Health Information Exchange Saves Moore Hospital Records

"Worst tornado in history" devastates
Moore, OK, Moore Medical Center,
and two elementary schools.

The "worst tornado in world history" tore the roof off of Moore Medical Center in Moore, Oklahoma on May 20, 2013, visiting horrific damage on life and property, but medical records were essentially undamaged. MMC is a member of their local RHIO, SMRTnet. The Regional Healthcare Information Organization (RHIO, or HIE if you prefer), saves a backup of essentially the hospital's complete medical records database.

SMRTnet performs these services for 26 hospitals, 99 clinics, and many more individual providers. 1,400 registered provider users' data represents approximately 2.4 million patient records.

This is a far cry from the 2005 devastation in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, where waterlogged hospital medical records were sent blowing around the streets, or were pinned to patients' chests; with the exception of the VA hospital, where electronic records were preserved.

Moore Medical Center is located about two and a half hours southwest of Tulsa, Oklahoma, home of CarePrecise Technology.

Healthcare IT Spending Optimism

As federal support for EHR implementation ebbs, other HIT projects are crowding in to keep spending strong. Aging financial management systems will need to be replaced as pay-for-performance ramps up as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The mandated switch to the ICD-10 diagnostic and procedural code set, requiring updates in IT systems, as well as more advanced coding systems to handle the vastly increased code granularity, not to mention the new technical complexities felt by state Medicaids and CMS itself, is already making good business for firms like Cognosante, a brain trust of some of the most talented healthcare IT people in the country.

BCC Research recently predicted that total spending on clinical health IT would soar to $26.1 billion a year in five years, up from $9.5 billion in 2011 and $11.2 billion in 2012. CarePrecise builds provider databases targeting various applications within the healthcare industry, including EHR, HIE, HIX and Sunshine Law (Open Payments) applications.

Joseph Conn has an excellent article in Modern Healthcare will more details.

Free Webinar on Sunshine Law

The federal National Physician Payment Transparency Program, variously know as NPPTP, Open Payments, and Sunshine Law, requires collection of information by the healthcare industry as of August 1, 2013. Getting ready for that yet? How about some help?

A free webinar is being offered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 titled "National Provider Call: National Physician Payment Transparency Program (OPEN PAYMENTS) - What You Need To Know."

Topics include:

• Overview of final rule
• Review key program dates
• Your role
• Resources available to you

Speakers will be Dr. Shantanu Agrawal, Director, Data Sharing & Partnership Group, and Anita Griner, Deputy Director, Data Sharing & Partnership Group.