Volume 4 - Issue 4 - June 2009

Editor's Note

By: Donna Carroll
Editor - The MEDITECH Community Bulletin
VP, Business Development & Recruitment - Systems Personnel

Welcome to the latest issue of The MEDITECH Community Bulletin. Below are just a few of the items found in this month's newsletter:

• This month's feature article in our Career Corner column talks about maintaining a proper perspective in today's employment market.

• Our Customer Spotlight is shining on Citizens Memorial Hospital in Bolivar, Missouri, whose CIO was recently interviewed by Forbes.com. Learn more about how this MEDITECH site is stepping into the digital age.

• John Sharpe of Comstock Software is once again sharing his wealth of NPR knowledge in our Tricks of the Trade column. We thank John for his knowledge and tips each month!

• All information and content for the July issue of The MEDITECH Community Bulletin must be received no later than Thursday, June 25th. Thank you.

Happy Summer!
Donna

Career Corner: The Sky is Falling (not!)

Maintaining the proper perspective during trying times.

By: Donna Carroll
VP, Business Development & Recruitment - Systems Personnel

Remember the story of Chicken Little, the little chick who believed the sky was falling after an acorn dropped onto her head? She decided she must warn the king immediately, with the help of her feathered friends Henny Penny, Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey, and Turkey Lurkey. And so begins their perilous journey through the woods where they eventually meet up with Foxy Loxy who convinces them all to follow him back to his den.  After this point, there are many different endings to the story. In one of the more famous endings, Chicken Little and all of her friends meet their demise when Foxy Loxy eats them all once he gets them back to his den.

Much like her feathered friends believed what Chicken Little had told them about the sky falling, many people today fall into the trap of believing every word the media reports about the state of economy today.  (More on the tale of Chicken Little a little later in this article...)

I am the first to admit that I am no economist...I won’t even pretend to be one on TV. So, this article will not provide my analysis of empirical data on the status of today’s economy. I am, however, a seasoned recruiter who has worked through three separate periods of a ‘declining economy’ (euphemism for the ‘R’ word). I have worked for the past 20 years in the trenches of the employment field in both thriving and desperate times. So, I’m in a distinct position to offer insight and anecdotal evidence about the health of today’s job market.

For those of you who prefer a more fact-based analysis of the economy, Harold L. Sirkin delivers a promising prognosis for the U.S. economy in his recent article featured in BusinessWeek.com.

Debunking the Myths of a Declining Economy

Myth #1: All industries are downsizing or, at best, maintaining the status quo without any job growth. While it is true that there is no such thing as a recession-proof industry, Healthcare is certainly one of the safer fields from which to collect a paycheck today. As other industries experience major restructuring and reductions-in-force, there are still shortages of workers in the Healthcare field. Healthcare employers continue to struggle to find qualified workers and even offer sign-on bonuses for specific hard-to-fill positions.

Myth #2: It’s too risky to make a job change in the current market. Let’s be honest here, there is always a risk when one decides to make a job change. Everyone thinks “last man in, first man out.” However, many people mistakenly believe that the risk is higher in a declining economy. I believe the reverse is actually true. When companies are still hiring despite a declining market, it’s often because the positions are deemed of such importance that they cannot manage without a qualified individual in that role.

Myth #3: Many of the opportunities available today are contract positions which present a less stable career choice. Are you sure about that? Contract assignments can actually shield you from tough economic times. While it is true that many contracts are limited to short-term projects, there are many contracts with fixed durations which represent a long-term solution to employers. With head count within companies almost as precious as profits, bringing in a contractor instead of a new permanent hire is one way companies can secure the key workers needed despite tight hiring restrictions. And, once the economy improves and new budgets are approved, that once-thought short-term contract can convert into a permanent position with full benefits.

Practical Advice for Trying Times

For Job Seekers

The best piece of advice I can offer job seekers in our present economic times is to be realistic and flexible about career options. If you find yourself suddenly unemployed, you don’t want to be scrambling for answers in the midst of dire financial straits.

