UMass Memorial Health Care, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Catholic Healthcare West are investing millions of dollars in multi-year healthcare IT initiatives.
While these initiatives will help them qualify for federal stimulus funds, health system officials say the drivers are improving clinical outcomes and cost savings.
UMMHC, based in Worcester, Mass., has embarked on a $100 million, multi-entity, five-year initiative to create a platform for connected healthcare. The goal is to improve quality, availability and the flow of information and increase efficiency and effectiveness, said Richard Cramer, senior director of health information exchange and ambulatory integration.
UMMHC had underinvested in technology for the last decade, which Cramer said could be viewed as good news. In addition to clinical metrics, UMMHC is focusing on tangible revenue cycle metrics, including improved cash collections as a percentage of net revenue and registration throughput and reduced initial denial rate, gross/net AR days, hold days and administrative write-offs.
“If we do everything right, we could see $20 million,” Cramer said, referring to the federal incentives.
Since San Francisco-based CHCW began its EHR Alliance Program, eight of its hospitals have a comprehensive electronic health record and 12 hospitals are connected with community physicians.
While the program’s focus is on health outcomes and operational excellence and service, CHCW is “galvanizing” its energy on meaningful use.
“We are rating ourselves, addressing each of the 2011, 2013 and 2015 measures,” said Scott Whyte, MD, senior director of ambulatory IT strategy. “We’re driving our schedule to meet our goals – not the other way around – but the incentives are a nice add-on.”
Funded through existing capital, UPMC’s IT initiative is focused on having a complete patient picture using a “patient-centered” solution, said James Venturella, CIO of UPMC’s hospital and community services division.
In addition to improved clinical outcomes, UPMC is realizing operational efficiency. It has seen a 50 percent improvement in patient readiness for the OR, decreasing the time spent seeking information from a high of 41 minutes to only five minutes.
UPMC is “well-positioned” to meet requirements to obtain stimulus funding and achieve interoperability goals tied to the funding, Venturella said.
“A well-implemented, well-designed interoperability solution that delivers Web-based, actionable, organized information to the point-of-care can deliver ROI opportunties beyond meaningful use,” he said.