News

LAS VEGAS – American HealthTech has partnered with Medtelligent to offer owners and managers of senior care facilities a new care and management system. The Assisted Living Solution is designed to help providers navigate the technology challenges of caring for seniors who move across the spectrum of care from assisted living to skilled nursing facilities and other provider organizations. The combination of American HealthTech’s skilled nursing electronic health records system and Medtelligent’s Assisted Living offering will be especially beneficial to the fast-growing sector of continuing care retirement communities, said the vendors, who announced the partnership at the 2016 Annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas. Post-acute organization owners and managers can use the combined technologies to provide accurate, detailed electronic care records for seniors as they move among assisted living, skilled nursing facilities, continuing care retirement communities, rehabilitation centers and other organizations, the vendors said. Further, the combined technologies can provide financial management and workflow tools for all post-acute senior care facilities, the vendors said. [Also: See photos from Day 3 of HIMSS16] American HealthTech has more than 3,300 skilled nursing facilities as clients while Medtelligent specializes in the assisted living industry and operates in 31 states, the vendors said. "The senior care landscape is challenging facility owners, with changing ownership models, shifting reimbursement models and the aging of America’s population," said American HealthTech president Teresa Chase. "The Medtelligent products add strength to our American HealthTech solutions and give our clients superior clinical and financial management tools across a wider landscape of care facilities." The two companies’ products blend well across care settings because of American HealthTech’s strength in skilled nursing and Medtelligent’s experience in the assisted living and memory care industries, said John Shafaee, Medtelligent’s CEO. "The big trends in our industry are upon us like a tsunami," said Chase, pointing out that in two years, 50 percent of Medicare payments will be based on quality and value of care. She added that by 2030, one of every five U.S. residents will be 65 or older and 2.3 percent of the population will be 85 or older. "Already, the 85-plus segment is the fastest growing population in the country. These trends are unstoppable, and this business partnership will help facility owners manage them." Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

LAS VEGAS – TCI Software Inc., CliniLinc Inc. and ONYX Healthcare USA Inc. announced on Thursday at HIMSS16 a strategic alliance through which TCI’s Rounds software will be pre-loaded into CliniLinc’s software suite and integrated on ONYX’s new 8-inch slim medical tablet. The vendors are highlighting the new alliance at the ONYX Healthcare HIMSS16 exhibit hall booth (#7805). The combined tablet and software technology, dubbed Mobile Telecare Assistant, will begin shipping in April. Coded ONYX-MD81, it is a pocket-sized, Windows 10-ready tablet equipped with a high-definition, multi-touch, 8-inch display with lightweight design to help improve workflow efficiency, ONYX said. [Also: See photos from Day 3 of HIMSS16] "ONYX-MD81 is designed to eliminate for nurses and physicians the burden of carrying a heavy-duty laptop or pushing a mobile workstation-on-wheels with overweight batteries during patient rounding shifts," says John Chuang, president of ONYX Healthcare. The ONYX-MD81 integrated with the CliniLinc software suite enables mobile health and computerized physician order entry processes, the vendors said. The CliniLinc suite is an interdisciplinary clinical system that provides one-touch access on a single screen to multiple disparate EHRs, PACS, ECGs and more, and gives sharing and extended control to consulting physicians or case managers during telemedicine consultations, CliniLinc said. The addition of TCI’s Rounds to the CliniLinc suite also enables the ONYX-MD81 tablet to conduct real-time uploads of patient interview/discharge data to a hospital’s database, potentially saving hospitals costs associated with manual data entry time and reducing errors from manual patient record entry, the vendors said. Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

