This week in Orlando, CIOs from hospital systems and insurance providers are sharing their insights and best practices into the complex world of healthcare IT. But it’s not just health IT leaders from the private sector that are lending their voices to the conversation, federal healthcare leaders are sharing their experiences too and looking for tools and technologies that will be the foundation of the next-generation of healthcare delivered to warfighters, veterans, and citizens. Read on to learn more about the federal success stories and how agencies are embracing a culture of innovation in health IT.
Department of Defense Launches Next-Gen Electronic Health Records System
Military healthcare took a bold step into the 21st Century last week, when an electronic health records (EHR) pilot program was launched at the Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington. Military Health System GENESIS (MHS GENSIS) will guide the Department of Defense’s (DOD) roll-out of additional instances of MHS GENESIS. While functionality is limited during the initial phases of the program, access to EHRs will enable healthcare providers to access information on patients and collaborate with other DOD medical personnel. According to a recent article in NextGov the ultimate goal is to house the records of all 9.4 million DOD medical beneficiaries in the system and enable interoperability between the DOD, Veterans Affairs, and private healthcare providers.
Creating a Lean, Efficient Workflow Drives End User Satisfaction
Just reading the synopses of the challenges facing federal agencies as they participate in the digital transformation of healthcare systems, the complexities are clear. But what if there were tools available to create a lean and efficient workflow that increased patient satisfaction and that of the customer service representative? Watch the short video below to hear what Fritz Haimberger, Vice President of Appian’s Healthcare Provider Practice shares an example of how digital transformation – in this case a next-generation document management solution – can facilitate the coordination of disparate sources of information and drive a seamless user experience.
Under Scrutiny VA Evaluates Options for Improving Delivery of Healthcare Services
Congress has put the Department of Veterans Affairs under the spotlight once again for how it is managing its IT investments. From requests to provide Congress with quarterly reports on its IT investments to pressure to adopt commercial solutions to fix its legacy EHR system, VistA, it seems that the new secretary, David Shulkin, MD, along with Deputy CIO Rob Thomas, have their work cut out for them. But is a commercial solution the best option for the VA to pursue, especially as they look to drive greater interoperability with other agencies and myriad private sector healthcare organizations? As Oscar Diaz, CEO of the Healthcare Services Platform Consortium noted “the VA needs to carefully consider how it replaces VistA…None of the EHR solutions covers the breath that VistA provides the VA.”
Streamlining Back-End Processes is More than Half the Battle
While delivering healthcare services is one type of complex process that federal agencies grapple with, it’s the step before that can cause even more headaches. Determining eligibility for services and benefits and ensuring uniformity of decision-making – referred to as constituent case management — is frequently cited as the biggest obstacle to getting healthcare projects initiated, delivered on time and on budget, and able to scale for long-term viability. But what if there were options to streamline the development process, manage the back-end processing, and deliver a sophisticated platform? You can learn more and download the case study here.
