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About Patient Centered Medical Homes

by 13. January 2011 04:40

Editor David Merritt’s Paper Kills 2.0 explains in its third chapter about Patient Centered Medical Homes (PCMH) which has nothing to do with convalescent facilities, and all to do with individual control of one’s healthcare. The topic is being addressed tomorrow, January 14, at the Delaware Valley HIMSS event at the Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, PA.

In the book, Sarah T. Corley, MD FACP and Charles W. Jarvis FACHE propose  PCMH as an “environment based on evidence, driven by data, founded on wellness, and centered on patients’ needs.” They go on to say that PCMH is a team-based virtual network of doctors, nurses, and involved clinicians who share patient  information to better coordinate patient care. Central to the team is the patient and all decisions about care begin with the patient and doctor and radiate outward. However, Corley and Jarvis caution, because of glacial adoption of healthcare IT/EHR – widespread use of PCMH is distant; but progress should not be abandoned. Better healthcare will be realized when it can be put into the individual patient’s hands and guided by professionals. Examples of PCMH’s potential can be found at WellStar Health System in Atlanta, CHC Collaborative Ventures in Arizona, and Crystal Run Healthcare in New York. PCMH is championed by the NCQA.

Corley and Jarvis recommend that the healthcare market take the following actions to abet swifter PCMH adoption: understand that healthcare transformation is essential and inexorable, validate data gleaned from federal and private payers who should commit to openly promoting PCMH, educate patients as to PCMH’s value and doctors as to its business and clinical benefits, and adopt healthcare IT and its inherent advantages for all involved. Consider the above a primer to PCMH.

If you’re heading to the DV HIMSS event tomorrow (here’s agenda and directions), you are now prepared. If you’re not, you’ve learned something good here. If you want to read more about HIT issues you can access VCS’s vital news library of white papers and newsletters.



VCS at MUSE

by Gwen.Cantarera 1. June 2010 06:58

VCS representatives are headed to the Lone Star state for this year’s International MUSE Conference in Dallas. We’ll be in booth 719 all week handing out cowboy hats and taking pictures with one of America’s favorite country music stars (sorry…we could only get the cardboard version).

Look out for some wild pictures on our Facebook page soon!



Hospitals Aren’t Recession Proof

by Gwen.Cantarera 19. April 2010 06:24

All of the economic talk that is so prevalent now and has been for the past two years has intersected with the healthcare reform debates in various ways, but one increasingly concerning event should be focused on. Hospitals are closing. The Wall Street Journal highlighted St. Vincent’s Hospital in NYC closing earlier this month. St. Vincent’s was the last Catholic acute-care center in New York City:

Patients and residents of the Greenwhich Village neighborhood said the closing…meant they would have to travel dozens of blocks on New York City’s congested streets to the nearest emergency room…Staff at other city hospitals, many already inundated with uninsured patients coming into their emergency rooms, were bracing for more people…Patient volume at Bellevue Hospital, a city trauma and acute care center, has jumped 13% in the past 30 days. (WSJ: Hospital Closing Stirs Fear)

The result of one hospital closing means increased ambulance ride times, increased demand for government funding for the remaining hospitals, increased hours for the staff.

What do you think it means for patient safety?

More Reading

NY Times: St. Vincent's

Google “Hospitals Closing”

EP Monthly



VCS at Innovations

by 2. August 2009 20:03

Are you attending Siemens Innovations in Philly this week? 

After you attend the "Straight from the Hill… an Update on ARRA and Healthcare Reform" presentation by Mark Esherick, Director, Government Affairs, Siemens Healthcare...Don't forget to stop by our booth # 802.  



ACE Success

by 2. August 2009 19:30

Three VCSers (Cyndi Cahill, SVP; John Dal Poggetto, SVP; & Kim Tombragel, PM/DBD) just returned from Orlando, Florida having had great success at the Allscripts Client Expereince meeting.

In this Healthcare IT News article the author writes about how Obama's push for healthcare reform had a hand in making ACE the success that it was.

 

Have any of you participated in the the EHR stimulus tour that started in May?