Below is a recent release on the state of New Mexico's Medicaid program. As we all know, Medicaid is one of the main drivers behind EHR and one of the requirements to gain government reimbursement for adopting your EHR/EMR software. As always, if you have any questions regarding HITECH solutions and/or EHR/EMR adoption and incentives, you may contact your ONLY local healthcare solutions experts, Wildflower International.

www.gowildnhitech.com
505-466-9111
hitech@wildflowerintl.com

Julie Weinberg, Division Director

New Mexico Medicaid

The Medical Assistance Division of The Human Services Department's Medical Assistance Division (MAD) is the direct administrator of the New Mexico Medicaid program. Currently, there are approximately 40 categories of eligibility within New Mexico Medicaid. Some of these include Salud!, New MexiKids & New MexiTeens, Family Planning and Pregnancy, the Coordination of Long-Term Services (CoLTS) program, The Breast and Cervical Cancer Program and the Working Disabled Individuals (WDI) program. MAD is responsible for all Fee for Service (FFS) provider payments as well.

In addition to traditional Medicaid services, MAD also administers Insure New Mexico. Great  Solutions! These are state and federally funded insurance programs for individuals, non-profit organizations and small businesses as well as expanded coverage options for children and pregnant women. These programs include State Coverage Insurance (SCI), Premium Assistance for Kids (PAK) and Premium Assistance for Maternity (PAM).

Rural and Critical Access Hospital Opportunities

We continue to get confirmation from multiple sources that the rural, critical access hospital market is the most underserved segment within healthcare. Physician offices and clinics are getting a steady stream of sales calls from vendors of all types. Large hospital systems are even more sought after because the opportunities are so large. It's the small, rural hospital (25, 50, 100 beds or so) that doesn't get the "love" that large hospitals or physician practices get. Their biggest need is EMR and meaningful use attestation.

We are actively working with some partners on hospital lists, email blasts, marketing campaigns, webinars, trade shows, etc that target this market with a message that addresses this unmet need. Razor's ONE EHR can create new opportunities, leads & prospects for you and the timing is perfect to call on these organizations. A closed Razor deal (clinicals & financials) with a small hospital that has <50 beds equates to $39,600 in pure profit to you in commissions alone. Ongoing work with that new customer (if they are within your geographic footprint) would provide additional opportunities.

As always, let me know if there are any questions and I'd be happy to help however I can.

Effective immediately, the next two qualified leads that get to a Razor demo will receive $500 each. Once received, Hielix/Razor will work in tandem with you (if desired) and conduct the demo, create the contract and negotiate the deal. If you are not currently working with the Hielix team on this campaign and would like to, please let me know. We can discuss the best way to approach your market and put together a marketing strategy.

 www.gowildnhitech.com

HEALTHY PRACTICE CHECKUP

The HPC web application was created to help ambulatory physician practices realize the cost savings and revenue opportunities associated with the adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHR) and other healthcare IT. By utilizing the HPC application, physicians are able to enhance the financial sustainability of their practices without additional personal time burdens on the physician and dependence on federal incentive programs. Want to learn more? Visit our FAQ page or contact us.

Continuing to Run a Practice with Paper Records is Unnecessarily Dangerous

In a study conducted by Robyn Tamblyn et. al, it was found that “individual risk estimates displayed graphically and numerically are a more effective method of eliciting response to drug alerts and reducing the risk of medication-related injury” (p.8).  In short, this study found that doctors who have individually customized alerts for each patient are more capable of reducing each patient’s risk of being injured by their medications. This makes perfect sense; people are not generic, so why should their healthcare be?

However, managing medications effectively can be challenging, especially when it comes to psychotropic medications (p.1).  In the same study it was found that the risk of medication associated injury amongst the elderly currently taking psychotropic drugs “increased by 39%, 59%, and 50% with the use of benzodiazepines, antidepressants, and antipsychotics respectively” (p.1).  Almost 30% of the elderly taking these drugs are taking them in doses above what is recommended, and nearly 70% have more than one physician prescribing said medications. This significantly increases the patient’s risk of injury by cumulative toxicity going undetected.  

Yet with doctors continuing to utilize the old paper method of record keeping, overdosed clients are harder to detect as each doctor may not have the patient’s full medical record. Continuing this practice is putting countless patients at risk. Unlike an EHR system, pieces of paper in a folder are not capable of alerting a doctor that the medications they prescribe could be more detrimental than beneficial.