First, if you are currently employed, take the time to consider your true reasons for seeking a change. Perhaps a candid conversation with your current employer might eliminate those reasons or at least alleviate some of your concerns. Don’t rush to find a new employer until you’re sure that you’re ready to leave your current one. Always live up to your commitment to the new employer once you’ve accepted their job offer, and never revert to your current employer when they dangle a counter-offer full of promises in front of you. It’s an extremely rare instance when accepting a counter-offer works out as you hope.

Next, if you’ve decided it’s definitely time to seek a greener pasture, do your homework first. You must take the time to fully evaluate what options you can or cannot accept. Are you willing to accept a lower salary in exchange for a better growth opportunity? Are you in a financial position to sell your current home? How will your family handle the logistics of relocating to a new city? How long can you afford to remain unemployed versus hold out for a higher salary? Is it more important to remain employed in your current field, or to make sure your family is fed, clothed, and sheltered? These are tough decisions, for sure, but ones that have to be made prior to being laid off or conducting a new job search.

For Employers

Perhaps one of the best pieces of advice I’ve seen for employers is offered by Harold Sirkin in his aforementioned BusinessWeek.com article. "...if your company has not yet taken the steps necessary to win on the upswing—cutting fat and turning it into muscle—now is the time to do so. Take advantage of the fact that some companies are struggling, thus creating the opportunity for you to hire their best people, claim their customers, and buy their assets on the cheap."

There is no doubt that human capital is your organization's most valuable asset.  To learn more about how to capitalize on Sirkin’s advice, I suggest you read Topgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching and Keeping the Best People by Bradford D. Smart, Ph.D. In his book, Dr. Smart introduces the concept of Topgrading—how and why it works. The secret is hiring the right people—the “A” players. Research shows that the cost of a mis-hire (hiring the wrong person for the wrong job) can be up to twenty-four (24) times their salary. It’s not hard to see how such a mistake can be a financial drain on your organization.

Maintaining the Proper Perspective

Okay, now back to our friend, Chicken Little. Depending upon the version of the story you remember, the moral changes. In the "happy ending" version, the moral is not to be a "Chicken", but to have courage. In other versions the moral is usually interpreted to mean "do not believe everything you are told". In the latter case, it could well be a cautionary tale: The Chicken jumps to a conclusion and whips the populace into mass hysteria, which the unscrupulous fox uses to manipulate them for his own benefit.

So, before you fall prey to the media’s mass hysteria about the state of our economy, put it all into perspective. Don't be a chicken little. Do not be afraid. The sky is not falling!

We have many clients still hiring qualified MEDITECH professionals. If you're really ready to make a job change, give me a call at 413-569-1111 for a confidential conversation. I'd be happy to discuss your specific situation and give you an honest assessment of your options. Regards, Donna.

Customer Spotlight: Prescription For E-Health Care

How Citizens Memorial Hospital is stepping into the digital age.

Reprinted from Forbes.com
By: Ed Sperling, May 25, 2009

Shifting health care from paper to electronic records could be one of the most important efficiency gains in our lifetimes, affecting everything from how quickly we can check into a clinic or hospital to how many specialists are available to monitor patients.

Yet this presents some complex questions: What exactly is involved in making this system more efficient; how do we measure that efficiency; and what are the unexpected effects of this digitization effort? To help shed light on what is likely to be the biggest change in health care in decades, Forbes caught up with Denni McColm, Chief Information Officer at Citizens Memorial Hospital in Bolivar, Missouri.

Forbes: What is changing in your world?

Denni McColm: In the past, we had pretty antiquated IT systems. We hadn't invested in much beyond a lab system, a pharmacy system and a billing system.

So, everything was in silos?

Yes, but then in 1999 we started upgrading. We made a huge project out of revamping our entire structure. We had 76 beds, five long-term care facilities, a home-care agency and 16 physician practices. We wanted to provide seamless care for our patients. We had been getting complaints that if patients moved from one facility to another, they had to answer all the same questions over again.