LAS VEGAS – Citra Health Solutions, a Great Point Partners LLC company that markets population health products, has acquired SironaHealth, a clinical care management services vendor. Citra purchased SironaHealth as the next step in an ongoing plan to extend its integrated population health systems in the value-based healthcare market, the company said. SironaHealth is accredited by the URAC and NCQA and has a history in clinical care coordination and case management. SironaHealth will do business as a Citra Health Solutions company and will continue to maintain an operational center in Portland, Maine. [Also: See photos from Day 3 of HIMSS16] “By managing the health of populations, including disease management, care management and wellness, Sirona will fit into Citra’s holistic approach to drive increased member engagement, reduce health care costs and improve the quality of care,” said Howard Buff, CEO and founder of Citra Health Solutions. “The integrated healthcare model will provide a service- and technology-enabled platform that supports a multitude of payment models and risk arrangements for providers.” Citra systems handle areas including 24/7 care coordination, point-of-need engagement, readmission reduction, ER diversion, star-rating improvement, bundled payment administration and chronic care management. Citra’s acquisition of SironaHealth further increases its clinical capabilities to meet the needs of the market and strengthens the portfolio of systems to meet the needs of patients, providers and payers, Citra said. “Our mission has been to guarantee satisfaction through compassionate and competent care with a relentless focus on quality improvement, and that will not change,” said Jeff Forbes, CEO of SironaHealth. “What will change is the fact that with these augmented resources, we will have the ability to offer our customers more than ever before.” Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

LAS VEGAS – Healthcare communication technology vendor etherFAX LLC and secure messaging systems company DataMotion have announced at HIMSS16 a partnership to deliver secure messaging and document delivery solutions for the healthcare industry. The companies have integrated etherFAX with DataMotion Direct to enable healthcare professionals to send and receive fax documents and other protected health information securely, ensuring privacy and compliance using the Direct Messaging standard. The vendors are demonstrating the new technology at the 2016 Annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas, etherFAX in booth #12247 and DataMotion in booth #12144. Technology from etherFAX enables secure transmission of unstructured data between fax servers, devices, electronic health records systems and health care information exchanges, with end-to-end encryption. Unstructured data such as medical notes, authorizations, protected health information and color documents can be transmitted at high speeds. DataMotion Direct, part of the DataMotion platform, enables healthcare providers to send and receive protected health information with other Direct address holders to comply with HIPAA, enhance health information exchange, meet meaningful use requirements and enhance care coordination communications, the vendor said. Based on the national encryption standard for securely exchanging clinical healthcare data via the Internet, DataMotion Direct enables secure messaging for healthcare providers, patients, business associates and clinical systems, the vendor added. [Also: See photos from Day 3 of HIMSS16] The new combined technology expands the connected reach of Direct Messaging to the large number of providers reliant on fax technology for exchanging patient information with other care providers and facilities, the vendors said. “Fax remains a mainstay technology in healthcare, partly as a holdover from the era of paper-based medical records and partly due to HIPAA regulations preventing unsecure electronic communication like e-mail,” DataMotion chief technology officer Bob Janacek said. “Direct messaging overcomes HIPAA risks and other interoperability issues that have held back electronic communication in healthcare. Its adoption has accelerated with more than 40 million Direct messages sent in 2015. Integrating Direct messaging with fax will increase the adoption of Direct and we expect to see more integration into clinical workflows and EHRs as a result.” Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

LAS VEGAS — Technological innovation is used often in healthcare to improve patient outcomes, but when it comes to children, aggregating data at the individual and population level is critical, said Stephen Quirk, CEO of Youth Emergency Services and Shelter in Des Moines, Iowa, and Larry Seltzer, general manager and senior director of Netsmart, in a presentation at HIMSS16 on Wednesday. Quirk, no stranger to working with children with health and behavioral issues, said that Medicaid privatization prompted him to seek a partner to help modernize the provider’s electronic health records. In particular, he realized it wasn’t enough to diagnose and treat the immediate problem. Often, it was helpful to examine the circumstances of a child’s life — family dynamics, history of substance abuse, and other “social determinants” that can dictate how compliant a child is with his or her care plan. [Also: See photos from Day 3 of HIMSS16] In short, YESS needed better continuity of care. “You need to reach out to your provider partners to reign all of the data into one place,” said Seltzer, whose company has been working closely with YESS. “You need to be aware of gaps in care — understanding all of that knowledge and placing it in the hands of a care coordinator or social worker to get more engaged.” The goal, he said, is to exchange data in consistent and meaningful ways; lab data, immunization data and other information should all be sent to or shared with inpatient mental health centers, substance use centers, hospitals, primary care practices and any other entities that may be involved in a patient’s care. Information technology, he said, can be an advocate for the best health decisions for a child. Data aggregation is key, and Seltzer maintained there’s a significant return on that investment. According to a YESS study, 93 percent of respondents reported they felt better about themselves and their care plan, and 88 percent of the children studied reported better overall functioning. On top of that, Seltzer said there are cost savings achieved by moving youths out of detention centers and hospitals and into the care of private nonprofits like YESS. Since implementation of the data aggregation model, he said there’s been an increase in high school graduations and test scores, and a reduction in substance abuse and thoughts of suicide. “Anyone who has access to those records is privileged to be able to see all that information,” said Quirk. Twitter: @JELagasse This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