Protect your patients from medication induced injuries, and protect yourself from potential malpractice lawsuits, by utilizing an EHR system with customized alerts. If you are interested in reading the full results from the study, look no further:

http://jamia.bmj.com/content/early/2012/01/12/amiajnl-2011-000609.full.pdf+html

Tamblyn, Robyn, Tewodros Eguale, David L. Buckeridge, et. al, The Effectiveness of a New Generation of Computerized Drug Alerts in Reducing the Risk of Injury from Drug Side Effects: A Cluster Randomized Trial.J Am Med Inform Assoc published online January 12, 2012. DOI: 10.1136/amiajnl-2011-000609

 Rural Hospitals ... Untapped Opportunity

In 2012 and beyond, the best hospital opportunity for VARs are rural and smaller hospitals.

In understanding why this marketing is so valuable, it's important to understand what the market looks like.

• There are over 3,200 hospitals in the United States with under 150 beds. The vast majority of these hospitals reside outside of major metro areas.

As predominately smaller hospitals, these customers have not made the same critical investments in Health IT as many of their larger competitors. As you may also expect, with fewer legacy IT purchases these hospital customers also come with less sophisticated internal IT departments. Lastly, because they are small they are not called on by competing resellers or technology vendors nearly as much as larger organizations.

However, it's critical to understand that although these customers are smaller they have significant advantages in terms of federal incentive payments.

• The average small hospital will receive between $1-3m between Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments. While that may not be a large figure to a 500 bed IDN, it's an operational game changer for your average 75-bed hospitals.

Why does this add up to opportunity for our reseller partners? First, the lack of internal IT resources combined with the requirements for Health IT adoption means these hospitals know they must buy but don't know how to do so effectively. This provides the reseller with a perfect opportunity to build a trusted vendor relationship with the customer.

These hospitals are not shown the same attention as other customers, showing the proper investment and helping them through this time of challenge can garner the loyalty that leads to long-term customer engagements.  With that in mind, let's look at a few primary opportunities where a reseller can make an immediate impact?

• Electronic health records: These customers are largely ignored by the top hospital EHR vendors. However, every hospital MUST invest in a certified EHR system. If you have an EHR to offer or can help navigate the waters of system selection and implementation then you have an advantage. A cloud solution for EHR is even more desirable due to the lack of data center build out and internal IT staff.

• Wireless and mobility: Don't be surprised to walk into a 75-bed hospital and find they're running DSL. Seriously. Wireless infrastructure, network security are all areas that most of these hospitals have not even considered up until now.

• Security: Aside from the wireless security example provided above there are a host of security issues these hospitals must deal with but have gone largely ignored. General privacy & security efforts, HIPAA compliance, and risk assessments to meet Meaningful Use requirements are all in high demand.

• Managed services: Without strong datacenter experience and internal IT resources, these customers need managed service providers more than ever to support their ongoing investments in HealthIT. The more services that can be delivered through the cloud, the more of a burden the reseller can relieve for the customer.

Every hospital has the need to share health information with other trading partners (clinics, physician practices, labs, etc.). With the recent announcement of Stage 2 for Meaningful Use this requirement to actively demonstrate the ability to exchange data is front and center. By aligning with the small/rural hospital, a reseller is also likely to gain leverage into other customers with similar needs.

Be sure to check out our products for hospitals and services for local New Mexico practices here:

www.gowildnhitech.com

As some of our channel partners are determining the best approach to this market, the below article talks about patient (aka: consumer) demand. Just as important, it also talks about market segment and who is more likely to adopt technology.

Docs slow to engage patients with IT | Healthcare IT News http://bit.ly/zL0Cf

My key takeaways from the article:

• "The cost of IT related to investment and impact on productivity is the primary barrier to adoption, with 66 percent citing upfront financial investment as their primary concern and 54 percent saying this about operational disruptions. This creates an opportunity for organizations that can assist physicians with financing, implementation, workforce training and process redesign. 

o If you haven't already, you might want to partner with someone on the financial side of business. There are some banks/lenders that have a healthcare-centric focus. With that piece covered and Hielix's operational expertise, you've created a compelling "solution" to bring to market.

• "Nearly one-half (46 percent) of single practices do not use EHRs compared to 22 percent of group practices with 10 to 49 full-time employees. Furthermore, 45 percent of solo practices have no plans to use EHRs, compared to only 15 percent of practices with 10 to 49 full-time employees."

o This is a very telling statistic about the small practices and confirms our notion that they are a more difficult segment to crack.

