Looking for an IT Job?

Announced yesterday by the White House Rural Economic Forum and President Obama jobs initiatives recommended by the White House Rural Council for growing the economy and creating jobs in rural America. The intiative will expand availability for Health Information Technology (HIT) in Rural America which is good news for the Americans looking for work within the Information Technology (IT) sector.

The Council’s recommendations focus on key areas of need in rural communities, including helping rural small businesses access capital, expanding rural job search and training services, and increasing rural access to health care workers and technology. 

Sources:

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/ : Obama's new rural jobs initiative includes health IT

http://www.whitehouse.gov/ :  President Announces New Jobs Initiatives for Rural America

What states have the most connected hospitals?

U.S. News and World Report recently published a list of the 118 Most Connected Hospitals in the United States. The list was compiled by HIMSS Analytics, a division of the nonprofit Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society that analyzes use of health information technology. HIMSS Analytics scores hospitals’ adoption of electronic medical records on a scale from Stage 0 (no use of EMRs) to Stage 7 (full use). Only hospitals at Stage 6 or Stage 7 appear on the Most Connected Hospitals list. (See the methodology for Most Connected Hospitals.)

The top three states with hospitals on the Most Connected Hospitals list are:
California - 14 hospitals
Illinois - 11 hospitals
Texas - 10 hospitals

California had the most amount of Stage 7 hospitals on the list with seven of the 25, Illinois had two stage 7 hospitals and Texas only had one stage 7 hospital. Virginia has eight hospitals on list of 118 Most Connected Hospitals and half of those hospitals are stage 7 hospitals with full integration.

Thirteen of the 50 states did not even make it on the list. We would love to know your thoughts on this list as well as hospital connectivity.

For a complete list of The Most Connected Hospitals by State visit azimahealth.com

Source: Most Connected Hospitals: the List - US News and World Report

Pioneer ACO draft leaked - The Hill's Healthwatch

Pioneer ACO draft under consideration by the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services was leaked to The Hill.

The 43-page draft offers a detailed specification of the methods that Medicare proposes to identify or calculate:
• The ACO‐aligned population;
• The reference population;
• Baseline expenditures;
• The expenditure benchmark; and
• Performance period expenditures.

For the complete story: Pioneer ACO draft leaked - The Hill's Healthwatch

How much do you know about the Health Care Reform Laws?

We are just six months away from some milestones with the health care reform. How much do you know about the upcoming changes? Below is a ten question quiz to test your knowledge related to the health care reform provided by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

http://healthreform.kff.org/quizzes/health-reform-quiz.aspx

Share your quiz results with us in the comments section below.

About the Kaiser Family Foundation:
The Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit, private operating foundation focusing on the major health care issues facing the U.S., as well as the U.S. role in global health policy. Unlike grant-making foundations, Kaiser develops and runs its own research and communications programs, sometimes in partnership with other non-profit research organizations or major media companies.

The foundation strives to serve as a non-partisan source of facts, information, and analysis for policymakers, the media, the health care community, and the public. Our product is information, always provided free of charge — from the most sophisticated policy research, to basic facts and numbers, to information young people can use to improve their health or elderly people can use to understand their Medicare benefits.

The Kaiser Family Foundation is not associated with Kaiser Permanente or Kaiser Industries.

Source- Kaiser Family Foundation's website (www.kff.org)

Lack of IT Infrastructure Cited by Administrators as an Obstacle Related to Forming an ACO

In a recent survey conducted by AMN Healthcare, 58% of the 882 healthcare facility administrators and physicians who participated indicated their facilities are either in the process of forming Accountable Care Organization (ACO) or are considering doing so. One of the top three challenges facing those moving towards ACOs is the lack an integrated IT systems.

The other top challenges include:

·         Physician Alignment (42%)

·         Lack of Capital (38%)

·         Lack of Integrated IT Systems (31%)

·         Lack of Evidence-Based Treatment Protocol Data (25%)

The study was conducted by AMN Healthcare, a healthcare and workforce solutions organization. The information for this article can be found in an AMN Healthcare press release available on the PR Newswire.

Primary Care can Save 50,000 lives in the United States

If the United States reached the highest level of primary care, nearly 50,000 fewer deaths and more than 435,000 fewer hospitalizations would occur, according to a recent report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and article by Frederik Joelving of Reuters.

Chiang-Hua Chang, a researcher at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in Lebanon, New Hampshire, said, "areas with more primary care are more likely to have better outcomes" and "things like better organization or coordination of care might also play a role" in a patient's outcome.

Patient Experience Most Important to Hospital Executives

According to recent study conducted by The Beryl Institute, the patient experience is a top priority for hospital executives in the next three years.
Interestingly, a majority of the hospital executives do not have a formal definition of the patient experience. The participants sited more tactical issues related to the patient experience. The top three tactical areas being:
- Noise Reduction
- Discharge Process and Instructions
- Patient Rounding

How do you define the patient experience? Leave comments below...

Patient Experience Benchmark Study