LAS VEGAS - The Staten Island Performing Provider System is running into all of the challenges inherent in implementing a value-based model for Medicaid payment reform in New York State. The Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment Program has as its goal to reduce avoidable hospital use by 25 percent over the next five years, according to Staten Island’s Executive Director Joseph Conte, speaking at HIMSS16 in Las Vegas. Asked how the program was going, Conte said, “In 11 months that’s the expectation to achieve. We’re not there yet. Looking at information we have from two hospitals, it’s a positive trend.” [Also: See photos from Day 2 of HIMSS16] Staten Island Performing Provider System is a corporation formed by Richmond University Medical Center and Staten Island University Hospital. Over 60 healthcare agencies and community-based organizations have joined Staten Island in the effort to reduce costs while increasing the quality of health for a very diverse population including 130,000 Medicaid recipients and 50,000 uninsured residents.  The big challenge, Conte said, is that timely data is not available from the state.  “It’s at least a six to nine month retrospective,” he said. “Everyone’s in a different place as far as electronic health records.” As of October 2015, an IT assessment showed that of the 26 healthcare systems partnering with Staten Island, 92 percent had an EHR platform or were in the process of getting one and 14 of them had different EHR vendors, Conte said. The overarching mission is to align IT strategy and execution, said Raj Lakhanpal, MD, CEO of SpectraMedix, and member of HIMSS Clinical and Business Intelligence Committee. To this end, Staten Island will be collecting data from providers and data feeds, and integrating it to create longitudinal records. They will apply population risk assessment models to predict high-risk patients and to flag those who should be included in disease registries and to identify gaps in care. [Also: See photos from Day 3 of HIMSS16] Conte said, “Data needs to be turned into business intelligence. Everyone needs prompt, accurate performance feedback.” The partners will need to make some IT investments to connect to state, Staten Island and other health IT platforms, he said. They’re starting to realize the value of receiving real-time measures of population health, he said. “Data six and nine months old is of zero interest to them,” Conte said. “What’s of interest to a doctor, (he or she) never knows that their patient is in the emergency room, or has been hospitalized.” Twitter: @SusanJMorse This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

LAS VEGAS – Secure, personalized clinical desktop technology vendor Aventura announced Wednesday at HIMSS16 that it is partnering with HealthCast to bring HealthCast’s single sign-on technology to Aventura’s clinical desktop offering. The combination enables basic level desktop perimeter security and two-factor authentication with the ability to leverage single sign-on and contextual patient awareness for interoperability at the point of care, Aventura said. Aventura’s so-called “situational awareness” platform, Sympatica, uses ambient knowledge of who a user is, her location and the patient in her care to authenticate and provide access to an electronic health records system. HealthCast’s SSO Connectors will be integrated into the Sympatica platform to deliver fast and secure access to an organization’s EHR and multiple clinical applications, the vendors announced. [Also: See photos from Day 3 of HIMSS16] “Our partnership with HealthCast includes a growing library of more than 325 SSO connectors,” said John Gobron, CEO of Aventura. “By pre-integrating with Sympatica, customers will have optionality in their security strategy, including the ability to leverage SSO without the complexity and costs commonly associated with other access solutions.” Aventura and HealthCast are exhibiting at the 2016 HIMSS Conference and Exhibition, Aventura in booth #1324 and HealthCast in booth #6054. Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

