Medical Transcription and EMRs: Opportunity Lost

Former CEO of the American Association for Medical Transcription (now known as the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity), Claudia Tessier wrote a very compelling piece for MRInstitute News concerning the ever changing landscape of medical transcription and electronic health records.

In her post, Medical Transcription and EMRs: Opportunity Lost, Tessier prefaced the article by stating that there are disparities among statistical information for the medical transcription industry because it’s an industry that “has neither routinely nor widely shared statistical information about its operations and finances…”  However, all of the numbers show that nationwide, the industry of medical transcription is huge, and it’s continuing to grow.

Tessier goes on to explain how both the medical transcription industry and EMR (Electronic Health Record) industry failed to acknowledge one another early on, which she feels was a grave error.  She writes “Had the transcription industry been willing and prepared early on to move toward integration with EMR and had the healthcare industry recognized the stimulus that medical transcription could bring to EMR adoption, they could have jointly benefited and advanced.”

She follows up with the question: Can medical transcription still stimulate the EMR market?  Tessier says yes and no–but as a whole, “the transcription industry and EMR vendors should ramp up their cooperation to create uniform integration.”

The remainder of Tessier’s article lists inherent concerns about the medical transcription industry from the point-of-view of healthcare providers, administrators and executives, and then she makes some practical suggestions for how the medical transcription industry could potentially alleviate those problems.

Click here to read the entire article: Medical Transcription and EMRs: Opportunity Lost.

2008 National Staffing Employee Week

This year the National Staffing Employee Week will be celebrated  September 15-21.  All across America, temporary medical staffing companies will join the rest of the nation’s supplemental staffing agencies in recognizing the contributions of America’s temporary and contract employees.

The American Staffing Association’s Web site offers a number of different ways to celebrate National Staffing Employee Week, including client thank-you stuffers, employee thank-you stuffers and recognition certificates for your temporary healthcare employees.

The ASA site also offers suggestions on how to spread the word in your community and local media outlets.

Click here for more information on the 2008 National Staffing Week or contact:

Reem El-Khatib
Public Relations Coordinator
703-253-2047
relkhatib@americanstaffing.net

Prescription for the Health Care Crisis

PRN Funding’s consultant liaison, Nikki Flores, had her article featured in September’s issue of Growing Wealth Magazine.

A Prescription for the Health Care Crisis discusses how the health care industry could benefit greatly from accounts receivable factoring, both on the facility side (hospitals, nursing homes, medical clinics) and on the vendor side (temporary nurse staffing agencies, medical transcription services and medical supply companies).

The article also gave brokers and cash flow consultant some advice on how to locate and market invoice factoring for temporary nurse staffing agencies.

Southern Florida hit hardest in RN shortage

The Florida Center for Nursing published a report last month showing that Southern Florida is among the hardest hit when it comes to the national nurse shortage.  Currently, 16 percent of registered nurse jobs are vacant in the Florida-area, and the shortfall is projected to climb rapidly over the next decade.

Research director at the Florida Center for Nursing said these southern Florida facilities will rely heavily on shifting duties to nurses aides and hiring additional temporary nurses to help alleviate the problem.

Read the article: State nursing shortage needs urgent attention, group says in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com for more information. (NOTE: The original article is no longer available online.)

Connecticut’s Nurse Shortage Could Become Crisis

Nurses, nursing school instructors and others in the nursing field in Connecticut (CT) are waiting to hear if a proposed $185,000 federal grant will be approved for the Connecticut State University System’s nursing programs, an Associated Press article announced earlier this week.

If approved, the money would be used to add seats to nursing programs at Central, Western, Southern and Eastern Connecticut state universities to combat the state-wide nurse shortage.  In addition, the money would help fund programs for more graduate training opportunities, scholarships and equipment.

Click here to read the story in the Hartford Courant: Officials: Nursing shortage could become crisis.

2008 Healthcare Staffing Summit Details

This year’s Healthcare Staffing Summit will be held at the Hilton San Francisco on September 8-9.  At the annual summit, CEOs, owners and senior level executives in the healthcare staffing industry gather and discuss topics of both strategic and tactical interest to the full range of healthcare staffing segments – travel nursing, per diem nursing, locum tenens, and allied medical.

Click here for more information on the 2008 Healthcare Staffing Summit.

Safety-Net Hospitals Start Advertising to Insured Patients

A study conducted by the Center for Studying Health System Change was published in the online edition of the Journal of Health Affairs earlier this week, which outlined how safety-net healthcare providers “are under constant pressure to keep a mission-driven purpose while also maintaining financial viability.”

Striving to remain profitable drove Harborview Medical Center (Seatlle, WA) are working to attract insured patients by builing, renovating and advertising speciality services.  In addition, Harborview Medical Center has taken steps to limit uninsured transfer patients from neighboring hospitals.

It’s strategic choices like these that the study’s authors say can threaten the hospital’s mission.

Click here to read an article in The Seattle Times: Do safety-net hospitals put money over mission?

Kaiser Permanente and Microsoft Collaborate on E-Records

In February, Google and The Cleveland Clinic announced that they were collaborating on an electronic personal health record (PHR).  Just five months later, Microsoft and Kaiser Permanente (KP) responded with their own version.

Merging KP’s My Health Manager and Microsoft’s HealthVault platform gives users the ability to access their personal health information from KP and incorporate additional health and wellness management applications and devices.

For now, this program is a just pilot version offered to 159,000 of KP’s employees.  If they pilot is successful, KP will expand the program to its 8 million-plus members.

Cash Crunch Hits New Orleans Hospitals

Five New Orleans-area hospitals struggle to pick up the pieces in a post-Katrina version of the healthcare cash flow crisis, according to an article in The Times-Picayune.

A report issued by the Government Accountability Office broke down the exact losses:

  1. Tulane University Hospital and Clinic lost $42.6 million in 2007 and is projected to lose another $37.6 million in 2008
  2. Touro Infirmary lost $36.4 million in 2007 and is projected to lose another $15 million in 2008
  3. West Jefferson Hospital lost $5.8 million in 2007 and will likely lose another $3.5 million in 2008
  4. East Jefferson Hospital lost $29.6 million in 2007 and is projected to lose another $23.9 million in 2008
  5. Ochsner Health Systems lost $31.6 million in 2007 and will likely lose $23 million in 2008

Click here to read the entire story: N.O.-Area Hospitals Bleeding Red Ink, Federal Report Says

New Jersey Hospitals Battle Healthcare Cash Flow Crisis

As a result of the faltering healthcare cash flow crisis, the Garden State will bid farewell to Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center later this year.  The Plainfield, NJ-hospital has lost $16.8 million last year and will lose another $18 million before closing its doors this year.

The huge growth in uninsured patients, underfunding of Medicaid and Medicare and the New Jersey’s budget cuts are just some of the reasons why Muhlenberg Medical Center has become the 36th hospital in the state to close its doors in the last 15 years.

Click here to read the entire Washington Post article: Without Funds, NJ Hospitals Face Crisis.

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