• The survey "shows growing consumer interest for secure messaging, access to personal health records and remote monitoring. Moreover, consumers trust information from physicians more than from employers or insurance companies, according to the survey, creating an edge for physician groups to gain market share via online engagement."

o During a time where margins are king, any competitive advantage a provider can exploit to gain market share will be very well received.

As always, for any EHR, IT and Meaningful Use support, please don't hesitate to contact your customer service specialist at Wildflower International powered by Hielix.

Tax Rule Offers Nice Savings on Hardware and Software

Congress has extended the IRS Section 179 to cover the 2011 tax year. That means that qualifying business equipment purchases (including most computer hardware and software) can be deducted at full cost on your 2011 business taxes, instead of being amortized over several years. From section 179.org:

"The Section 179 Deduction limit increased to $500,000. The total amount of equipment that can be purchased increased to $2 million. This includes most new and used capital equipment, and also certain software."

Translation: Now is a great time to purchase hardware and software! You effectively receive a discount equivalent to your tax bracket on the purchase.

For example, if you were to purchase $100,000 of IT equipment by December 31st and were in the 35% tax bracket, you could write off $35,000. The equipment cost to you is $65,000.

If your plans for 2012 include any hardware or software purchases or upgrades, do it now! The Section 179 provision is scheduled to expire at the end of 2011.

Disclaimer: We are neither accountants nor tax lawyers. This should in no way be construed as tax advice. Talk to your CPA or www.irs.gov for details. 

Below is a recent report concerning New Mexico's Medicaid Electronic Health Records Incentive Program payments for eligible professionals and eligible hospitals that have attested to Stage 1 of Meaningful Use.  Although reimbursing $11 million is a great start, in reality only 189 EPs and EHs out of 700+ in NM have attested— ranking NM near the bottom among attestations in the US. Furthermore, $11 million is a fraction of actual funds available to New Mexico's physicians and hospitals.


Wildflower International, Ltd. emphasizes that incentives available for reimbursement are tangible and being awarded to real EPs and EHs. However, there is much more work ahead and excessive amounts of money to be claimed. Wildflower is the only private company in NM that offers EHR and HIT adoption, implementation, and MU attestation services. Contact Wildflower today and learn how services offered will help practices/hospitals achieve their EHR goals which will ultimately lead to better patient care and improved healthcare services for all New Mexicans.

Visit us here: www.gowildnhitech.com
Email us here: mneal@wildflowerintl.com

Call us here: 505-466-9111 ext. 111                        

 

Susana Martinez                     Sidonie Squier

Governor                                  Secretary  

Media contact: Matt Kennicott (505) 827‐6236 or (505) 819‐1402 matt.kennicott@state.nm.us

January 23, 2012

NM Medicaid Issues $11.7 Million in Electronic Health Records (EHR) Incentive Program Payments 

Successful Response to Technology Aimed at Improving Patient Care

Santa Fe, NM – Healthcare providers across the state are finding something extra in their bank accounts as the New Mexico Medicaid Electronic Health Records (EHR) Incentive Program began issuing incentive payments to individual practitioners and hospitals that successfully attested to the adoption, implementation or upgrade (AIU) of certified EHR technology. With the goal of improving the quality of patient care, hospitals and health care professionals will use the technology to collect data and meet meaningful use objectives and clinical measures established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Eleven hospitals and 178 eligible professionals successfully attested to AIU of certified electronic health records technology, resulting in a total of $11,704,136.62 in federal dollars being issued through the New Mexico Medicaid EHR Incentive Program. In this first round of payments through the end of December 2011, many eligible professionals opted to assign their payments to their clinic or group practice. Payments were dispersed as far north as Raton, Farmington and Taos, east to Santa Rosa, Clovis and Portales, south to Hobbs and Las Cruces and west to Deming, Lordsburg and Silver City, with Los Alamos, Espanola, Santa Fe and Albuquerque in between.

The EHR Incentive Program provides funding support to certain Medicaid health professionals and hospitals for the adoption and meaningful use of certified EHR technology. The money for the incentive payments is provided by the federal government, but the program is administered by the New Mexico Human Services Department (HSD), Medical Assistance Division.

