IHI Open School

Did you know that the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has an "Open School" where you can take courses and receive a certificate of completion?

In March, Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) became the first medical school in the United States to require its students to earn the IHI Open School Basic Certificate of Completion before graduation.

What are these students learning?

The IHI Open School offers 16 self-paced, interactive, online modules in quality improvement (QI), patient safety, leadership, patient- and family-centered care, and managing health care operations.

Two other health professions schools—University at Buffalo School of Nursing, and Texas A&M College of Medicine—will start requiring the Certificate within the next calendar year.

The IHI Open School for Health Professions is an interprofessional educational community that gives students the skills to become change agents in health care improvement. Learn more about the IHI Open School.

GE Webinar: EMR and Quality Management 9/7/11

Don't miss this upcoming webinar titled: EMR and Quality Management
September 7, 2011 | 2-3 PM EST

No doubt there’s a learning curve when a practice firsts adopts and implements an EMR, just like any type of transformational technology. But once providers get over that initial implementation hump, they can start seeing value not only at the time of care, but on many harder-to-manage aspects of how they care for patients.

To explore these questions, join us for a free on-demand webinar and hear from speaker Don McDaniel discuss the following topics:

Physician adoption:
• Change management – The cultural shift
• Vendor partner support – training & consulting

Technology:
• Support the workflow of the organization
• Benefit of an integrated EMR & PM system

Register for this webinar here.

Johns Hopkins announces the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality

Recognizing the urgent need to advance the science of reducing preventable harm and improve health care quality, Johns Hopkins Medicine is announcing the establishment of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, an organization whose work will benefit not only Johns Hopkins patients but those around the world.

Meaningful Use Webinar: Clinical Quality Measures

Dr. Robert Rowley, Practice Fusion's CMO, will be hosting a webinar on Thursday, April 28 at 4 PM PST(7 PM EST) that will review key information about EHR Meaningful Use with an emphasis on Clinical Quality Measures (CQM).

Participants will receive in-depth information on each clinical quality measure and exceptions to each measure.

We would like to invite the user community to participate in the event and you are encouraged to invite a friend or colleague!

We would like to ask users to submit their general questions prior to the start of the webinar. Please submit all questions to community@practicefusion.com.

More information about this webinar can be found here.

Leveraging Technology for Secure Health Information Exchange of EHRs

There's a complimentary webinar coming up. It's titled, "Leveraging Technology for Secure Health Information Exchange of EHRs: An Initiative That Promises to Improve Quality and Efficiency." Here's some more information:

Date: Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Time: 12 p.m. Eastern / 9 a.m. Pacific
Duration: 1 Hour

In today's rapidly evolving HIT climate, implementing CONNECT architecture and components within the Health Information Organization (HIO) can seem daunting. In this informative session, physicians and senior health information technologists discuss how to leverage CONNECT technology for evolving governance, risk and compliance regulations. Participants will learn how to use IT to enable 'Meaningful Use' and improvement of care delivery with certified EHR-M implementations and quality reporting and how to define reasonable parameters and develop a compelling HIE framework to tangibly improve and measure healthcare outcomes.

The audience will learn how to:

* Use IT to comply with evolving Governance and Compliance regulations
* Meet Meaningful Use requirements and improve care delivery
* Support the translational research and consent management requirements needed to achieve Personalized Healthcare

Register here.

Can't make the live event? Register now and after the event you will receive an e-mail with the complimentary presentation content.

TV interview with Dr. Harry Greenspun, co-author of Reengineering Health Care

Here's a video showing a recent TV interview (TBD) with Dr. Harry Greenspun, co-author of the book: Reengineering Health Care: A Manifesto for Radically Rethinking Health Care Delivery.

You can watch Dr. Greenspun address the following questions:

• What is the biggest confusion around health care reform?
• How will the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) impact patient care?
• What will happen to the quality of care?
• How will EHR adoption get implemented?
• What rights do patients have?

You can get his book on Amazon (Hardcover) or on your Kindle. 

HIMSS Launches Quality 101 Website

HIMSS Launches Quality 101 Website

Quality healthcare relies on health information technology as a tool that can be leveraged to improve healthcare delivery and lead to operational, clinical and financial efficiencies

CHICAGO (September 1, 2010) – With quality and quality reporting as an integral component of electronic health record incentives for Meaningful Use, HIMSS introduces an online resource – Quality 101 – designed as a primer on the basics and metrics of quality measurement and improvement.

The HIMSS Patient Safety & Quality Outcomes Committee developed this tool as a portal into the world of quality, quality measurement and improvement.  Introduced in phases each quarter, Phase 1 is a ‘primer’ to quality measures with Phase 2 focused on the Plan-D-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle approach to quality improvement and related quality components.

