8 days.
Kim Vogan-Barelos, director of coding for the Florida Hospital campuses in West Florida, discussed her team’s preparation and how online courses and training from AHS and Cerner made for a smooth ICD-10 transition. Through this training, Florida Hospital Tampa now has 80 percent of their coding staff back to the productivity level they achieved while using ICD-9.
January 19, 2016
How clinical informaticists can improve healthcare
By Nate Apathy, Cerner Research
We often say that at Cerner we sit squarely at the intersection of information technology and health care. Clinical informaticists would say the same thing about their discipline, which the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) defines as “the science that develops methods, techniques and theories regarding how to use data, information and knowledge to support and improve biomedical research, human health and the delivery of health care services.” The research in this field combines clinical knowledge, computer science and other disciplines to ensure that the newest discoveries in each area are incorporated into health IT. In layman’s terms, informaticists are inspired by the need to develop solutions that enhance and improve the health, quality and safety of consumers through the use of information technology.
January 14, 2016
An example of interoperability at work
By Kashif Rathore, Sr. Director, Interoperability
The new year is an opportunity to reflect on the work we’ve done on the Interoperability team and the impact it’s had on a personal level.
On a recent holiday trip, one of my sons became ill and after a visit to the pediatrician, he was prescribed medication. A day or two later, he wasn’t feeling better and needed to go to the local emergency room. During the visit, we identified the problem and began the appropriate course of treatment. After a few days, he felt well again. A week or so later, he went back to the pediatrician for a regular checkup and the pediatrician wanted to run a test. When we asked why it was being run and if records from the emergency room visit were reviewed, we learned that the results weren’t in my son’s record.
There are many explanations for this lack of sharing. However, none of them satisfied my wife since she asked if I was doing my job, which is to ensure data can be exchanged between care providers.
January 13, 2016
Meaningful Use: What’s changing
By Cerner
A number of industry media outlets covered statements made by Andy Slavitt, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), on Monday, Jan.11 at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference indicating significant changes were in the future for Meaningful Use (MU). For reference, review “Meaningful use will likely end in 2016, CMS chief Andy Slavitt says” in HealthcareITNews.
“We believe that some of these media reports were misleading in their coverage,” said John Travis, vice president, Regulatory and Compliance Strategy, Cerner. For Eligible Professionals (EP), MU will become the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) in a few years. For Eligible Hospitals (EH), there are no changes at this point. “MIPS is not the end of MU. MIPS is the beginning of a new regulatory program that includes provisions related to MU attestation,” Travis said.
Slavitt’s statements referred to pending regulatory developments on how the use of Certified Health Information Technology (CHIT) by EPs will be a component part of the MIPS under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015.
January 7, 2016
2015 – It’s a wrap!
By Geoff Segal, General Manager, Cerner UK and Ireland
We are lucky to live in a country that is able to dedicate so much resource to healthcare: good health, and care when it’s needed, drives a successful country. Effective healthcare available to all is a great gift as everyone needs healthcare at some point in their life. Having access to reliable and safe healthcare as we get older is of great assurance and we must work hard if we want to keep it that way. It’s very personal, very collective and very expensive which is why healthcare is too important to stay the same. Finding ways to eliminate error in the highly complex fabric that is health and care is deeply engaging to us at Cerner. Being part of something so fundamental and so in need of keeping for future generations has driven us to pursue the dream of a world without medical error.
December 10, 2015
Solving health care challenges through hacking
By Sam Lambson, Business Strategist, Open Development Services, Cerner
Imagine a world where a physician can dream up an idea for a new technology that may change medicine as we know it and thenbam, in the course of a day you see the idea develop into a functioning app.
I observed that very thing, many times over, at Boston Children’s Hospital during its annual Hacking Pediatrics event. It was exhilarating to see physicians, designers, coders and entrepreneurs from the Boston Children’s community pair with world-class technology professionals and collaborate in new and interesting ways, while focused on advancing vision into actionable reality.