But more important, the lab reports, radiology and physician visits were not available. We wanted to have paperless medical records.

How do you measure the efficiency of those systems?

We did an [return on investment] study initially. A lot of analysis showed that over five to seven years we would see increased revenue by better coding and documentation. Physicians would be freed up to admit more patients, and clerical costs would go down. The reality is that over five to seven years it's hard to measure that. We have seen a reduction in clerical staff even though we've grown. We've also increased revenue, but how much of that is due to the system, we don't know.

How does the federal government's push for electronic medical records affect you?

There's a lot of uncertainty with the stimulus package funding. It's not grant money. It's money that hospitals will get for proving meaningful use. Right now we're making sure that all of our products are certified at the level they need to be and [that we are] going to be able to meet whatever that definition of "meaningful use" turns out to be. It's still very vague. ...

We think we will only have to do a few small things, while a hospital starting from scratch will have to do a lot of things. But if they had done it in the traditional grant-funding approach, we would have been penalized. The way this works is that you have to make the investment and become a meaningful user before you get the money. As far as we can tell, we're almost there.

What's the ultimate goal for your IT system?

Making sure every patient gets care that is evidence-based, across the continuum. There are certain things we have to publicly report, but beyond that there are things every patient should get. If they are at risk for blood clots, they should get treatment to prevent that. We also try to make the record a byproduct of the care process so nurses and physicians spend as little time as possible documenting the care and the record. The data is secondary to providing the care. When they take blood pressure or vital signs, the only thing they have to do is accept it into the record.

Now that Citizens has made this investment, does it require constant new funding?

The IT budget, annually, is a lot bigger than it used to be and it is a constant investment. If it's not the desktop, it's the servers and the backup. There is a lot of care and feeding of the system. We did anticipate some of that. It has been more than we anticipated.

Where do you go for more money?

We have a subset of the capital budget now that is just for IT. It's a little blurry, because some medical equipment these days is almost IT equipment. But we have a separate budget that is analyzed and prioritized.

Are you on standardized systems so you can connect with other hospitals?

Our system, MEDITECH, is in use by about 25% of the hospitals in the United States. We could interact with other hospitals in the state, but there aren't any at the level we are. One of our first moves might be to connect with Google Health or Microsoft HealthVault unless something else comes across in the state. We're surprised by how slowly everyone else has moved. We started implementing our system in 2002.

What was the triggering factor for Citizens?

The revelation that if we were the end-all for health care in the community we needed to step up and make investments.

Are there metrics for patient care, as well?

We look at all the publicly reported quality measures, and we have seen big improvement. We've also seen some decline in our admission rates for home health patients. They take vital signs, weight and blood pressure every day, and it's automatically fed into our system.

They can do that at home?

Yes. About 40 of them have this technology at any time, and it's submitted to electronic medical records through phone lines. It can also remind them to take their medication. They get a reminder to step on the scale, take their blood pressure and put this on your finger. And sometime in the next hour, when their phone isn't busy, it dials in the information. The sky's the limit about how much care can be provided at home. One nurse can sit in a room and monitor 40 patients and be alerted to any anomalies, which you can't do if you have to go through their home or see them one at a time.

What do you have for infrastructure?

MEDITECH is proprietary. It runs on Windows. We have an IBM SAN [storage area network] and blade setup. We are doing a lot of virtualization. We have one data center that serves the entire network. We have an alternate data center too, with an alternate emergency medical record version. When we were down for a few hours recently, we could enable an alternate system within a few hours. What was most important was being able to view patients' medicine.

All your records are centrally managed?

Yes, and one reason we haven't had to do interoperability sharing is that patients have one record that can be trended and shared across the clinics, hospital, long-term care and home care. You can view just one encounter or move them all together. There's a lot of discussion now about systems for physician practices. It's not just about buying a system. It has to be integrated into the network to get the full benefits. If a patient walks into one of our clinics, a physician can review a patient's whole record and order a CAT scan. The nurse schedules the CAT scan before the patient even leaves the clinic; they're pre-registered when they arrive at the hospital, and the second it's done the image is on the doctor's desktop.

