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AWH provides care to about 250,000 people across Victoria and NSW.

Healthcare IT News lines up five RCM experts in this special report to discuss best practices for optimizing this key financial technology.

Cybersecurity experts from across health IT offer their opinions on the breach itself, what must be done for the lab company to fix security and regain trust – and how similar incidents can be avoided across healthcare.

EHR vendor says it will combine Wellsoft’s EDIS with its EHR and revenue cycle software.

A patient-flow system implemented at MidCentral District Health Board (DHB) in New Zealand is helping to streamline patient journeys through Palmerston North Hospital and allowing clinical staff to view important patient information at the bedside. The MIYA patient flow system, from Alcidion, is live in 17 wards and the emergency department at Palmerston North Hospital and one ward at the Horowhenua Health Centre. Alcidion is an Australian-based provider of Clinical Decision Support Systems, including Patient Flow Software, EDIS, Mobile EMR and Outpatient Solutions. MIYA gives real-time updates of bed management and patient flow throughout the hospital and health centre, showing a patient’s progress from the time they arrive to the time they are discharged, as well as an overview of hospital occupancy. Charge nurse Sarah Donnelly says, “The mobile technology is a godsend on ward rounds and has helped improved patient flow in and out of the ward, making discharges more evident and timely. I love it and wouldn’t be without it now”. The system was tested on two wards for three weeks in early November 2018 before being rolled out to all clinical areas later that month. Acute care and hospital operations service manager Carrie Naylor-Williams says the next phase of the implementation involves looking at how to use the data being collected by the system on a day-to-day basis. The hospital also plans to go live with MIYA in theatres before the end of this year. The data can be used to predict future demand, so staff know what to expect on different days and can plan accordingly. It’s also used to forecast operations for surgical patients. “We can see the cohort of patients currently admitted and what their predicted length of stay is and therefore what surgeries we can do. It will give us greater understanding to be able to manage the capacity of the hospital,” says Naylor-Williams. Bed management and capacity planning was previously done on paper and whiteboards and experienced staff getting a “general feel” for how things were looking, she explained. “We want to put be able to put a science to it and not be dependent on someone with experience being able to do it, but anybody can look at the board and see what the day’s like,” says Naylor-Williams. MIYA pulls data from the hospital’s clinical portal, so clinicians can securely view a current patient’s history, including admissions, demographics and results, on mobile devices at the bedside. The software platform has successfully integrated with five clinical information systems at Midcentral DHB, including WebPas, CareStream Radiology, Clinical portal and Pathology to provide clinical staff with detailed patient information displayed on the ward’s journey board. Naylor Williams says this means doctors can discuss results with patients face to face and make immediate decisions while on their ward rounds. They can also quickly view immediate bed availability in suitable wards. A version of this article first appeared on eHealthNews.nz.

University Hospital Geelong is upgrading its emergency department clinical workflows with the aim of delivering quality, patient-centred clinical care. The healthcare organisation will soon go-live with its new FirstNet ED Information System (EDIS), from Cerner, and replaces the Symphony ED System that it used previously as it is no longer supported in Australia. Cerner FirstNet is an integrated emergency solution that supports a wide range of functions including registration, triage and tracking, checking nursing documentation, managing physician transfer of care, and integration of documentation into a patient's Electronic Health Record (EHR), all in one system. It also lets the healthcare practitioner include and manage a patient’s past medical, family, social or surgical history, in addition to keeping a record of a patient’s transfer movements. Barwon Health Chief Information Officer Associate Professor Sharon Hakkennes told HITNA that Cerner’s emergency information system was picked following a comprehensive procurement process and will be critical in supporting its goals of high-quality, patient-centred clinical care across the entire care continuum into the future. “We have worked closely with Cerner to ensure the system functions with our current workflows and processes,” Hakkennes said. “The switch to FirstNet has required staff training and preparation in order to minimise clinical disruption and maximise the benefits of the new system when we go live.” According to Hakkennes, implementation of FirstNet at the University Hospital Geelong is aligned to Barwon Health’s strategy to implement a fully integrated EHR over the coming years. “The EHR will enable seamless transfer of health information across Barwon Health services, general practice and other health services, and will support upload of information to My Health Record,” Hakkennes said. “The importance of such functionality cannot be underestimated given the growing population of the Barwon region and the increasing burden of chronic disease.” [Read more: Allscripts and Cerner offer glimpses at tech priorities in new earnings reports | Cerner tops the EHR global market share with almost double that of closest rival Epic] Most recently, Bass Coast Health migrated its systems to experience the benefits of a complete EMR solution, having equipped its healthcare facility with MasterCare EMR. The solution will be used by Bass Coast Health clinicians to govern the assessment and management plans of clients, along with the monitoring and measuring of ongoing outcomes. The contract between Cerner and University Hospital Geelong also follows the former’s largest ever EHR undertaking in the US, announcing in October last year that it will support the US Department of Veterans Affairs’ transition from its legacy VistA EHR, alongside 24 vendors.

While many vendors earned high marks, they all seem to have ‘too many clicks’ in the eyes of their users

Epic, Cerner, athenahealth, Allscripts have all certified modules for meaningful use since mid-July.

The list of the vendors that have 2015 Edition compliant products on the market today continues to grow.

With a total of 66 products in ONC’s Certified Health IT List, and many of those are modules rather than EHR platforms, hospital IT shops need to check-in with their vendors now.