Building A Software Company For An Organization

One of the issues with the electronic systems in health care for MU is the ability to retrieve laboratory results during a patient’s visit. In 2013, Hinrichs and Zarcone reveal that over 70% of medical decisions are determined by laboratory results. In 2007, AU Health implemented Cerner Millennium PowerChart that displays clinical data to improve the point of care for patients. With the PowerChart solution, the patient’s information can be easily verified, vital signs can be entered, and family history can be updated. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) signed by President Obama in 2013 places emphasis on expanding insurance coverage of medical care for everyone. As part of the ACA, the improvements in the way these results are exchanged and transmitted will add value to quality, safety, efficiency of health information (Hinrichs & Zarcone, 2013). The transmission and availability of EHR affect how other health professionals send and receive information at the local, state, and national levels.

SHC mission was to care, to educate, and to discover for the benefit of patients and larger community. Multiple problems and opportunities were present within the organization’s IT infrastructure that needed to be resolved before implementing an EMR system. The case stated, “In the early 2000s, SHC was in no shape to support an EMR system comparable to other healthcare groups” (Denend & Zenios, 2010). They needed to fix their existing IT infrastructure in order to resolve network, security, and regulatory compliance (HIPPA) issues. After addressing these concerns, they could focus on a solution for an EMR system. The strategic motivation behind implementing an EMR system was to reduce cost, meet competitive (internal and external) pressures, improve

All together, Cerner is collaborating with our clients to put a system in healthcare, strengthen clinical practice and find entrepreneurial ways to solve healthcare’s great challenges.

Cerner offers Skybox storage for the storage of patient information. It has an unlimited storage capacity and the data is uploaded once and then available in the Cloud at anytime and location. Data is located at the hospital site and at Cerner data center locations. This allows for file replication in the event of data loss or corruption. Military grade encryption is utilized with continuous intrusion monitoring (Cerner, 2015). Security standards are also built into the system to meet HIPAA standard. HIPAA training must be completed by each new employee and a signature must be obtain that the employee will follow HIPAA guidelines. Access to patient information is only given if it is pertains to their hired position. The hospital must develop HIPAA policies that are updated annually. User specific logins and passwords are utilized to sign into the system and they need to be changed at set

I spoke with the Director of Informatics, Dorothy Vanderweil, to learn how our hospital addressed the implementation of an EHR. Dorothy was able to tell me how they assessed readiness, planned their approach, selected a certified EHR, and conducted training and implementation of the EHR. HMC assessed the specific flow of each department. At the start, they discovered there were individual needs for each department. They then assessed which departments could consolidate to share work flow. They evaluated the need for training of individuals and found many staff could barely use a mouse. HMC determined which devices would best suited when documenting in the EHR, along with how many devices were needed. The planning then began and the decision was made to use the C5 tablet for documenting. Of course, they needed to know the cost involved with the procurement of these devices. Decisions were made as to how and what they wanted to be able to view and chart. Since they were moving from paper charting there was no data integration to be concerned about. They formulated a plan for training including the adoption of super users for extra support during the first few months of going live. They selected Cerner as the EHR system to implement. Once all staff were trained and physicians as well, a decision was made to go live. By January 2010 HMC was ready and implemented the EHR certified system Cerner. Go live was very well planned with extra staff

Cerner integrates patient information throughout all of the departments within a hospital setting. This program also has the ability to expand into other health care facilities within a community, such as long term care, hospice, and home health (Cerner, 2015). Cerner offers community hospitals solutions in their “Software as a Service” model. Cerner will host the software program, provide upgrades, and monitor performance to ensure stability. This will allow community hospitals to have a predictable cost for the software (Cerner, 2015). Another advantage of this system is the “Smart Room”. Wireless devices such as infusion pumps, and vital sign monitoring devices can access the system. This allows for instant documentation of this information into a patient chart and will alert if abnormalities are noted. Bar code scanners and carts are available as well. These items improve patient safety (Cerner, 2015). Cerner is capable of CPOE, electronic prescription transmitting, and has the ability to capture data and immunization statuses to meet reporting regulations.