To learn more about Citizens Memorial Hospital, visit them online at www.citizensmemorial.com.

Tricks of the Trade: Use a File as Selection Criteria for Your Report (Client Server)

By: John Sharpe, President, Comstock Software, Inc.

Remember our BAR report?  The one where we used the List Builder to build the list of /ACCOUNTS, instead of hand-keying each account into the run time SELECT Prompt?  For a once-in-a-while report, that is a fine solution.  But what if someone without programming experience at the business office wants an ad-hoc report for a large number of accounts on a regular basis?

There is always another way.  For this scenario, you'll use the contents of a text file as the SELECTION CRITERIA.  This file will be stored on a file server (shared drive) where MEDITECH and the person at the business office can both access it.  For our purposes, the file path will be \\APOLLO-1\MT$\BAR\RAC\Accounts.txt.  Whenever the business user wants a report for a batch of accounts, they will: 1) update this file using a text editor like Notepad; and 2) run the report and print to DOWNLOAD.  If you need any assistance with choosing an appropriate location and coordinating mapped drive access for your business user, a good place to start is to contact your network or systems administrator.  Let's review the report's layout; and then, update our AL START macro.

Here’s a quick overview of the NPR setup.

NPR Report Writer - Page 1 - Setup:

NPR Report Writer - Page 2 - Setup:

NPR Report Writer - Footnotes - Setup:

Instead of using a SELECT Prompt of ‘Accounts:’ and entering the accounts 1 by 1 at report run time, we’ll populate the /ACCOUNTS list by reading from the text file.

NPR Report Writer - Start Macro - Setup:

To get the complete macro, download it here.

By using this method to populate the /ACCOUNTS array; the list could easily scale from 10 to 5000 accounts without additional effort on the part of the NPR Report Writer.

NPR Report Writer - Page 3 - Setup:

This report is built in a DOWNLOAD format, which means you can print to the printer named DOWNLOAD.  Printing to DOWNLOAD allows you to save the file with a .CSV file extension.  Microsoft Excel is a great application for opening and analyzing files in the .CSV file format.

Thoughts or Questions? Email them to John at jsharpe@comstock-software.com.

John Sharpe is President / NPR Consultant at Comstock Software, Inc. Learn more about NPR Report Writing at the MEDITECH NPR Report Writing Blog.

---

Featured Employer: Sponsored by MeditechCareers.com

The online career hub for MEDITECH professionals

Every month, we feature one employer who has advertised their job posting on our affiliate web site: MeditechCareers.com. In addition to the basic job posting, we provide some information about the employer, their location and environment, and highlight them as a "Featured Employer" in this newsletter.

To advertise your MEDITECH-related opportunity on MeditechCareers.com and become a "Featured Employer", contact Donna Carroll at 413-569-1111.

Systems Personnel
"Your Partner in Healthcare Search"

About the Organization:

Founded in 1989, Systems Personnel is a professional search firm specializing in the nationwide search and placement ofInformation Technology, Management, and Sales & Marketing professionals in the Healthcare industry. We pride ourselves on our personal approach to your job search. We become your partner in the search process and will guide and advise you each step of the way. We take the time to discuss each candidate’s background, experience, career goals, and personal interests prior to presenting them to a client a for a specific opportunity.

Systems Personnel is a “Preferred Member”of Top Echelon Network, Inc., the nation's largest network of independent professional search firms. Our massive networking capabilities allow us to conduct a very targeted search and provide you with the best available opportunities.

Services:

Systems Personnel performs a variety of placement and staffing services on a nationwide basis. All fees are paid by client companies, and there is never a fee to candidates.