“We’ve had a phenomenal response to the program,” said Julie Weinberg, HSD Medical Assistance Division Director. “Another 500 eligible professionals and eligible hospitals are in the process of registering, attesting, or having their eligibility information validated by program staff. I’m pleased to see that Medicaid providers from all around the state are taking advantage of the program.”

Incentives for eligible hospitals are calculated through a formula created by CMS and are paid over a three year period for AIU of certified EHR technology in program year one, and for meaningful use of the technology in program years two and three. 

As much as $300 million could eventually be distributed to participating providers over the course of the program.   

The New Mexico Medicaid EHR Incentive Program spans the years 2011 to 2021. Within that time frame, eligible professionals may be paid up to $63,750 over a six‐year period, with a first‐year incentive payment of $21,250 for the adoption, implementation, or upgrade (AIU) of certified EHR technology and $8,500 in each of the subsequent program years for the meaningful use of the technology.

“The New Mexico Medicaid EHR Incentive Program is an integral part of state and federal efforts to improve the quality, efficiency and safety of healthcare through the use of health information technology and the exchange of information,” said Sidonie Squier, Human Services Department Secretary, “while maintaining patient privacy and security.”

“This program helps get the needed EHR technology into the hands of our Medicaid health care professionals,” added Squier.

Medicaid providers will use the technology to capture data and meet meaningful use objectives and clinical quality measures established by CMS with the goal of advancing clinical processes and improving patient outcomes. Expected results include accurate and complete patient health information, improved patient care coordination and active engagement by patients in their own healthcare.

Two of the objectives for eligible professionals are providing patients with an electronic copy of their health information, including diagnostic test results, problem lists, medication lists, and medication allergies; and providing clinical summaries for patients for each office visit.

Eligible professionals for the program are physicians, dentists, pediatricians, nurse practitioners, and certified midwives. Also eligible are physician assistants practicing predominantly in federally qualified health centers (FQHC) or rural health clinics (RHC) that are led by a physician assistant. Eligible hospitals are acute care hospitals, including critical access and cancer hospitals.

Health care professionals must meet certain criteria to participate in the program, including minimum Medicaid patient volume thresholds. The criteria vary for certain provider categories, such as for hospitals and pediatricians.

Medicaid providers interested in registering for the EHR Incentive Program should visit New Mexico’s EHR Incentive Program outreach page http://nm.arraincentive.com

For more information about the program, visit the HSD’s Medical Assistance Division website http://www.hsd.state.nm.us/mad/MedicaidEHRIncentiveProgram.html

Hospitals Slowly Moving Toward Stage 1 of Meaningful Use - Hospital EMR and EHR

A new report from HIMSS Analytics concludes that the inevitable is happening, but slowly. According to researchers, who reported their findings in December 2011, virtually all categories of hospitals are showing greater ability to achieve Meaningful Use Stage 1, including:

*  Academic medical centers

*  General med/surg hospitals

*  Hospitals with 400 to 499 licensed beds

*  Hospitals with 500+ licensed beds

*  Urban  hospitals

*  Multi-hospitals

*  Hospitals already at Stage 5, 6 and 7 on the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model (EMRAM)

According to HIMSS researchers, hospitals in the seven categories above are moving faster than their peers when it comes to IT adoption.  Hospitals at the high end of EMRAM are moving up more quickly, as well.  As hospitals geared up to meet Stage 1, researchers say, the number of hospitals at stages 6 and 7 of EMRAM is growing as well.

As we’ve previously noted here, however, calling this a success would be looking at the nearly empty glass as half-full.  Even HIMSS admits that only five percent of hospitals have achieved Stage 6 of the EMRAM model (give or take) and just 1.2 percent are at EMRAM Stage 7.

There is at least a little bit of good news.  Of the 585 hospitals surveyed by HIMSS,  about half are ready, most likely to be ready or somewhat likely to be ready to collect incentive payments this year.

The hospitals that reported being “somewhat likely” had achieved at least two menu items, and between five and nine of the core items needed to qualify for incentives.

But hospitals with less than 100 beds-generally rural, critical access hospitals-are not doing even as well as their peers. Only 20 percent told HIMMS that they were ready or most likely to meet Stage One goals.

By the way, the HIMSS research included one discomfiting side note, on security. Of the 585 hospitals that weighed in, just 25 percent said that they protected EHR data by conducting and reviewing a security risk analysis, doing needed suricty updfates and correcting security deficiencies. Oops — there goes compliance witih 45 CFT 164.308 (a) (1), the relevant HIPAA security rule. But that’s a tale for a different blog item, isn’t it, folks?

