We have been working on adding additional features of Community Health Network's Personal Health Record (PHR) and a question occurred to me.
What is the expectation of privacy a patient has about the data they enter into a PHR on a health care provider’s web site?
If we used the information to help with providing patient care, do we need to ask the patient's permission before viewing the information? Or is there an assumption that we can use the data because they have entered it into a health care organization's PHR as long as we follow the requirements detail in HIPAA?
Google, Microsoft, Revolution Health and the other non-health care organizations offering PHRs do not need to follow HIPAA guidelines as far as I understand because the law was only written for health care entities.
I think I'm leaning to that we should ask for permission but it is not required for us to view it. Or we should detail in the PHR terms of use that we can use the information to help provide patient care and that we will not sell the information.
What do you think?
Posted Friday, May 30, 2008 by
Community Health Network
A Community clinical nurse specialist and the network director of epilepsy/pulmonary DRG management, are featured in an in-depth video about Community Health Network’s world-class performance in preventing ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP). All of the network’s seven ICUs have gone at least one year without a VAP.
The video serves as a VHA Inc. Leading Practice Blueprint that maps out all of the steps that have been proven to lead the most effective and efficient care for VAP. Produced by VHA, the video was developed after VHA recognized Community Hospital East as a leading practice hospital for its work in preventing VAP. The video will serve to educate and encourage 1,400 VHA member hospitals nationwide to adapt and adopt these practices into their patient care patterns.
“This is the ultimate jewel in our crown of safety and quality achievements. VHA thought so and blueprinted it for all of VHA,” says Glenn J. Bingle, M.D., chief medical officer and network vice president, medical and academic affairs.
Posted Monday, May 19, 2008 by
Brian Wyrick
Google Health is live and looking good. I'll be playing around with it for a bit.
List of current providers:
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a patient care, teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School. BIDMC offers a patient portal, called Patientsite, that connects its patents to their medical records online. If you are a patient at BIDMC, you can securely import your medical records from BIDMC to your Google Health Account.MyChart is an encrypted, online health management tool that gives Cleveland Clinic patients access to their medical records. You can securely import your MyChart records into your Google Health Profile. MyChart® licensed from Epic Systems Corporation, © 1999-2008. Patents pending.
Longs Drug Stores is a leader in pharmacy services. Working with Google, Longs now lets you import your prescription history from Longs.com into Google Health. If you get your prescriptions filled at Longs Drugs, you can have a current list of all your medications securely imported into your Google Health Account.
Medco is a leader in online pharmacy management and mail order drugs. We specialize in reducing the cost of your prescriptions while improving your care. If you have a Medco member ID card, you can securely import your medication history from Medco.com to Google Health.
MinuteClinic is the pioneer and largest provider of retail-based health care and is a subsidiary of CVS Caremark, the largest pharmacy health care provider in the US. Our MinuteClinic nurse practitioners provide quality medical care for common illnesses. If you receive treatment at a MinuteClinic you can securely import your visit summary into your Google Health profile.
Quest Diagnostics, the world's leading provider of laboratory testing, information, and services is providing secure access to lab test results through a patient's Google Health Account
RxAmerica offers discounts on prescriptions at retail pharmacies and the convenience of home delivery through a mail order prescription program. If you are a member of RxAmerica, either through your health insurance plan, your employer or through a Medicare Part D plan, you can securely import your medication history from RxAmerica.com to Google Health. Not everyone is eligible - so click to find out if you are.
Walgreens, one of the largest retail pharmacies in the country now lets you import your prescription history from Walgreens.com into Google Health. If you get your prescriptions filled at Walgreens, you can now have a current list of all your medications securely imported into your Google Health Account.
Posted Friday, May 9, 2008 by
Maggie Swan
Quality indicator data for Q4 2007 has been posted at eCommunity.com/quality.
The data reflect Community's high quality of patient care for indicators in three categories:
- Heart attack
- Congestive heart failure
- Pneumonia
Community's quality data are compared against national hospital averages and are provided for all network hospitals: Community Hospitals North, East, South and Anderson, and The Indiana Heart Hospital.
We also have added a new section for Outpatient Quality of Care. On this page you can review quality measures regarding care provided at physician offices and/or by Community physicians. Quality measures are compared across 2005 - 2007 for diabetic and heart failure patient care, pediatric immunizations, women's health, safety, patient satisfaction and improvement projects.
More information, including national averages for hospital quality data, can be found at http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov
Posted Friday, April 4, 2008 by
Michael Fisher
I met with a vendor earlier this week and one of the services they are selling was Business Process Management (BPM). I realized that the e-Business team has been doing this for several years now, before it was the new thing. We have been building applications that are designed with the process in mind. We build applications that improve process and workflow. Our applications work within the process workflow already created.
On the other hand, IT in many organizations builds or buys an application and fits the process to it, or tries to. One reason for project failure with applications and vendor product purchases is that they don't match the process previously developed in the organization. The project fails because there is an attempt that doesn't succeed to change the process or the process isn't understood.
In our requirements gathering we review the current process and sometimes make suggestions to improve the process. But then take the process requirements and build an application that meets the requirements and matches the predefined process. I think that is a major factor in our success in this organization and outside it.
I believe this is especially true in the health care field. The medical staff is very busy and there checks in place that need to be met to insure quality health care. Processes have been created and in place for some time and it can be difficult to change them. Health care technology systems generally don’t work together well and there are difficulties with interoperability. Forcing a system into this environment without considering the work flows and processes already in place will ultimately fail. Failure can mean a lack of usage of the system, a break down in work flow or issues with patient care.
On the other hand, IT in many organizations builds or buys an application and fits the process to it, or tries to. One reason for project failure with applications and vendor product purchases is that they don't match the process previously developed in the organization. The project fails because there is an attempt that doesn't succeed to change the process or the process isn't understood.
In our requirements gathering we review the current process and sometimes make suggestions to improve the process. But then take the process requirements and build an application that meets the requirements and matches the predefined process. I think that is a major factor in our success in this organization and outside it.
I believe this is especially true in the health care field. The medical staff is very busy and there checks in place that need to be met to insure quality health care. Processes have been created and in place for some time and it can be difficult to change them. Health care technology systems generally don’t work together well and there are difficulties with interoperability. Forcing a system into this environment without considering the work flows and processes already in place will ultimately fail. Failure can mean a lack of usage of the system, a break down in work flow or issues with patient care.