• Permanent Placement
• Interim Management
• Contract Staffing
• Temp-to-Perm Hiring

Specialties:

MEDITECH Health Care Information Systems:

Systems Personnel has provided search assistance to the MEDITECH community since 2000. Over the years, we have established quite a large network of clients, candidates, and affiliates. Below are the types of positions and professionals with whom we work.

• Application Support / Systems Analysis
• Implementation Consulting
• NPR Report Writing
• Programming (NPR, MAGIC, HL7 Interfaces, etc.)
• Project Management
• System Assessments & Training

Information Technology:

Systems Personnel has maintained a niche focus in a few key software markets. Since technology is ever-changing, we try to remain flexible and will always try to fulfill your specific search requirements. Below are some of the areas in which we have specialized.

• Nursing Informatics / Clinical Informatics
• Hospital Information Systems (HIS)
• Electronic Medical / Health Records (EMR/EHR)
• Physician Practice Management (PPM)
• Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE)
• Pharmacy Information Systems
• Medication Administration Record (MAR) & Medication Reconciliation
• Radiology Information Systems (RIS)
• Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS)
• Laboratory Information Systems (LIS)
• Patient Accounting, Financial, Administrative applications
• Emergency Department Information Systems (EDIS)
• Software Implementation & Maintenance
• Application Integration & Interfaces
• System Assessments & Training

Healthcare Management:

Systems Personnel specializes in the search and placement of both department-level and executive management professionals in the Healthcare industry. Below are some of the Department Leaders (Directors, VP’s and CXO's) with whom we work.

• Allied Health Services
• Facilities Management & Operations
• Health Information Management / Medical Records
• HIPAA Privacy / Security
• Hospital Administration
• Human Resources
• Information Technology & Services
• Nursing / Patient Care Services
• Patient Finance / Revenue Cycle Management
• Practice Administration
• Quality / Risk Management Rehabilitation Services

Sales & Marketing:

Systems Personnel works with a variety of software vendors and service providers to the Healthcare industry. Our clients include well-established companies as well as growing start-ups. We help build or re-vamp Sales & Marketing organizations by identifying seasoned professionals with a demonstrated record of success in our clients' target market. Below are some of the areas in which we concentrate.

• Health Care Information Systems (HCIS)
• Clinical Applications Software
• Revenue Cycle Solutions
• Consulting / Outsourcing Solutions
• Sales & Sales Management

Position Profile:

Our client, a multi-facility health care system located in central Illinois, is currently seeking a Director of Clinical Information Systems. This position will be accountable for planning, administering and implementing clinical information systems and articulating the strategic vision for clinical information systems. In addition, the incumbent will communicate with hospitals, physicians and other healthcare professionals to provide information oncorporate Information Systems direction and status of major initiatives. The Director, Clinical Information Systems will translate the needs of the caregivers into a vocabulary of meaningful information technology as well as effectively orchestrating the efforts of technical personnel in the successful implementation and maintenance of systems, which facilitate the delivery of clinical information.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Nursing, Allied Health or Computer Science; Master’s degree preferred
• A minimum of five years experience in planning and implementing Clinical Information Systems
• Prior management experience and proven leadership skills are a must
• Experience with MEDITECH is a definite plus
• Preference will be given to those with proven experience in project planning, resource estimating, and integrating multiple clinical projects as well as managing technical staff and capital budgets

How to Apply:

To learn more about Systems Personnel, visit us online at www.carrollsearch.com. EOE. Interested and qualified applicants may email your resume or call Donna Carroll at:

Systems Personnel
Donna@CarrollSearch.com
TEL: 413-569-1111

Recent News: Minnesota Health Care Companies Poised to Benefit From Economic Stimulus Plan

MINNEAPOLIS, MN, April 13, 2009 -- Minnesota has long been a leader in the world of heath care. From the Mayo Clinic to the University of Minnesota's medical school to Medtronic, innovative technologies, philosophies, and minds have been a hallmark of the land of ten thousand lakes for decades. So while much of the country remains up in arms about wall street bailouts and golden parachutes, Minnesotans should revel in the fact that the less often mentioned portions of President Obama's stimulus package, the money allocated for health care, will be creating jobs in their neighborhoods and continuing a statewide tradition of excellent health care for its residents. As recently as 2006, Minnesota was ranked the healthiest state in the nation by the non-profit United Health Foundation and has been in the top five for the past decade.