“Quality measurement and improvement activities have, until recently, been running on separate tracks and parallel tracks with the adoption of healthcare information technology.   With the passage of ARRA and the meaningful use requirements for incentive payment from CMS, we have the de facto merging of these two activities,” said Lou Diamond, M.B.Ch.B., F.A.C.P., F.C.P. (S.A.) Chair, HIMSS Patient Safety and Quality Outcomes Committee.  Dr. Diamond is also Vice President and Medical Director, Healthcare and Scientific, Thomson Reuters.  “The Quality 101 website will be attempting to bridge these two parallel worlds, by providing basic information and updates focused on quality measurement and improvement.”

Are generic drugs really equivalent to brand name drugs?

The topic of generics vs. branded drugs is an old debate that still remains somewhat controversial (depending on who you're speaking to). According to the FDA, "An estimated 44 percent of all prescriptions in the United States are filled with generic drugs." This number will only increase as managed care companies try to push more healthcare providers to prescribe generics over branded medications.

The FDA asserts that "generic drugs have the same quality, strength, purity and stability as brand-name drugs." However, we know that recent stories in the news suggesting problems related to quality control of generic drugs. Problems related to generic drugs become popular news stories. Patients often want to take branded drugs. Physicians often prescribe the "latest and greatest" by giving free samples to patients.

At the end of the day, the question regarding generic drugs is rooted in one issue: quality control. When a company submits a generic drug to the FDA, that batch may be a good batch. However, what's to say that future batches will meet the same quality standards? Look at drugs manufactured in China. What type of quality control is going on and how is that monitored?

My family uses generic drugs. We don't take many drugs, but when we need an antihistamine or a proton pump inhibitor, we'll go for the generics. They're inexpensive and they usually work. However, I also believe that the FDA has to improve the monitoring of generic drug quality.

Do Electronic Health Records Reduce Medical Errors

Guns don't kill people, but people can use guns to shoot and kill people. Electronic health records (EHRs) or electronic medical records (EMRs) don't reduce medical errors by themselves. However, they can help clinicians reduce the risk of medical errors if they are used properly. Hence, although they have many automated alerts, reminders, and warnings that may pop up when an error is about to occur, there is still a need for human discretion when using these systems. Doctors (and other prescribers), pharmacists, and nurses need to be know how to use EHRs to reduce medical errors. As they become more familiar with the advantages of EHR/EMR solutions and as they get more proficient as using them, medical errors will decrease.

Actor Dennis Quaid has been pushing hard for EHRs and he made quite an argument at HIMSS 2009 in Chicago. He told his story of how his 10-day-old twins nearly died after they were mistakenly given excess doses of heparin at a Los Angeles hospital. Could this have been prevented by more robust EHR systems that alerted the entire healthcare team about the improper dose? Technologies such as computer physician-order entry (CPOE) and bar coding may have reduced the possibility of confusing drug packaging. Dennis Quaid and his wife have started the Quaid Foundation to promote awareness of the need for more information technology as a way to prevent medical errors.

Joining Government with Industry to Discuss Health Issues

What happens when you combine government with industry to talk about health issues related to quality of care, compliance, cost, and partnerships? You end up with roundtable reports published by the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA). They have some recent roundtable reports where industry representatives discussed some important quality and compliance issues with the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG).

The most recent HCCA/OIG roundtable report is titled:

A Report on the HHS Office of Inspector General and Health Care Compliance Association Roundtable on Hospital Board of Directors’ Oversight of Quality of Care
Driving for Quality in Acute Care: A Board of Directors Dashboard

Past HCCA/OIG roundtable reports include:

A Report on the Office of Inspector General and Health Care Compliance Association Roundtable on Long-Term Care Board of Directors’ Oversight of Quality of Care
December 6, 2007

A Summary of the Government-Industry Roundtable on the
Role of Governance in Compliance Programs
June 16, 2004, Office of Inspector General

HCCA/OIG Rountable Report
Building a Partnership for Effective Compliance
July, 2001

HCCA/OIG Physician Roundtable Report
Building a Partnership for Effective Compliance
July, 2000

CIA Survey
August 2001

American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians

How do you pronounce ABQAURP? It stands for the American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians. They offer Health Care Quality and Management (HCQM) Certification through an online study course and then a certification exam. Once certified, you can hang a certificate that says, "Diplomate of the American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians, Inc." The ABQAURP is the only Health Care Quality and Management organization with an exam developed, administered, and evaluated through the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME). So, you may want to learn more if you have an interest in working in quality improvement, utilization management, managed care, risk management, case management and workers' compensation.