Related posts:

1. More Hospitals Ready for Meaningful Use, But Have Numbers Hit A Plateau?
2. KLAS Rates Hospital EMRs’ Meaningful Use Capabilities
3. Hospitals Making Last-Minute Plays To Capture Meaningful Use Dollars

EHR and the Real Return on Investment

By: Wildflower International, Ltd.

A basic EHR includes only a patient's medical history, demographics, diagnoses, medications, and allergies, as well as the ability to prescribe and view lab and imaging results electronically. This type of system does not necessarily include functions such as drug interaction warnings and problem lists. Switching to more capable EHR systems (beyond just basic) will not only increase practice competence, but will help practitioners to qualify for government financial incentives, increasing the practical and monetary benefits derived from making the shift to electronic records.¹

A 2009 survey by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) reveals that early adopters of EHRs overall practice performance is being positively impacted by EHR implementation. Todd Evenson, assistant director of survey operations, MGMA-ACPE says "The key is that physician practices and health systems are recognizing those Meaningful Use dollars are available to them. Obviously, in an environment constrained by rising costs, they're looking for every opportunity to improve revenue." Implementing a capable EHR system and training staff to use it effectively, is what results in simultaneous capture of Federal incentives and increased revenue thanks to improved service and productivity. ²

Properly implemented EHRs can certainly pay for themselves and more. Proper implementation will necessitate the purchase of software, hardware (or hosting services) and training.  From the survey, MGMA discovered that better-performing practices spent about $30,000 per physician on their EHRs, whereas other practices averaged about $20,000. Successful groups did not purchase more expensive EHRs; they spent more money on training and implementation, which are key to EHR success. The better performers also spent slightly more than other groups did on maintenance of their EHRs--$540 per provider per month vs. $500 per month (maintenance figures include subscriptions to cloud-based EHRs as well as software maintenance fees for purchased systems.) ²

The 2009 MGMA survey determined that the main cost savings experienced by medical groups was in staffing changes, although eventual increase in productivity and efficiency was significant after about a year. On average, IT staffing per full-time-equivalent (FTE) physician increased by 0.13 FTEs, while medical records staffing fell from 0.34 to 0.19 FTEs per physician. This trade-off is just another contribution to increasing the bottom line. ^{2, 3}

On-site IT help will be needed to maintain and support the local servers, hardware and network, but web-based EHRs remove most of this cost burden. Thus the improved efficiency seen with EHR usage is realized more quickly. Medical support staff that previously managed physical records can be re-purposed from paper chart maintenance to electronic chart maintenance in order to avoid job loss. ³

Electronic procedure documentation reduces transcription, paper storage and image printing. Systems which integrate EHR data with billing, e-prescribing, collections, claims, scheduling, messaging, reports, lab results, imaging, referrals and other clinical and practice procedures enhance the patient encounter experience and immediately amplify the profitability realized from transitioning to an electronic records system.

A recent (Jan 12,2012) Electronic Content Management study by Nucleus Research revealed an average return of $6.12 returned for every dollar spent on content management applications (which are similar in mechanism to EHR implementation.) The savings are realized through more streamlined processes, greater productivity, reduced paper use, avoidance of staff costs. ⁴

Bringing this all to a close, the common perspective for EHR creating more ROI for the physician is usually based on the idea that making work more efficient will allow practices to take on more patients and cut labor costs creating higher revenues. However, as portrayed in the article, there is plenty of ROI available to physicians solely from the Meaningful Use incentives and other government benefits with the underlying message being to adopt EHR and adopt early.

1. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db79.htm

2. http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/232600025

3. http://www.practicefusion.com/ehrbloggers/2012/01/health-it-and-job-creation.html

4.http://nucleusresearch.com/news/press-releases/electronic-content-management-applications-return-6-dot-12-for-every-dollar-invested-nucleus-research-/

Making Swifter Sense of EHR Data

Thanks to Laura Polas @HITComm who shared this post and allowed Wildflower International to publish it on our blog. She also blogs at HIT Community:  https://www.thehitcommunity.org/2011/12/making-swifter-sense-of-ehr-data/

All that data being aggregated in Electronic Health Records (EHR) may seem like a virtual haystack, where finding the right needle requires advanced software development and data analysis. While that may be true, the upside is dramatically faster research findings and treatment recommendations, ultimately lowering health care costs while improving quality.