What especially stood out to me was the number of innovators interested in building apps that tied into the electronic health record (EHR) using application programming interfaces (APIs). Their goal was to deliver patients more insights into their own health and provide clinicians with support at the point of care. The fact that over half of the teams chose to build an EHR integration using SMART on FHIR only reiterated to me why Cerner has been so vocal in its position that EHRs must become open platforms. The attitude of openness has manifested in a lot of our most important initiatives such as CommonWell, HIE offerings and SMART on FHIR apps.
December 7, 2015
Leveraging clinical social workers to treat the whole patient
By Cerner
In an innovative move, Northern Arizona Healthcare (NAH) has created a team of three clinical social workers (CSW) to work directly with patients. The social workers visit bedsides and talk with patients, attending to their emotional and psychological needs, while physicians and nurses attend to the physical care. These patients can be a mother who just gave birth and is at risk of postpartum depression, or someone diagnosed with cancer last year, but isn’t receiving chemotherapy. The clinical staff is available to provide support to patients with complex psychosocial needs, in an effort to provide a more therapeutic and holistic approach to care management, all while working closely with the full care team.
NAH is focused on treating the whole patient, which involves their emotional well-being. Jessica Ross, one of the primary CSWs, shared that they are able to spend more time with patients to truly understand what underlying issues may be in play. While clinicians may not always be comfortable or aware of emotional factors, CSWs can address those issues more effectively.
December 2, 2015
Has Alaska found Holy Grail of cutting costs and improving healthcare?
By Ben Collins, Project Director at The King’s Fund
On Wednesday the government’s Spending Review confirmed that an additional £3.8 billion would be made available for the NHS in 2015/16. That is welcome news – but with cuts to social care and public health, this is robbing Peter to pay Paul. On top of that, the health service still needs to make £22 billion of efficiency savings by 2020/21 – something it has not achieved in its history.
The previous week, the 50 vanguard sites developing new care models of care across England met in London to take stock after their first 200 days. Never has their main aim been so urgent – to develop more integrated systems of care that meet the needs of future patients.
NHS trusts are regularly missing their waiting times targets and winter pressures are yet to hit A&E departments. The NHS needs inspiration and it needs it fast.
November 25, 2015
Clinician Guidance Before the Point of Care
By Ryan K. Lee, M.D., MBA, Director of MRI, Director of Quality, Section Chief of Neuroradiology at Einstein Healthcare Network
Clinical decision support (CDS) is software that transparently and reliably provides clinicians guidance to order appropriate treatment based on a nationally vetted set of criteria. In the case of advanced imaging, it’s the American College of Radiology’s (ACR) appropriateness criteria (AC). First and foremost, it’s clinician guidance not at the point of service or after, but before.
In my other career, I am my sons’ Little League coach. Now that they are 10 years old, the coaches have introduced plays – what to do in this situation, what to do in that situation. In a sense, we’ve given them a set of algorithms. Whether at the Little League level or in the big leagues, the basic plays are the same. Imagine, for a moment, that instead of teaching them these plays, I just sent them out on the field with no guidance and said “play ball.” That’s exactly what we are doing today with clinicians. How can we expect clinicians to know every last bit of the ACR criteria? How can a clinician be expected to know the subtle differences between ordering a magnetic resonance image (MRI) of the neck vs a CAT scan of the neck? The answer is we can’t expect that; it’s not their job. That’s my job as the radiologist. And, that is exactly what the ACR has done with their AC. There are subcommittees for each subspecialty that have convened and agreed on what are appropriate exams for given indications.
November 23, 2015
Connecting Your Work to the Triple Aim
By Roy Foster, Sr. Director, Population Health Consulting
I have the opportunity to work with many great health care organizations across the world, helping them develop and execute population health strategies. These organizations vary in size and type, from large mature IDNs to small community-based organizations and everything in-between. I value and appreciate the perspective this provides me as we continue to develop as strategic consultants for our clients.
