Financial/Revenue Cycle Management

It's the second major health system this month to announce it's making the switch.

At HIMSS20, Robert Lieberthal, an economist at The MITRE Corporation, will offer a deep dive into synthetic data, showing how it can help health systems achieve cost efficiencies.

At HIMSS20, two experts from Optum will offer tips and best practices for clinical and operational machine learning deployments.

The multiyear expansion will see the Utah health system and IT vendor continue to "diligently work toward the goals we set out to accomplish together," said HIMSS-CHIME CIO of the Year Marc Probst.

Update: HIMSS20 has been canceled due to the coronavirus. Read more here. As part of the merger of five independent orthopedic practices to form Virginia’s largest provider of orthopedic and therapy care, OrthoVirginia, a large investment was made implementing a new electronic health record system. A survey gauging physician satisfaction with the system, however, showed an overall poor experience, which led the CIO and CMIO to work together to implement and show measurable improvements across a range of areas, including more efficient usage of the technology. Among the most important decision made was to use provider satisfaction measurement tools, to better understand the most impactful EHR related elements that drive provider satisfaction. A structured onboarding process, including an explanation of the organization’s culture, also helps sets expectations for what will be required of the provider to achieve EHR mastery. "The lack of a clear articulation to the providers about what the EHR can be is a significant and ubiquitous problem," said Dr. Harry C Eschenroeder Jr., CMIO of OrthoVirginia, who is scheduled to address the topic March 12 at HIMSS20 with co-presenter and OrthoVirginia CIO Terri Ripley. He explained there is confusion about what parts of the workflows are driven by compliance requirements and what parts of the EHR can be helpful. "Workflows driven by compliance often frustrate providers and may add little value to patient care," he cautioned. "A well designed EHR can orient the physician to the patient’s situation, teach the patient what is wrong with them, and what they must do to get better." He further noted it can also facilitate communication and coordination of care amongst the providers trying to help the patient. "Providers must understand that they bear a responsibility to master and improve their imperfect EHR for the benefit of their patients," he said. "They need to experience some wins in making their EHR better." Eschenroeder said some methodologies that can be used to successfully implement a continuous education program for physicians include offering “at the elbow” provider education and provider problem resolution based on a personal relationship between the provider and a provider support specialist. "In addition, EHR educational presentations at department meetings can help providers to understand that the EHR is not a dead tool, it is evolving, and their input is critical," he said. Additional methodologies could involve peer to peer teaching and support interactions in provider meetings, and teaching themes for the provider support specialists, so that rounding is more than answering complaints and solving problems. Eschenroeder and his OrthoVirginia colleague Terri Ripley will share their insights during their HIMSS20 session, “Physician Satisfaction with EHR: Is it Possible to Improve?” It's scheduled for Thursday, March 12, from 2:30-3:30 p.m. in room W206A.

AdventHealth, the faith-based Florida health system that runs 50 hospitals and more than 1,200 outpatient settings in nine states nationwide, has decided to deploy a new electronic health record and revenue cycle management system from Epic – replacing its existing Cerner technology. According to reports from KCTV and Kansas City Business Journal, AdventHealth – which was known as Adventist Health System until this past year, and is one of the country's biggest non-profit systems – says the transition will begin next month and could take three to five years. "The shift is expected to take up to five years and Cerner is committed to working closely with AdventHealth to continue delivering superior healthcare technology solutions throughout the transition," said Cerner officials in a written statement. AdventHealth has been a Cerner customer since 2002, and with the technology some of its hospitals have reached Stage 7 on the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model. The choice to move instead to rival Epic was a business decision, driven by the need to improve provider and patient experience, AdventHealth President and CEO Terry Shaw told KCTV. "Our journey to become a consumer-focused clinical company requires a fully connected network throughout our entire enterprise," said Shaw. "Connecting our network with a robust, integrated health record platform will give our caregivers access to the clinical information they need at the point of care and ultimately advance our consumer promises through a more seamless experience for those we serve." Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.

AI and blockchain also continue to feature in its new technologies, as the revenue cycle and data exchange company works to help modernize the claims process and digitize more transactions.

But Providence St. Joseph Health Chief Digital Officer Aaron Martin sees a near future when hospitals will meet their disruptors halfway.

We're looking for presentations with practical tips showing how hospitals and health systems have implemented machine learning and AI to improve care, control costs and drive operational efficiencies.

The guide from CCHP aims to help providers navigate the process of billing CMS for remote patient monitoring, real-time and asynchronous virtual visits and mobile health services.