To maintain this tradition it should be no surprise that Minnesota has a rich history of innovative thinking in the area of health care and health care technologies. Take for example, the Mayo Clinic's groundbreaking "group practice" model established in the early 1900s at a clinic in Rochester Minnesota. The founding minds, Drs William Mayo and Charles Mayo, had the nerve to pay all their doctors a fixed rate regardless of patient volume with the intent of boosting the amount of time a doctor could spend with his or her patients. In a 1910 commencement address to graduates of Rush Medical College Dr. William Mayo said, "The best interest of the patient is the only interest to be considered." Leading health care analysts from around the country agree that this model is the most capable of delivering high-quality, cost-effective care.

Minnesota based medical institutions and companies like the Mayo Clinic and Medtronic have not received any bailout funds and won't be needing any. After all, Medtronic got its start building pace-makers in a garage. It's a safe bet that they have an idea on how to operate during tough economic times. Medtronic isn't alone in this capacity; companies within the state of Minnesota have made it a national leader in manufactured medical devices since 1949. A 2008 study found that Minnesota had 455 firms combined in the electromedical apparatus manufacturing and medical equipment and supplies manufacturing industries. These companies, including Medtronic, and combined with the Mayo Clinic employ over 60,000 Minnesotans. Employment growth in the medical devices sector between the years 2001 - 2007 has averaged +4.1% annually in Minnesota, easily outpacing the annual job growth rate for all private sector jobs in the Unitied States at +0.5% over this same period.

Read article...

Recent News: Twenty MEDITECH Customers Earn '100 Top Hospitals' Award

ANN ARBOR, MI, March 30, 2009 -- The Healthcare business of Thomson Reuters today released its annual study identifying the 100 top U.S. hospitals based on their overall organizational performance.

The Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals®: National Benchmarks study is based on the 100 Top Hospitals National Balanced Scorecard that evaluates performance in nine areas: mortality, medical complications, patient safety, average length of stay, expenses, profitability, cash-to-debt ratio, patient satisfaction, and adherence to clinical standards of care. The study has been conducted annually since 1993.

"The 100 Top Hospitals winners raised the bar again this year, delivering a higher level of reliable care and greater value for their communities and payers," said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president for performance improvement and 100 Top Hospitals programs at Thomson Reuters.

Thomson Reuters also is launching the 100 Top Hospitals: Everest Award for National Benchmarks to recognize those hospitals among the 100 winners that delivered the greatest rate of improvement over a five-year period. This marks the first time the 100 Top Hospitals national benchmarks have been integrated with data reflecting long-term performance trends to identify the top-performing hospitals that are improving at the fastest rate. This year, there are 23 Everest award winners.

"Integration of national benchmarks for improvement and top performance is an innovation that enables Thomson Reuters to identify those hospitals with a mature culture of performance improvement," Chenoweth said. "The ability to objectively gauge where a hospital stands in its journey to excellence is a breakthrough in the measurement of leadership effectiveness, the success of organizational improvement strategies, and the impact of executive decisions."

"The boards, executives and physician leaders of the Everest award-winning hospitals developed long-term strategies and executed them with extraordinary skill and extraordinary results," she said. "The Everest award winners have reached the point at which innovation is a must to improve further."

To conduct the 100 Top Hospitals study, Thomson Reuters researchers evaluated 3,000 short-term, acute care, non-federal hospitals. They used public information - Medicare cost reports, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) data, and core measures and patient satisfaction data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare data set.