One of those perspectives is how the Triple Aim continues to come into focus for these organizations. Each organization and market presents its own unique perspectives and challenges. However, when I visit with senior leadership teams and we discuss what success looks like, inevitably the Triple Aim is evoked. The universal agreement that health care spend is on an unsustainable trajectory is a problem that needs solving without compromising quality of care. The idea of shifting to a consumer-driven market that encourages accountability has become commonplace. The Triple Aim provides a great starting point and framework for developing a strategy and value plan. However, chartering and empowering the organization appropriately requires the ability to connect future work to the Triple Aim.
November 19, 2015
Streamlining and standardizing scheduling workflows
By Nancy Ketchum, Patient Access Director at Via Christi Health
When Via Christi Health implemented Cerner Scheduling Management in 2014, we went through quite a few changes – all for the good of our patients. We’d used the same scheduling system in our surgery unit for roughly 15 years. The downside to that system was that schedulers were not able to create encounters or input insurance information when the appointment was created. That information had to be entered into the system at a later date, which caused potential problems. We needed to know this information to properly serve our patients. Implementing the new Cerner solution would provide a more streamlined process.
After the implementation, I noticed that the talk time (individual time on the phone) per scheduler increased. The team grew accustomed to the previous system, and I realized there would be a learning curve. To combat this, we took action.
November 16, 2015
At a touch of a screen, looking after patients just got a whole lot easier!
Last year, at St George’s NHS Foundation Trust, we were successful in our Nursing Technology Fund bid to purchase interactive whiteboards.
The interactive whiteboards display information similar to the ‘patient status at a glance’ board. Information displayed on the whiteboard comes directly from the patient’s electronic record and updates every 30 minutes for the rounds. Key information displayed includes: length of stay, early warning scores, predicted discharge dates (in line with Breaking the Cycle initiative), alerts and allergies.
We at worked closely with other Trusts (who have deployed the whiteboards) as well as internal clinical leads and Cerner to decide on the design and structure of the screen.
November 10, 2015
Translating big data into measurable impact
By David Edwards, VP and Engineering Fellow
The so-called big data revolution, which has perhaps eclipsed the term cloud in ubiquity and vagueness, arguably started with the open sourcing of Hadoop by Yahoo! in 2009. This is also the same year Cerner unknowingly stumbled into the big data space.
At the time, a small group of us were building a semantic search system that had significant computational requirements, a large percentage of which was attributed to a natural language processing engine schooled in the vocabulary of medicine. Though early in its maturity, Hadoop appeared to be a cost-effective and scalable processing platform, especially since most of our workloads were batch-oriented and inherently parallelizable.
Cerner entered the big data stage through nontraditional engineering channels. However, it turns out that those engineering decisions paid substantial dividends, as early successes in the search project led to increased confidence in the technology and a natural expansion of data-driven use cases. Today, we have an emerging data hub with several thousand servers running the alphabet soup of Hadoop technologies.
November 5, 2015
Fort HealthCare’s IT Department named one of the nation’s best
By Cerner
Think of Fort HealthCare’s information technology (IT) department as the mouse that roared.
Healthcare IT News, a leading informatics journal, has named Fort HealthCare in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, as one of the best hospital IT departments in the nation.
The magazine ranked Fort, which has 15 clinics and 72 licensed beds, No.4 in the ‘small hospital’ category. The annual surveywas published earlier this week.
“This recognition highlights something everyone who works with our IT department already knows, which is we have one of the hardest working IT departments around,” said Dr. Chris Manakas, Fort’s chief medical information officer. “I am proud to work with them every day.”
October 26, 2015
MU Health Care wins prestigious HIMSS Davies Award
By Mitch Wasden, CEO and COO of MU Health Care
At the University of Missouri, we don’t want to just be good at delivering care – we want to be iconic for delivering care. Through our partnership with Cerner, we want to raise the stature of the organization so that we’re one of the leaders. Earning a HIMSS Davies Award is no small task. Receiving this award validates our emphasis on using and developing information technology solutions to maximize patient care.
