Meaningful Use - Final Rule - Again!

Ok,

So my sales team twisted my arm to put this on here. So, please bear with me: Here it goes.

By now, you have all read the 864 page meaningful use Final Rule and are prepared to be compliant right? Well, if not, we’d like to talk to you about Compliance Reporting for Meaningful Use.

As you may already know, there are 15 core measures that you have to electronically report to CMS to be compliant. And you may already know that a CCHIT certified EHR alone is not going to help you get there. Let us take a moment to introduce you to Meta Analytix’s comprehensive informatics platform designed specifically for Healthcare, Integra.

As a savvy executive, you already know what Informatics can bring to the table in increasing profitability, improving your organization’s competitiveness in the marketplace and having a single view of your entire organization. Some of the statistics that you may not know are these. Best in class Hospitals that have used centralized business intelligence have achieved:

* Increased profitability from 1%-9% (Aberdeen Research)

* An average of 36 days to receive payment on accounts vs. 46 days for all others (Aberdeen Research)

* A nurse turnover rate of 10% vs. 14% for all others (Aberdeen Research)

Given this scenario, how can we help? Take a look at the salient features of Integra

* Over 400 Healthcare measures pre-loaded, including meaningful use measures

* Enterprise Class ETL platform built in (http://expressor-software.com).

* Can acquire data from your EHR software, SAS, COBOL and others

* Standardized data definitions pre-loaded for Healthcare

* Flex Dimensional^TM Data Model ready for staging and reporting

* Enterprise Open Source BI platform for reporting, drill down analysis and dashboard building.

* Low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

* Low implementation lifecycle. (Avoid making costly purchases of individual components and building from scratch)

* Experienced Consultants to work with you to implement your informatics platform seamlessly with minimal workflow interruption

As you can see, Integra is the only informatics platform pre-built for Healthcare and ready to get you to to Meaningful Use in the quickest possible time. For additional information, please see the attached brochure or visit our website: http://www.metaanalytix.com

Contact us for a demo or for your consulting needs:

Phone: 866.611.8595 Ext. 1 or Ext. 2

Email: info@metaanalytix.com

Competition

No, I didn't get lost on the golf course and am just finding my way back! A client kept me busy...imagine that! But that is not the reason for this post. The reason for this post is "Competition"! Well, if you abstract to another level, it is about "Goals".

Have I managed to confuse you yet? Well then, read on. Things are about to become clearer. So, as I was talking to a potential client, I approached him with the same questions that have listed out in these blogs. One of them was "Have you defined your measures yet?". But before he answered, he said "Kishore, my biggest problem is competition. I often make 40 cents on the dollar, there are several other clinics who offer the same services we do in the general area and I am losing my shirt. Someone suggested business intelligence as a solution, but I have no idea where to start". As I was listening to him, light bulb went off in my head! Folks, I am going to tell you something that I normally don't tell anyone...I was wrong! See, just then, I realized I had made a big assumption. I had assumed that everyone knew they WHY of informatics. Not so. So, here is step 1. Know your GOALS!

How do you define your goal? Well, you know this better than any consultant you will ever hire. Your goals may be to "Save more money" or "Comply with ARRA" or "Need to improve my quality of care". Once you know your goals for your measures, i.e, what are you going to do with them, you now have a good idea of "What to measure". Now you can define the measures and follow the steps I have outlined in my previous posts. So folks, happy "goaling"! (Is that a new word? Hmmm....need to check it!)

Health Informatics in plain English

Lesson #1. It's the Data!

So, if you have any doubts as to what that statement means, here it is. It is the data that is of value to the business. Yes, I said business. Unless you work for a software making mega corporation whose revenues come from the software you make, you are nothing but a cost center and the only way you are going to add value to your organization is by "saving" the "business" money. Now that we are clear about us IT folks' role, let me explain the rule I mentioned above. The only thing that adds value to the business is timely delivery of "good quality" information, so they can make intelligent decisions. "Data becomes information, then knowledge, then value".

Lesson #2. ETL, BI, DW, Semantics, Metadata, mart, cube, ontology etc. etc.

If you are a business person trying to make decisions on process improvements or looking to reduce the cost of healthcare coverage, this should all be gobblygook to you.

In fact, the next time one of us IT folks tells you that you can't have your data because of any of the above said acronyms or any other new reason that doesn't make sense to you, please feel free to whack us with whatever is in your hand.

Lesson #3. Data Quality
How many times have you heard this phrase ..."we're having data quality issues..." or "data quality is our number one issue.."? Well, whack us IT folks again! Why? Because, simply put, it means "bad data" and it is our fault that we can't fix all the bad data flowing through the systems. Actually my IT bretheren, you can block this whack, because we didn't create the data. But we can definitely help scrub it. Again, the point being it is all about the data.

Lesson #4. Define your measures!
Here's where we IT folk have the upper hand. If you think you know what your measurements are, think again. If you think that number of surgeries done a day is a good performance measure for your employees, think again! Define your measures (Refer to lesson #1 if you have questions). Apply critical thinking to it. Then let us know which ones are the most important ones so you can make your intelligent decisions and keep more revenue coming in the pipeline so we don't go down like AIG! Phew, that took a long breath. In fact, defining your measure should be your first priority when undertaking any Informatics initiative. If you have your measures defined, then all the acronyms & terms in lesson #2 will fall into place.

Lesson #5. Tools, platforms and appliances!
This should be the last of your concerns. Again, refer to lesson #1 if you have any questions. Tools are a way to do things. One may be better than the other depending on your current infrastructure and investments. But remember, once you know exactly what you want, tools become just that. Tools selected to do a particular job.

Next week: How to get there