Electronic Health Records (EHR, EMR)

Movement hopes the analytics access will encourage entrepreneurs to use health data to improve patient safety and reduce preventable deaths.

U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs CIO LaVerne Council said last week that the VA needs to reconsider whether its proprietary Veterans Information Systems and Technology Architecture is the best electronic health record for its more than 1,200 healthcare sites. Council explained during testimony to U.S. House appropriators that changes in the VA's healthcare delivery plan, such as emphasis on mobility, security and women's health, as well as connections with private sector providers, are forcing the reconsideration of VistA. Specifically, Council said it was time to "take a step back" from the planned modernization of the VistA health record and announced VA plans to review whether it should continue upgrading VistA or turn to a commercial off-the-shelf product, much the way the Department of Defense elected to forego its in-house Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application, aka AHLTA, and is replacing it with a Cerner EHR. [Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook] “We have not made up our minds about VistA,” Council said. When asked during a separate hearing last week by Montana Democrat Sen. Jon Tester why it’s taking so long to either fix or replace VistA, VA undersecretary David Shulkin, MD, explained that Council “has gone in with her private sector background and really challenged all of the assumptions that frankly have led to an underperforming part of the organization.” Council and Shulkin’s comments come after the Government Accountability Office published recommendations in Late February that both VA and DOD “develop and compare the estimated cost and schedule of their current and previous approaches to creating an interoperable electronic health record and, if applicable, provide a rationale for pursuing a more costly or time-consuming approach.” Twitter: @HealthITNews

LAS VEGAS – Newly expanded health IT vendor CPSI has introduced nTrust, a program designed to help community hospitals and skilled nursing facilities improve financial operations while moving into an electronic health records system with no upfront costs, CPSI said. The vendor unveiled the program last week at the 2016 Annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition. “There are many providers that are unhappy with their EHR, but they don’t have the financial capability to make a switch,” said Boyd Douglas, CPSI president and CEO. “With nTrust, we help providers in acute and post-acute settings improve business operations via our TruBridge management services, while at the same time funding the purchase of their EHR with no advance payment required.” Through nTrust, hospitals and senior care facilities outsource revenue cycle management operations to TruBridge business services, which recently has been strengthened by the addition of revenue cycle management tools from Rycan Technologies, CPSI said. As a result of this business relationship, proceeds are allocated to finance the purchase and ongoing support of either Evident’s EHR system for acute care providers or American HealthTech’s EHR for post-acute care facilities. [Also: See photos from Day 3 of HIMSS16] CPSI is the parent of Evident LLC, TruBridge LLC, Healthland Inc., American HealthTech Inc. and Rycan Technologies. “nTrust gives customers a pathway to a better-performing EHR without upfront costs, with a partner that is taking a stake in their success,” Douglas said. “We will help you achieve the improved cash flow and increased financial efficiency in your operations that will help pay for an EHR that fits your needs for the complex and shifting healthcare environment. We are making a financial investment in the ongoing success of our clients who choose to take advantage of this program.” Sharkey-Issaquena Community Hospital entered a relationship with CPSI that began with TruBridge services to improve the hospital’s business operations, explained John Hodnett, RN, director of clinical systems at the hospital. “To further enhance our ability to effectively serve our patients and our community, the Thrive EHR from Evident was implemented simultaneously,” he said. “This business venture was without a big upfront expense.” The partnership aspect of the nTrust approach is invaluable and made the goal of implementing a new electronic health records system financially obtainable, Hodnett added. Douglas added the nTrust program was specifically designed to be of value to rural and community hospitals and senior care facilities. “We understand how today’s complexities associated with revenue cycle management has put increasing pressure on community healthcare providers that are already financially stressed,” he said. “TruBridge brings proven operational expertise and industry leading tools to bear to greatly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of managing the revenue cycle process.” Douglas said nTrust is the first of many product and service offerings emerging from the recent blending of the Evident, TruBridge, Healthland, American HealthTech and Rycan businesses. 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.

Michael Zaroukian, MD, PhD, talks about his unique connection to the Flint water crisis, how population health, analytics and EHR data played roles in its discovery, and what health IT should take away from one popular hypothesis of the incident.

As electronic health records have proliferated in recent years, so has the use of medical scribes. That's an unwelcome development for two big reasons, said two CMIOs at HIMSS16.

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AMIA president touts the need for an informed workforce who can use the data to make EHRs more useful.

Platform is designed to give providers a way to see a more complete view of a patient’s health history.