– Bryan Bliven, VP, Tiger Institute for Health Innovation
At University of Missouri Health Care, we know that better health is a journey in which technology plays a bigger role than it ever has before. I’m proud that MU Health Care recently received the global HIMSS Enterprise Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence for health care technology innovations that are improving patient outcomes. The program is only open to HIMSS EMR Adoption Model Stage 6 or Stage 7 organizations.
October 23, 2015
CHC 2015 – Connecting what matters
By Cerner
Cerner Health Conference (CHC) is Cerner’s annual industry-leading health care event taking place in Kansas City, USA. Each year, health care professionals attend to experience targeted and relevant education, a vast array of networking opportunities and learn more about Cerner in our Solutions Gallery. This year CHC welcomed more than 14,000 people, 400 of them coming from all around the world and we had a total of 26 sessions led by global clients and partners.
October 16 , 2015
10 key takeaways from Cerner Health Conference keynote with Neal Patterson
By Cerner
Tuesday morning, Cerner co-founder, chairman and CEO, Neal Patterson addressed more than 14,000 health care professionals, clients and associates at the Sprint Center.
Here are 10 topics that were addressed during Patterson’s keynote.
October 16, 2015
CHIME-AHA honors Children’s National for ‘Transformational Leadership’ in health IT
By Cerner
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the American Hospital Association (AHA) have recognized Children’s National Health System in Washington, D.C., for “developing and deploying transformational information technology” that improves and streamlines care by awarding Children’s National’s CIO and CEO with the Transformational Leadership Award.
In large part, this year’s award recognizes the work of the Bear Institute, a seven-year ITWorks collaboration between Children’s National and Cerner. Dr. Brian Jacobs, vice president, chief medical information officer and chief information officer at Children’s, is the principal architect and guiding force behind the institute, one of the first pediatric organizations in the nation to focus on informatics.
October 15, 2015
New model of care: On-Site health centers
By Mike Heckman, VP, Population Health Services
Employers are uniquely positioned to care about both the health and productivity of their workforces. Mercer, a benefits consultancy, found that 29 percent of employers with 5,000 or more associates offer on-site clinics, (or as we call them, Health Centers), up from 24 percent in 2013. Studies continue to show the focus on employee health among companies.
With the pressures of primary care in the community continuing to be a challenge, many employers look to solve the problem of access, health care experience and convenience on their own with on-site investments. Over time, these investments have evolved from basic occupational medicine to urgent care, primary care and even full medical homes. Many employers take the experience factor even further and provide additional related services that their employees want most, such as chiropractic care or physical therapy.
October 13, 2015
CHC15: Day 2
By Cerner
We started Day 2 of CHC15 with an animated general session from Dr. Ben Goldacre, co-founder of AllTrials.net. He discussed the value of transparency in clinical trials and how it leads to the improved health of consumers. By creating a wide range of data, we can stop the misuse of evidence that convinces people to buy goods, services or ideas that aren’t helpful. He believes evidence-based medicine is the future of health care.
October 12, 2015
CHC15: Day 1
By Cerner
We officially kicked off CHC15! We’re thrilled to welcome our clients, partners, industry partners and associates to Kansas City to share best practices, highlight innovations and talk about the future of health care, all in keeping with this year’s theme – connecting what matters.
October 10, 2015
92 percent of Nebraska Methodist prescriptions are sent electronically
By Cerner
Nebraska has the lowest rate of deaths due to prescription painkillers in the nation. Meanwhile, Cornhusker doctors lead the nation in their use of electronic prescribing for these medications, a move that experts say helps combat prescription fraud and abuse.
In September, Vermont became the last state to legalize the electronic prescription of controlled substances (EPCS). The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) published legislation in 2010 that allowed for the option of writing controlled substance prescriptions electronically. Each state had to pass its own regulations about EPCS. Previously, all prescriptions had to be handwritten and given to the pharmacist in person. Not only is EPCS more convenient to the patient, it’s also a better way to stop prescription fraud due to the extra layer of encryption. Plus, electronic prescribing (e-prescibing) through an electronic medical record (EHR) adds safety checks for drug interactions and allergies.