If all Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as patients treated in the winning hospitals:

• More than 107,500 additional patients would survive each year.
• Nearly 132,000 patient complications would be avoided annually.
• Expenses would decline by $5.9 billion a year.
• The average patient stay would decrease by nearly half a day.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Below are the winning hospitals, by category, with MEDITECH customers in red.

Major Teaching Hospitals
St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center - Phoenix, AZ
University Medical Center -Tucson, AZ
Northwestern Memorial Hospital - Chicago, IL
NorthShore University HealthSystem - Evanston, IL
Advocate Lutheran General Hospital - Park Ridge, IL
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center - Boston, MA
University of Michigan Hospitals & Health Centers - Ann Arbor, MI
Providence Hospital and Medical Center - Southfield, MI
Mayo Clinic - Saint Marys Hospital - Rochester, MN
Duke University Hospital - Durham, NC
University Hospitals Case Medical Center - Cleveland, OH
The Western Pennsylvania Hospital - Pittsburgh, PA
Vanderbilt University Medical Center - Nashville, TN
Scott and White Memorial Hospital - Temple, TX
University of Virginia Medical Center - Charlottesville, VA

Teaching Hospitals
Rose Medical Center - Denver, CO
Cleveland Clinic Florida - Weston, FL
Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa - Mason City, IA
St. Luke's Boise Medical Center - Boise, ID
St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital - Indianapolis, IN
Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center-South Bend - South Bend, IN
St. Elizabeth Medical Center - Edgewood, KY
Union Memorial Hospital - Baltimore, MD
MidMichigan Medical Center-Midland - Midland, MI
Munson Medical Center - Traverse City, MI
Metro Health Hospital - Wyoming, MI
St. Cloud Hospital - St. Cloud, MN
North Mississippi Medical Center - Tupelo, MS
Good Samaritan Hospital - Cincinnati, OH
Riverside Methodist Hospital - Columbus, OH
Hillcrest Hospital - Mayfield Heights, OH
Providence St. Vincent Medical Center - Portland, OR
Bryn Mawr Hospital - Bryn Mawr, PA
Hamot Medical Center - Erie, PA
Lancaster General Hospital - Lancaster, PA
Robert Packer Hospital - Sayre, PA
Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center - Sioux Falls, SD
Gundersen Lutheran Health System - La Crosse, WI
Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare-St. Joseph - Milwaukee, WI
Waukesha Memorial Hospital - Waukesha, WI

Large Community Hospitals
San Antonio Community Hospital - Upland, CA
Memorial Hospital West - Pembroke Pines, FL
Mercy Medical Center-Dubuque - Dubuque, IA
Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital - Downers Grove, IL
Silver Cross Hospital - Joliet, IL
Central DuPage Hospital - Winfield, IL
King's Daughters Medical Center - Ashland, KY
Baptist Hospital East - Louisville, KY
St. Mary Mercy Livonia Hospital - Livonia, MI
St. John's Regional Medical Center - Joplin, MO
Missouri Baptist Medical Center - St. Louis, MO
Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center - Lincoln, NE
Alegent Health Bergan Mercy Medical Center - Omaha, NE
Southwest General Health Center - Middleburg Heights, OH
Memorial Health Care System - Chattanooga, TN
Saint Thomas Hospital - Nashville, TN
Centennial Medical Center - Nashville, TN
Doctors Hospital at Renaissance - Edinburg, TX
Citizens Medical Center - Victoria, TX
Providence Regional Medical Center Everett - Everett, WA

Medium Community Hospitals
West Anaheim Medical Center - Anaheim, CA
Middlesex Hospital - Middletown, CT
Riverside Medical Center - Kankakee, IL
Columbus Regional Hospital - Columbus, IN
St. Francis Hospital-Indianapolis - Indianapolis, IN
Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center - Jasper, IN
Marion General Hospital - Marion, IN
Saint Joseph East - Lexington, KY
Gratiot Medical Center - Alma, MI
Holland Hospital -Holland, MI
Rutherford Hospital, Inc. - Rutherfordton, NC
Mercy Hospital Clermont - Batavia, OH
Union Hospital - Dover, OH
Sycamore Medical Center - Miamisburg, OH
Licking Memorial Hospital - Newark, OH
Wooster Community Hospital - Wooster, OH
Memorial Regional Medical Center - Mechanicsville, VA
The Monroe Clinic - Monroe, WI
Aurora Sheboygan Memorial Medical Center - Sheboygan, WI
Aurora West Allis Medical Center - West Allis, WI