Traditionally, medical scientists have conducted random treatment trials and prepared results for peer review and publication—a process that can take six years, according to Philip R.O. Payne, PhD, Associate Professor & Chair, Biomedical Informatics at Ohio State University and Executive Director of the Center for IT Innovation in Healthcare. Review the slides here.

By contrast, Payne used the case of “Sergey Brin’s Search for a Parkinson’s Cure” (Wired, July 2010) to demonstrate that running database queries on aggregated databases in a warehouse can produce similar clinical results, backed up by the data, in a fraction of the time, like eight months.
Biomedical informatics will accelerate medical knowledge as well as medical practice. The Nov. 10 2011 New England Journal of Medicine described a case where Stanford pediatricians were presented with a 13-year-old lupus patient who they thought should be given anticoagulants, but were reluctant because of it being a rare treatment for young people, even when critically ill.
The doctors did a retrospective study of similar patients in the hospital’s data warehouse, called the Stanford Translational Research Integrated Database Environment (STRIDE). Based on the results from 98 pediatric lupus patients between 2004 and 2009, they administered the anticoagulant, and the patient responded well.

Results at bioinformatic speed
The Center for Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School recently entered into a research agreement with health insurer Aetna of Hartford Ct. to analyze medical data with the aim of improving quality while lowering costs. The research will be supervised by Dr. Isaac (Zak) Kohane, M.D., Ph.D., Henderson Professor of Pediatrics and Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and co-director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Biomedical Informatics.

“If our health care system is going to become a ‘learning’ health care system, we need to better use the enormous amount of information we derive from health care to develop tools to understand what is happening today —such as which drugs are not working as safely as we thought, which therapies have unexpected benefits, what are the predictors of effective diabetes management and which genetic tests are likely to usefully guide therapy,” said Dr. Kohane.
Members of the Center for Biomedical Informatics will work with Aetna clinicians and informatics specialists:

• Evaluate outcomes of various treatments for specific conditions based on quality and cost;
• Determine factors that predict adherence to medical and drug treatments for chronic diseases;
• Study how claims data and clinical data available through electronic health records can best be used to predict disease and follow outcomes; and
• Improve the ability to predict adverse events through the proactive study of claims and clinical data.

On a related topic, we’ll be looking soon at the sudden increase in data due to EHR and how health care organizations of all sizes can not only deal with it, but use it to their advantage. Have a success story to share? Email Laura at lpolas@thehitcommunity.org.

Tagged with: EHR Systems • Health Data • Quality

My First EHR Experience

Written By: One pleasantly surprised patient

I had been hearing mixed reviews about Electronic Health Records ("EHR") in the news and online a lot this year.  It seemed to me that all the opinions were from physicians and I couldn't find info from the patient’s perspective. I certainly wanted to know more.

I recently received a mailing from my doctor's office here in Santa Fe, NM letting me know that they had just converted to “EHR” and are "fully operational." I am a relatively young, healthy guy, but wanting to see what all the EHR buzz was about, I made an appointment for a checkup since it had been awhile. Dad always used to say, "you're your own best advocate son," and I figured I should probably take a little more interest in the management of my health and well-being. 

I hadn't been to my doctor in over a year, hadn't been to any hospital or ER in even longer. The doctor's office was much more alive than I remembered. In the waiting room, they had installed a digital screen which relayed basic health information, waiting times and even had trivia which kept me entertained. When I approached the admin desk to check in, the receptionist politely pointed behind me to a kiosk where I was able to check in virtually. I had never done this before so I needed some help to get going. Once I got used to the format, the prompts were easy to follow. My check in took less than 10 minutes and was a lot more user-friendly than filling out those boring repetitious forms on a clipboard.

I didn't have a stopwatch running, but my wait time seemed to be shorter. It could have been because I was passing time with the trivia and health facts, nonetheless when I was called in I was surprised how easy that first hurdle was. Ah, but now comes the real waiting time. This is where I wait to see the nurse, he/she asks me questions those of which I would've already answered when I called to make the appointment also when I checked in earlier, and then takes some vitals and leaves me to I sit in the exam room forever until the doctor arrives… but that was not to be the case. 