Over an eight-month period in 2014, Nebraska Methodist Health System implemented Cerner’s EPCS solution starting with their employed clinic providers. By 2014, all three hospitals and 50 clinics were live. Nebraska Methodist engaged a range of clinicians, office staff and lawyers during the transition. It was important to embed the EPCS solution into Cerner’s Millennium EHR to ensure patient safety, maintain provider access levels and configure reporting. One of the biggest lessons Nebraska Methodist learned was to involve and communicate with local pharmacies around the implementation of an EPCS solution.
October 8, 2015
How FHIR applications inform clinical decision-making
By Marcy Stoots, DNP, RN-BC, General Manager, EHR Applications at xG Health Solutions
Our industry is fraught with interoperability problems, despite being highly digitized. Think about it – when you go from one provider to another – or one hospital to another – unless they use the same EHR vendor, information is typically not readily available for rapid and accurate high-quality clinical decision-making. SMART on FHIR was developed to address this interoperability problem in health care.
October 8, 2015
CHC15: International
By Cerner
Spanning over 30 countries, Cerner will have a significant global presence at this year’s Cerner Health Conference (CHC). Two main power sessions will bring a global perspective on challenges and different approaches to health care:
October 6, 2015
CHC15: Process improvement
By Cerner
With Cerner Health Conference (CHC) only five days away, it’s time to start building your agenda. CHC education sessions are predominately led by Cerner clients and cover a broad range of topics. Below are key sessions around process improvements
October 6, 2015
Intermountain Healthcare to share its ‘improvement technology’ philosophy and more at CHC15
By Marc Probst, Chief Information Officer at Intermountain Healthcare
We have a lot to look forward to during this year’s Cerner Health Conference (CHC). Intermountain Healthcare will have a significant presence leading up to and during the four-day conference. We are proud to participate in many CHC events, including the fall Cerner Physician Community (CPC) meeting.
In total, Intermountain will contribute to seven education sessions, three power sessions and more than a dozen additional appearances and events. There are a few sessions and activities I’m particularly looking forward to.
October 5, 2015
CHC15: Population Health
By Cerner
Engage with peers, meet our associates, hear from industry leaders and immerse yourself in new technology during Cerner Health Conference. Education and Power Sessions offer a vast array of learning opportunities for all attendees. Below are key sessions on population health.
October 5, 2015
Los Angeles County Department of Health Services improves CVD care
By Dr. Robert Bryg, Cardiologist – LA County Department of Health Services
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the world, with over 17.5 million deaths reported in 2012. CVD is also the biggest health care cost to Cerner clients. In the U.S. alone, CVD accounts for $1 of every $6 spent. Cerner recognizes this and, with our clients, provides knowledge-driven care solutions that can effectively manage chronic cardiovascular disease and improve the outcomes of populations.
For the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (LACDHS), having all of a patient’s information in one place and one location anywhere in the facility, even at off-site locations, is very useful. LACDHS is a four-hospital, multiple-clinic environment that serves 700,000 patients throughout Los Angeles County. Between the hospitals and clinics, approximately 170,000 electrocardiograms, 25,000 echocardiograms and 4,000 cardiac catheterization procedures are performed each year. Our vision is to have a single, unified health record for all facilities so patient information can be shared on a single platform.
October 5, 2015
Revenue cycle provides improvements in A/R, cash collection
By Cerner
Communication between the front and back office is crucial to the success of a health care practice. Barnabas Health, the largest not-for-profit, integrated health care delivery system in New Jersey and one of the largest in the nation, is working to improve revenue cycle management in its acute and ambulatory facilities.
In 2014, Barnabas Health began implementation of Cerner Practice Management and Business Office Services. Barnabas Health implemented Cerner’s Electronic Health Record, acute to ambulatory, from 2009-2012.