LAS VEGAS – Infection control technology vendor Seal Shield LLC has introduced at HIMSS16 its new ElectroClave UV-C Sanitizer and Mobile Device Management System. The vendor is demonstrating the technology in the HIMSS exhibit hall in booth #368. The ElectroClave is an enterprise mobile device management system that uses low-power UVC LED technology to disinfect hard-to-clean devices such as tablet computers and smartphones while charging, syncing and managing the devices via a custom RFID backbone. Each sanitizer can manage up to 12 devices at a time. [Also: See photos from Day 3 of HIMSS16] Tablet computers and smartphones can harbor harmful bacteria and viruses. A study published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology warns that 20 percent to 30 percent of viruses can be readily transferred from a fingertip to a glass surface, like that on a mobile device touchscreen. Today, hospitals use autoclaves to sterilize a wide variety of instruments. But numerous devices such as tablets, smartphones and other electronics cannot withstand the high heat of these sterilization systems, Seal Shield explained. The ElectroClave bridges the gap for IT professionals and infection control practitioners, using high-efficacy UV-C LED technology that has the advantages of low power and low heat, Seal Shield said. The vendor's Smart Clean technology enables what the company describes as "failsafe disinfection," adjusting UV exposure to bulb life and environmental conditions. These features allow electronic devices to be charged and synced while they disinfect, the vendor explained. The ElectroClave combines HEPA filtration and positive pressure with UVC LED technology to provide the most efficient means of combating cross-contamination bacteria, viruses and fungi on hard-to-clean devices, Seal Shield added. Built-in spectroscopic analyzers measure the change on the mobile device surface in order to ensure a clean and safe device for every user, the vendor said. Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

LAS VEGAS – TigerText Inc., a secure healthcare communications technology vendor, has announced at HIMSS16 partnerships with Salesforce and Box to launch care collaboration systems. The partnerships will enable streamlined communication across the continuum of care to decrease care delivery costs while improving outcomes, said TigerText, which is highlighting the new partnerships at its HIMSS16 exhibit hall booth (#425). TigerText is using its developer platform, dubbed TigerConnect, to enable the partnership integrations; the vendor also is expanding the suite of tools in Tiger Connect to inspire more healthcare developers to boost patient-centric care, the vendor said. “Healthcare is hungry for better communication tools that are embedded into existing workflows,” said Itamar Kandel, president of TigerText. “With TigerConnect, our partners can harness the power of secure messaging to address this need without the hassle, cost and delay of building it themselves.” [Also: See photos from Day 3 of HIMSS16] Salesforce Health Cloud customers soon will be able to embed the TigerText messaging service in their Health Cloud portals, enabling clinical staff to conduct HIPAA-compliant conversations for streamlined care coordination. And through a new integration with Box’s DICOM viewer, both TigerText and Box hospital users can share and collaborate on DICOM images via the TigerText mobile interface. On another front, in an effort to support innovative companies, TigerText has launched TigerConnect for Startups. The launch partners for this new initiative include Medisafe, WinguMD and AccountedCare. With more than 2.6 million users, Medisafe’s cloud-synced mHealth platform helps patients stay on top of their medications. Medisafe is collaborating with TigerConnect to research doctor utilization of patient-generated data to inform adherence, the vendors said. Also, working with TigerConnect, WinguMD, an enterprise mobile photography system, enables secure collaboration on visual findings for an entire care team. And AccountedCare’s PoC software, a mobile platform for value-based care providers, uses TigerConnect to deliver real-time notifications, tracking and reporting across the post-acute care continuum to help manage costs and quality for accountable care organizations. Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

Barely a year after announcing its ambitious plan to tie reimbursement to quality of care, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday that 30 percent of Medicare payments are now tied to alternative payment models, such as ACOs.