The nurse entered the room with an iPad2 in hand (!?) and instantly brought up my file and confirmed what I had told the receptionist a few weeks prior when I made the appointment. I was there for a basic checkup but also had some other symptoms I wanted to address while I was there. What information I did add to make clarifications, she directly input to the iPad2 (this aspect shows importance later) and more importantly, all the information from my last visit, some random time I was in the ER in New Mexico for strep throat and the info I input at the check-in kiosk was right there, it was like she was psychic. 

That rather cool experience passed and shortly thereafter my doctor arrived with an iPad2 in had as well. As we discussed my visit I noticed much more eye contact and interaction since he was able to more leisurely enter information via point and click on the iPad as opposed to hurriedly scribbling down notes. And that little tidbit I mentioned would be important earlier-was that the small clarifications I mentioned to the nurse were automatically updated and directly sent to my doctor so he was already armed with that info when he entered the room. Being a basic checkup, my visit went smoothly. They noticed I was behind on some treatments I had been avoiding and gave me some options to schedule them online. With the EHR they could directly email and set up contact for the each specialist in different locations I needed to see and include me on the correspondence, the specialist actually emailed me times and dates available and that I could retrieve on my smart phone. So I did not have to do all the calling around myself.  I really liked the E-prescribing option as well that can save me loads of time in the future. 

At the end of the appointment the doctor shook my hand and let me know that my bill would be emailed and I could set up payment online. Wow! I talked to the office manager about my concerns regarding security. She gave me a handout on HIPPA regulations and how their certified EHR system is totally compliant. Overall this experience was top-notch. Seeing all these capabilities, I am going to make sure all my future healthcare providers use at least some form of EHR. If they can make a routine checkup this easy, I’m imagining visits to the dentist might even be less stressful and visits to the ER more accommodating. It leaves me to wonder why more doctors do not convert to EHR and why more people don't demand these services from their physicians.  

I’ve heard that some patients have found serious errors in their medical records once they had access to digital copies through their providers’ online EHR interface.  I don’t know if I would feel angry or just relieved to have a chance to correct such mistakes.  I’d love to hear other patients’ experiences with EHR, so please submit your stories in the comment section so I can see how my experience compares.

The Numbers

January 20 2012
New Mexico

42: number of hospitals in New Mexico, 29 of which are located in rural areas

31 of 33 New Mexico counties are either partially or fully designated by the NM Department of Health as Primary Care Professional Shortage Areas

512,000: NM Medicaid Beneficiaries in FY08 (26% of the state population)

316,973: NM Medicare Beneficiaries in FY08 (15% of the state population)


January 19 2012
In 2005 New Mexico Telehealth Commission determined these consequences of not having access to patient information electronically:

44,000 to 98,000 deaths per year are caused by medical errors in hospitals alone

$38 billion: the estimated costs of these errors is abut  per year 

770,000 people are injured each year because of adverse drug events 

8% of medical errors are caused by inadequate availability of patient information 

20% of lab and x-ray tests are ordered because originals cannot be found 


January 18 2012

A January 13th 2012 survey released by the American Hospital Association (AHA) found that:

Four-fifths of U.S. hospitals currently intend to take advantage of federal incentive payments for adoption and meaningful use of certified electronic health records (EHR) technology 

81% of hospitals plan to achieve meaningful use of EHRs and take advantage of incentive payments.

65% of  U.S. hospitals project that they will enroll during Stage 1 of the federal Incentive Programs, in 2011-2012

41% of office-based physicians are currently planning to achieve meaningful use of certified EHR technology and take advantage of the incentive payments.

32.4%  of office-based physicians responded that they will enroll during Stage 1 of the programs.

19.8% of primary care physicians had  adopted a basic EHR system in 2008

20.6% of primary care physicians had  adopted a basic EHR system by 2010- a 50% increase over 2 years

48.3% of office based physicians report using all or partial EMR/EHR systems in their office-based practices

21.8% of office based physicians reported having systems that met the criteria of a basic system, and about 6.9% reported having systems that met the criteria of a fully functional system  

January 13 2012

Counting the Money 

$27 billion - Projected incentive payments to participating hospitals and providers through 2021

$44,000 - amount non-hospital-based physicians and other eligible professionals can obtain in incentive payments under Medicare

$63,750 - amount non-hospital-based physicians and other eligible professionals can obtain in incentive payments under Medicaid

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/18/4196154/oregon-is-national-leader-in-electronic.html#storylink=cpy