With the help of a Cerner Revenue Cycle Executive, Barnabas applied a programmable Revenue Cycle Assessment Tool, Basic Class for its staff working in 240 clinics across 18 counties, and a Front Office Process Scorecard to report on key progress metrics.
September 30, 2015
Varying perspectives on ICD-10
By Cerner
As we prepare for the ICD-10 conversion date, we’re working with all our clients to ensure a seamless transition. Vibrant Health has been prepared for a little over two years. Several associates share their views on what will happen on Oct. 1 in Part 5 of our ICD-10 Blog Series. (Part 1/Part 2/Part 3/Part 4)
ICD-10 affects everyone in the health care environment, from doctors and nurses to billers and clinical support staff. Everyone within a health system will be involved in the transition as 68,000 new codes will be introduced that will disrupt current workflows.
September 28, 2015
Keeping the nurse at the bedside: Implementing electronic recording of the National Early Warning Score
By Cerner
St. George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was successful in their nursing technology bid for £1,000,000 last year to purchase integrated vital signs monitors (iVSM) which interface directly with the EMR.
The integration is made possible with CareAware VitalsLink, a mobile vital signs device solution. The Cerner CareAware VitalsLink solution is a first of type in the UK and offers a technology to help the Trust support the delivery of acute patient care.
September 25, 2015
#HITsm Twitter chat recap: ICD-10 transition
By Cerner
Using big data to provide predictable patient care outcomes, help address rising costs and drive better patient care is both a transformative and ambitious goal. Ambitious because of the complexity of treatments delivered across a multitude of specialties, geographies and the variety of key players, such as providers, patients and payers. One significant contributor to the successful attainment of population health is data standardization, which needs to include expandability of terms, discrete data points and granularity. Using specific, standard code sets, such as ICD-10, CM and PCS, to more accurately document why the patient is seeking treatment and what providers and hospitals do to care for the patient, is extremely powerful.
At 11 a.m. CT, Fri., September 25, Sam Grefrath, @SGrefrath on Twitter and Practice Manager for Cerner Regulatory Compliance, moderated HL7 Standard’s popular #HITsm Twitter chat. This hour-long discussion focused on what the health care industry can do to successfully transition to ICD-10 and leverage it to meet our future goals.
September 22, 2015
Improving Efficiency with Quality Reporting and Revenue Cycle
By Cerner
Lafayette General Health (LGH) is a large nonprofit, community-owned regional health system, serving the south-central region of Louisiana. Over the past several years, the organization has been working to improve its quality measures and streamline revenue cycle operations.
LGH began their Cerner revenue cycle journey in 2003. They implemented Cerner Patient Accounting,which has helped them take advantage of a fully integrated revenue cycle system to drive improvements in their financial operations. The solutions fully integrate with LGH’s Cerner EHR, which enables staff to capture accurate and complete information at the front end, provides financial clearance capabilities and enables clinical data to drive coding, billing and cash collection operations.
September 22, 2015
From one physician to another – Enhancing the family medicine experience
By Cerner
As a Cerner Physician Executive, Dr. Jason Mitchell, a board-certified family physician, works with end users to ensure they have an exceptional experience with our solutions. In his previous role at the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), Dr. Mitchell worked with large groups of family physicians to understand how to best integrate health information technology into their workflow and generate the most value.
September 14, 2015
The power of precision medicine
By Patrice Milos, PhD, President and CEO Claritas Genomics
In January 2015, Precision Medicine, an approach to individualize therapies to each patient, drew new attention as President Barack Obama announced a national focus and major investment in this space. For someone who has worked in this area for almost 20 years, watching his press conference, with the DNA Double Helix front and center, was one of those highlights of my career.
September 11, 2015
Detecting sepsis early
By Bharat Sutariya, VP & Chief Medical Officer, Population Health Leadership
In honor of World Sepsis Day on Sept. 13, let’s take a few minutes to understand how sepsis syndrome has impacted each of us, both personally and professionally. Most likely, you have encountered a patient with sepsis, but almost everyone can also identify a family member or friend that has been affected by sepsis. Sepsis strikes tens of millions of people worldwide every year, with an estimates of 24 million patients deteriorating into serve sepsis; siz million of them die. Not only is it a deadly killer, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality lists sepsis as the most expensive condition treated in U.S. hospitals.
