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I've been thinking about Roy Rogers, meaningful use, and wet cement.
I made my first cognitive visit to Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood
Boulevard in the late 1950's. Roy Roger's hands, boots, and six-shooter, next
to Triggers front feet, danced off the sidewalk and into my soul as I traced
my fingers through the TV stars'
impressions. A seed was
planted. Someday. Somewhere. Somehow.
 My
heart raced the morning a cement mixer stopped in front of our house. A star
was born that afternoon when I left my handprints in the freshly poured
driveway. Thank God, I didn't wait longer than I did. Cement dries quickly,
you know. My impressions (below) were not as deep as Roy's. But, hey, they're
still there at 3945 Carlin Ave, Lynwood CA.
When it comes to the meaningful-use (MU) criteria hospitals must satisfy to
qualify for HITECH Act incentive payments, many people assume the cement has
hardened, that the comment period has come and gone. Indeed the period has
passed for commenting on the
Health IT Policy Council Recommendations to National Coordinator for Defining
Meaningful Use--August 2009. However, final MU definitions are still wet
cement.
In his October 1, 2009 update, National Coordinator for HIT, Dr. David
Blumenthal, explains:
CMS is expected to publish a formal definition of meaningful use, for the
purposes of receiving the Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments, by
December 31, 2009. At that time, the public will be able to comment on the
definition, and such comments will be considered in reaching any final
definition of the term.
The
Summary of Public Comments on HIT Policy Council recommendations, issued
September 14, 2009, includes input from 165 hospital organizations. While
reading the 19-page summary, two elements danced off the pages.
First, I was elated by a change in language related to 2013 Hospital
Objectives. "Conduct closed-loop medication management, including eMAR and
computer-assisted administration" in the recommendations' document, had been
troweled into "Conduct medication administration using bar coding" in the
summary of comments. While many of us presumed the objective implied bar
coding, it is thrilling, finally, to see the term used.
Second, it is noteworthy, though not surprising, that 64 of the 165 hospital
organizations offering comments, said they believed the 2011 timeline for CPOE
was too aggressive and should be moved further out. They weren't sure that
driveway was ready for pour. None said it should be moved closer in.
The ONC is currently weighing the HIT Policy Council's recommendations and the
public's comments. It will be interesting to observe how things may reform. In
the forthcoming formal MU definitions, will CPOE be moved out to 2013? If so,
might medication bar coding be moved up to 2011? I'd vote for both. All I know
is that the cement is wet until comments close in early 2010. I'm keeping my
trowel out and busy.
Even if MU definitions don't change, now is the time to draft plans and pour
the foundations for building your bar-coding system. Nothing will serve you
better to this end than
The unSUMMIT for Bedside Barcoding to be held May 5-7 in Atlanta.
Meanwhile, should you plan on visiting Southern California, let me know and I
will Google up some directions for you to Grauman's Chinese driveway.
What do you think?
Mark Neuenschwander a.k.a. Noosh
mark@hospitalrx.com
http://twitter.com/hospitalrx
Now for some news...
- The unSUMMIT for Bedside Barcoding calls for speakers
Apply to present at the 5th unSUMMIT for Bedside Barcoding -- Mastering the
Art of Barcoding: Using meaningful technology -- meaningfully. May 5-7 in
Atlanta.
Submit an abstract.
- Free Webinar: Closing the Black Hole of Pharmacy with Medication
Tracking
Join Charles McCluskey, Pharm.D., Director, Pharmacy & Pulmonary Services,
as he conducts a "virtual site-visit" of Riverside Methodist Hospital's
wireless, web-based Medication Tracking System.
Register now!
- Grieving UK family demand answers for man being given wrong drug six
times
A father-of-three died after an operation designed to save his life. Report
says he was given one type of incorrect drug at 10pm on July 1, and the
following morning he was given five incorrect types of medication at 8am.
Source: express.co.uk
- JAMIA Case Study: Overcoming barriers to the implementation of a
pharmacy bar code scanning system for medication dispensing
One large academic hospital's experience implementing a pharmacy bar code
scanning system for medication dispensing. The authors describe workarounds
that emerged and share strategies to address process improvement, technology
issues, and staff resistance to the new system. Source:
PubMed
- White Paper: Total Cost of Ownership for Patient Identification
Wristbands
How healthcare organizations can calculate the total cost of ownership for
laser and thermal print solutions. It will also compare and contrast thermal
print technology with laser and explain how each print technology affects
the productivity of the printer and the end user. Source:
Healthcare IT News
- Florida Hospitals Serious about Bar Coding at the Point of Care
Polk hospitals to follow Lakeland RMC in implementing bar coding at the
point of care (BPOC). LRMC, who has bar coding at the point of care in most
care areas, expects to start using bedside bar-code scanning on emergency
department and operating room patients next year. Source:
The Ledger
- Report notes rise in adverse drug events
The FDA received domestic reports of 100,789 cases of severe injury in 2008,
compared to 80,598 reports in 2007. This was the largest one-year increase
since the beginning of our historical data in 1998. Source:
ISMP QuarterWatch:
2008 Quarter 4
- High-tech 'scribes' help transfer medical records into electronic
form
Instead of pens, scribes here use laptops as they trail doctors from bed to
bed, taking detailed notes that will form part of each patient's electronic
medical record. Experts say the scribes' peculiar role -- with one foot in
2009 and one in 2000 B.C. -- illustrates hospitals' often bumpy transition
from clipboards and closets of paper charts to digital records. Source:
USA Today
- Audio labels to help blind people
UK firm with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) developed a
digital pen. By scanning minute barcodes on drug labels, MP3 files audibly
inform users of drug name, purchase date and dosing instructions. Source:
BBC
- Technology Utilization to Prevent Medication Errors
Bar code technology, intravenous infusion safety systems, and electronic
medication administration records can target prevention of errors in
medication dispensing and administration where other technologies would not
be able to intercept a preventable adverse event. Source:
PubMed
- Impact of BCMA on medication errors and patient safety
PURPOSE: To summarize key recommendations and supporting evidence from the
most recent studies evaluating the impact of bar coded medication
administration (BCMA) systems, and the complementary technologies:
Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) and automated dispensing carts.
Source: PubMed
- HUP Launches Medication Management
The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania has rolled out Sunrise
Medication Management from Eclipsys, placing Penn among the 3 percent of
U.S. hospitals that have installed a fully integrated, closed-loop
medication management system. Source:
healthcare-informatics.com
- Hospitals look to medication-dispensing robots to cut errors
Eric Saff, CIO at John Muir Health System, said the mortality rate has
"dropped by 25 percent since the hospital adopted the new technologies,"
which include a McKesson medication-dispensing robot and bar code system.
Still, the "robots aren't working for everyone," according to Forbes. Amir
Emamifar, administrative director of pharmaceutical services for Emory
Hospitals and Clinics in Atlanta, "is in the process of decommissioning his
hospitals' 10-year-old McKesson robots in favor of Omnicell's
medicine-dispensing cabinet and software." But Richard Close, a healthcare
IT analyst, said the "current trend at hospitals is to consolidate
technology solutions among fewer vendors." Source:
Forbes
- Call for 2010 Summer ASHP Meeting Posters
Submit
poster proposals.
- IntelliFlowRx Becomes DoseEdge
Baxa Corporation announces the rebranding of its IntelliFlowRx Workload
Management Software to DoseEdge (pronounced "dosage") DoseEdge streamlines
the previously manual workflow for pharmacy doses through barcode drug
verification; automatic dose calculation; image capture of dose creation and
improving pharmacist checking activity. Source:
cobioscience.com
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