Meaningful use virtually ensures that healthcare organizations install CEHRTs for more than just incentives. Providers must use CEHRTs in a worthwhile manner, exchange electronic PHI to improve the quality of care, and submit CQMs. These requirements will enhance the excellence and support pay-for-reporting programs. CEHRTs have a built-in functionality that facilitates the collection of CQM data and has a direct correlation to future reimbursements. A CQM can provide information that supports clinical processes found to be effective in reducing complications associated with specific diseases. Healthcare facilities will report CQM results demonstrating that

Competition between Cerner and Epic is well known in the health care industry. True interoperability will not be achieved until competitors put aside their differences and work together. Like I said in a previous post, the Sequoia Group has garnered a great deal of interest among EMR vendors who want to utilize the Carequality Interoperability Framework.

The American Hospital Association’s McKesson Quest for Quality Prize compares hospitals that are following certain criteria, such as, partnerships with consumers and families (Johnson et al., 2008). The hospital that receives this recognition also procures a $75,000 award. The Joint Commission includes the Patient-Centered Designation Program award on their website under a hospital’s profile, which people may view to take control of their health (Johnson et al., 2008). Many other institutions offer hospital acknowledgments like these that can promote innovation within hospitals, which can be slow to change.

Cerner Corporation designs, develops, markets, hosts and supports the health care information technology, health care devices, hardware and contents solution for health care organizations. Cerner technologies connects people and system over worldwide and our wide range of services supports the clinical, financial and operational needs of organization.

Their features have a lot of similarities such as (reducing workload to maintain workflow, specimens tracking, error alert, and immediate availability of results. Both are built for incorporation of new technologies, which is very important since Health Technology is evolving every day. When comparing their features it appears that SCC Soft Computer provides higher and latest technology, but I have difficulty understanding few of their terminology when describing their product features. Therefore, to me, I come to the conclusion that adapting to their application might be challenging and lengthy. In contrast, I was able to relate more and was more familiar win how Cerner described their product features. Although they are aware of the market competition and the meaningful use require by government and federal rule and regulation. They are more patient oriented for safety and the capacity of the clinicians to utilize their product with no challenge, but using the product tools to improve patient care and safety. Also, they have two products to choose from that best fit specific demand. Therefore, if given the opportunity, I would choose the Cerner application for their simplicity. To support my choice, Cerner received a UX Award for best Clinical Healthcare Experience Power Chart Touch in 2013.

It was so good to see you last week. I have a CNO at All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg FL is looking for a client who has Cerner that a Children’s Hospital. She has a meeting in a few weeks with all CNO’s of Children Hospital and would like to meet with the two to talk about how they are using Cerner specifically the patient tracking portals boards. Let me know if you have any questions.

The resource interviewed is a stockholder from E-Health Partners. Motivated to implement the new healthcare technology, this group of physicians and executives within the health care world, acquired the electronic health record platform developed by the Quality Improvement Professional Research Organization (QIPRO) in 2009. Perhaps, E Health Partners (EHRez) is the fastest growing healthcare technology company in Puerto Rico, providing complete electronic health record solutions for providers. Actually, the IT department provides continuous customer support that includes service, backup, upgrades, configuration, and training, on site and remotely.

Also, Cerner and Meditech have a few differences in their function and features in their applications. For the Cerner Powerchart Ambulatory, it does not provide application programming interface (API), but Meditech does. API is a program that allows two software programs to communicate with each other. In Meditech, a web API solution reduces development timelines enabling applications to be released to the market more quickly (Apcar, 2015). Therefore, it allows a fast, reliable and secure access to improve patient outcomes (Apcar, 2015). Another difference in feature is online booking. For, Cerner Powerchart does not include online booking like Meditech does. Online booking is used to start the scheduling

A team of clinical adoption strategists from Cerner met with representatives at the acute care hospitals. These process team leaders, who are subject matter experts for the team they represent, will serve to ensure that all designs, decisions, and work flow changes are discussed at the hospital level and communicated so all have an equal voice in this project. These process team leaders will meet with all levels of staff at their hospital to gather information related to current processes and practices. The IT Clinical analysts are assigned to work with each process team to facilitate, gather, and support completion of assigned tasks. This information will be shared with all other process teams at weekly meetings as they work to implement a standardized, enterprise wide clinical information system. Cerner Solution Architects or SA’s, are assigned to each team and will guide us through this process every step of the way.