August 28, 2015
Keeping the nurse at the bedside
St. George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was successful in their nursing technology bid for £1,000,000 last year to purchase integrated vital signs monitors (iVSM) which interface directly with the EMR.
The integration is made possible with CareAware VitalsLink, a mobile vital signs device solution. The Cerner CareAware VitalsLink solution is a first of type in the UK and offers a technology to help the Trust support the delivery of acute patient care.
August 24, 2015
People process, technology, and environment – sustaining meaningful change
Learning from the experiences and successes of our NHS Trust partners over the years, Cerner’s approach to working with Trusts has evolved over time. This has been evidenced by a significant change in Cerner’s approach to helping Trusts deliver change and realise benefits. While technology remains a significant enabler in the delivery of meaningful change in healthcare, the transformation work is most successfully delivered and sustained when a coordinated focus on the ‘people’, ‘process’ and ‘environment’ aspects of the change is applied, as well as the ‘technology’ itself.
August 21, 2015
Are you ready for ICD-10?
By Sam Grefrath, Practice Manager, Regulatory Compliance Practice
As we prepare for the ICD-10 conversion date, we’re working with all our clients to ensure a seamless transition. To date, 79 percent of Cerner clients have participated in one or more of Cerner’s mock cutover testing events. See how our clients leveraged these events to prepare for Oct. 1 in Part 4 of our ICD-10 Blog Series.
August 19, 2015
Combining clinical workflows with quality reporting technology
By Cerner
Rutland Regional Medical Center (RRMC) places heavy emphasis on its quality measures. The hospital was recently named to the Best Hospitals for Common Care initiative from U.S. News & World Report for excelling in patient care. We interviewed Denise Simpson, manager of Performance Improvement at RRMC, about how they are able to improve their quality measures and navigate the ever-changing field.
July 31, 2015
Connecting care inside and outside the hospital
By John Gresham, Vice President, DeviceWorks, Cerner
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July 24, 2015
Ask me anything at Cerner Population Health Summit
By Matthew Swindells, Senior Vice President Population Health and Global Strategy
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July 23, 2015
Big data to big intelligence
By Bharat Sutariya, VP & Chief Medical Officer and Ryan Brush, Sr. Director, Distinguished Engineer
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July 21, 2015
Preventing readmissions
By: Shakeerah McCoy, Transition Care Nurse Manager at Nash Health Care Systems
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July 21, 2015
Engaging patients in their care through remote monitoring
By Michael DeGere, DPM, Vice President – Population Health Management at Agnesian HealthCare
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July 20, 2015
A focus on the most vulnerable patients
“Children are not mini adults – Paediatrics patients & their families require a different approach alongside IT”, said Dr. Giulio Bognolo (Cerner UK Chief Medical Officer) who led the kick off for the first UK Paediatrics Forum, held on Wednesday at our Cerner UK Collaboration Centre.
July 20, 2015
Reaching HIMSS 6 and 7 in Ambulatory
By John Hoyt, Executive Vice President, HIMSS Analytics
John Hoyt, Executive Vice President, HIMSS Analytics, a global, cause-based, not-for-profit organization focused on better health through information technology, outlines the importance of ambulatory adoption models, specifically HIMSS levels 6 and 7. …
July 13, 2015
St. George’s committed to a world without medical error
In 2012, St. George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust UK made a commitment. This commitment was to leverage the use of technology to eliminate common medication errors in the short term, with a global aim of having a single comprehensive medication record.
June 22, 2015
Cerner investing in research in the UK
Globally for more than 30 years, Cerner has focused on making health care safer and more efficient by linking research and evidence-based decision support at the point of care and has been a key provider for digitising the NHS. We have at the moment two EPR-integrated research modules supporting clinical research workflows: PowerTrials and Discovere.