Gentiva Home Health announced this week that it completed the rollout of a new clinical point-of-care system between September and November of last year. We spoke with Chief Clinical Officer Charlotte Weaver, RN, to learn how the 40-state organization managed to pull it off in only 10 weeks. Her answer reads like a “how-to” manual for software implementations, even if your agency is not one of the nation’s largest.
Commentary by Scott Herrmann With the rise of mHealth — mobile devices used both by patients and their physicians and nurses — competing articles have been appearing with some regularity arguing whether such devices are distractions to physicians and nurses or a gateway to timely information, more accurate diagnosis, and improved treatment. I did not […]
We asked HCTR readers last week to tell us whether their recent change from paper documentation to a clinical point-of-care system improved documentation time, left it about the same or lengthened it. The numbers are interesting (37.5% said shorter time; 50% said longer time; 12.5% said about the same) but the details you offered in the questionnaire’s comments section tell the whole story. Here are your quotes, without comment, editing only for grammar and clarity.
One thoughtless moment, one normally careful driver, one urgent text message, one quick reply…at 65 miles per hour. Car crash to lawsuit to bankruptcy, not for the driver but for his employer. Yes, there was a policy but it wasn’t enough. If only there were some technology to keep employees from texting while driving. We finally found one.
Among the concerns facing home care agencies and hospices today is the issue of billing accuracy. Owners and administrators must be confident that they are submitting claims for visits that actually happened at the time and location recorded on timesheets. As guest writer Scott Herrmann explains, that confidence can never come from paper-based, manual systems, but there is another way.
Hidden among the hundreds of radiology software, computer cart and Meaningful Use solution displays, we discovered quite a collection of important news relevant to home health and hospice. In future issues, we will expand on this week’s brief summaries about Honeywell HomMed, Philips, Independa, LG Electronics, Jardogs, HealthWyse, Intermec, Reflection Solutions, Arcadian Telehealth Monitoring, OtterBox and Sprint.
In one of the week’s best-attended lectures, the CIO and Technical Services Manager from Sutter VNA and Hospice shared real-world insights they gained after rolling out a point-of-care software application on mobile devices.
What technologies are in use by home health care providers today? How will technology shape the home health care industry over the next few years? What technologies are helping home health care providers compete now and remain competitive in the future? We asked you and you told us. Here is analyst and independent consultant Dione Chen’s summary of what you said.
Can health coaching delivered over a smart phone application help people with Type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar any better than traditional treatment methods? The University of Maryland School of Medicine has published a promising answer to that question, after following 163 patients for a year.
Three quarters of U.S. residents living in areas designated as rural are in the South and Midwest. In remote rural areas there are fewer physicians but more hospital beds per 100,000 people than in cities. Chronic conditions are more prevalent in rural communities and in urban and suburban areas. Telemedicine and telehealth have the potential to transform aspects of rural health care, improving accessibility, quality and affordability.
These are a few of the findings presented in a working paper from UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform & Modernization, which you can download in its entirety for free. This article summarizes more findings and conclusions like these.
