Feb 26, 2016 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
This healthcare big data project’s tools and predictive models involve real-time monitoring of patient data and are expected to be available soon to other to providers
One healthcare big data project has begun to report progress on using predictive analytics to improve patient care in the diagnosis and management of such health conditions as sepsis and heart failure. This pioneering effort is being done at the University of Pennsylvania Health System’s (Penn Medicine’s), Institute for Biomedical Informatics (IBI).
What will be of high interest for pathologists and clinical laboratory executives is how this big data project incorporates lab test results into the effort.
Recently, Penn Medicine announced Penn Signals, a big-data project that, in part, relies on the lab data housed in the academic medical center’s laboratory information system (LIS) as well as its outpatient and inpatient data house in its electronic health record (EHR) system. (more…)
Feb 24, 2016 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
As reimbursement models shift, physician practice management companies (PPMCs) offer increased value and appeal for hospital-based physicians (HBPs)
Are physician practice management companies (PPMCs)—a hot trend during the 1990s—poised to make a comeback in this decade? Whether this healthcare business model can gain traction during the 2010s remains to be seen, but, of all physician specialties, pathologists are likely to be among the most skeptical, just as they were during the 1994-2000 heyday of PPMCs.
In the mid-1990s, such physician practice management companies as MedPartners, Phycor, and others raised billions of dollar to invest in both independent physician practices and hospital-based physician (HBP) groups. But not even 10 years later, competition for viable practices drove prices above sustainable levels and many PPMCs closed shop. (more…)
Jan 25, 2016 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
Clarification comes just a week after one CMS official had discussed the end of Meaningful Use at a conference in San Francisco
Talk about mixed messages! Is the federal Meaningful Use (MU) program about to end? Or is it going to continue and evolve in significant new ways?
Alert pathologists and clinical laboratory executives may have picked up on the conflicting statements about the future plans for Meaningful Use that have been made in recent weeks by certain officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Because thousands of hospitals and hundreds of thousands of physicians have made substantial capital investments in electronic health records to qualify for federal incentives, any major change to the Meaningful Use requirements will have broad consequences.
Medical laboratories have a big stake in this issue as well, since they must invest substantial money into creating the interfaces needed to connect their labs’ laboratory information systems (LIS) to the EHRs of client hospitals and physicians. (more…)
Jan 13, 2016 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
Recently-announced partnerships want to use big data to improve patient outcomes and lower costs; clinical laboratory test data will have a major role in these efforts
In the race to use healthcare big data to improve patient outcomes, several companies are using acquisitions and joint ventures to beef up and gain access to bigger pools of data. Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers have an interest in this trend, because medical laboratory test data will be a large proportion of the information that resides in these huge healthcare databases.
For health systems that want to be players in the healthcare big data market, one strategy is to do a risk-sharing venture with third-party care-management companies. This allows the health systems to leverage their extensive amounts of patient data while benefiting from the expertise of their venture partners. (more…)
Jul 23, 2014 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
It’s an interesting statement about how CVS, the national pharmacy chain, believes it can expand its MinuteClinic health services while also integrating data feeds with HIEs
In another demonstration of how fast healthcare is transforming, the pharmacy chain CVS Caremark Corp. will implement the Epic electronic medical record system (EMR) in its MinuteClinic sites nationwide. This means MinuteClinic clinicians will be using the same EMR as a growing number of hospitals and office-based physicians.
What may make this development noteworthy for pathologists and clinical laboratory managers is that use of the EpicCare EMR system sold by Epic Systems Corp. of Verona, Wisconsin, is that MinuteClinic sites will make it easier for CVS to pass clinical data it gathers to regional health information exchanges (HIEs). (more…)