Small Community Hospitals
Chambers Memorial Hospital - Danville, AR
St. Elizabeth Community Hospital - Red Bluff, CA
Desert Valley Hospital - Victorville, CA
Sacred Heart Hospital on the Emerald Coast - Miramar Beach, FL
Meadows Regional Medical Center - Vidalia, GA
The King's Daughters' Hospital & Health Services - Madison, IN
Major Hospital - Shelbyville, IN
Saint Joseph-London - London, KY
Mercy Hospital Cadillac - Cadillac, MI
Central Michigan Community Hospital - Mount Pleasant, MI
Saint Joseph Mercy Saline Hospital - Saline, MI
Douglas County Hospital - Alexandria, MN
Lakeview Hospital - Stillwater, MN
Parkland Health Center-Farmington - Farmington, MO
Jamestown Hospital - Jamestown, ND
Duncan Regional Hospital - Duncan, OK
St. Mary's Jefferson Memorial Hospital - Jefferson City, TN
St. Mary's Medical Center of Campbell County - LaFollette, TN
Lake Whitney Medical Center - Whitney, TX
Castleview Hospital - Price, UT

About Thomson Reuters
The Healthcare business of Thomson Reuters produces insights, information, benchmarks and analysis that enable organizations to manage costs, improve performance and enhance the quality of healthcare. Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, scientific, healthcare and media markets, powered by the world's most trusted news organization. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs more than 50,000 people in 93 countries. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: TRI); Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: TRI); London Stock Exchange (LSE: TRIL); and Nasdaq (NASDAQ: TRIN). For more information, go to http://www.thomsonreuters.com/.

Read article...

Recent News: Montana Exchange Begins Pulling Data Together

KALISPELL, MT, February 13, 2009 -- Northwest Healthcare, the largest participant in the Health Information Exchange of Montana (HIEM), has begun to aggregate data from all core clinical systems.

This implementation of technology developed by the Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) is the first phase in the initiative to integrate patient information across six hospitals and more than a dozen clinics. Deployment of ICA technology throughout the remaining hospitals and clinics is slated for completion by mid-2009.

The HIEM contracted with Nashville-based ICA in July 2008 for a single-source solution to consolidate patient data from existing clinical information systems in medical facilities throughout a 45,000 square-mile area in western Montana, with the goal of improving quality, reducing duplication of effort and facilitating communication across treatment settings.

Read article...

Worth a Read: Articles of Interest to the Healthcare IT Field

Back to School
By: Mark Hagland
HealthCare Informatics, May, 2009

Some CIO’s, recognizing the need for their IS team to have advanced degrees, are supporting a variety of educational methods to gain optimal team functioning.

Read article...

The Great Aggregation
By: Daphne Lawrence
HealthCare Informatics, May, 2009

As hospitals move go to pay for performance and are expected to meet federal standards, information is the life-blood of survival for healthcare. There is an absolute need to bring disparate application information to the fingertips of the users and decision makers.

Read article...

Stimulating Times
By: David Raths
HealthCare Informatics, May, 2009

Ever since President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act into law in February CIO’s are trying to unravel the terms – especially “meaningful use”. Clues point to e-prescribing, CPOE, quality reporting, and clinical decision support as projects that will be supported in the stimulus package.

Read article...

Innovation and IT Leadership
By: Tim Tolan
HealthCare Informatics, April, 2009

The areas of service, quality, leadership and communication are places where top CIO’s can make an impact as an innovator.

Read article...