Thagard Student Health Center

Past, Present and Future

Electronics

Louis Garofalo

Electronics: Past

• Only 10 Computers at Thagard before 2000• By 2005 there were 75-80• Set $500,000 budget for going electronic• Medicat• Transition affected patient capacity• One Failed Implementation

Electronics: Present

• IT Staff• Doctors, Nurses, IT Specialists

• EMRs• Least Utilized Technology

Electronics: Future

• E-mail Notifications• Online Patient Portal• Electronic Doctors Notes• Big Bend RHIO

Employees & Services

Courtney Duran

Employees & Services: Past

The Old System• Typing was an issue-paperwork was done in the office at

the front desk• Often slowed down the nurses and the patients• Wait times were long• Making appointments was sometimes troublesome• Done by phone• Cancellation fees

Employees and Services: Present

Finances• Programming, support• Saved around $150,000 with paper and out of date systems

Employees• Staff now works with computers daily

The New System• Medicat• Make/cancel appointments online• Message physicians or nurses• View general medical history• Edit/correct insurance information• Fill out forms prior to coming in

Employees and Services: Future

Thagard Services• Medical records on flash drives• Touch technology• Tele-Medicine• Clinicians may access the system from home• More automation

The Staff• Looking at hiring more IT staff members• Help train nurses and physicians• Ensure that the system does not have meltdowns

Problems, Drawbacks, Complaints

Eli Perl

Problems, Drawbacks, Complaints: Past

• Paper-based record keeping system• Bulky• Slow• Unorganized • Inefficient

Employees had little to no computer skills

Problems, Drawbacks, Complaints: Present

• Spent $250,000 for the new EMR system from Quest Diagnostics

• Four staff members were “relieved of their positions” due to qualification issues necessary for the new EMR system

• Training staff was difficult:• Varied learning curve • Employees had little to no computer skills• Some were opposed and threatened to quit

Problems, Drawbacks, Complaints: Future

• There will always be potential issues• Working under continuous University budget cuts • EMRs are relatively new and may fail altogether if not

universally adopted.

• By 2015…?

Appointment Scheduling at TSHC

Casey Jones

Your herpes test came back

negative.

Appointment Scheduling at TSHC

• Past• Maintained a patient queuing system that incorporated call-in

appointments with limited walk-in capacity.

• Appointments were recorded into a flat-file system that was entirely dependent on clerical workers for data entry and maintenance.

• The system was functional, yet not very efficient.

Appointment Scheduling at TSHC

• Present• Call-in appointments are handled by a central call center, and

recorded into an SQL database.

• Walk-in capacity, other than that for medical emergencies, has been eliminated.

• An online scheduling system is currently in the final stages of testing and development, and is planned for release in January.

Appointment Scheduling at TSHC

Appointment Scheduling at TSHC

Appointment Scheduling at TSHC

• Future• The ability to call in for an appointment will be maintained

indefinitely, provided mainly for emergency visits.

• Tasks that once required human intervention can be carried out algorithmically (in software).

• Storage of appointment data in a modern SQL database opens the door for real-time analysis, load-balancing, and efficiency tweaking.

E-Prescribing

Zach Vaugh

E-Prescribing: Past

• November 7, 2005 - CMS published foundation standards that became effective on January 1, 2006. 

• Medicare Modernization Act• 2006 - MMA required CMS to implement pilot projects to

test additional standards

E-Prescribing: Present

• April 7, 2008 - The final e-prescribing rule was published at the Federal Register.

• Provides three electronic tools for use in e-prescribing:1. Formulary and benefit transactions2. Medication history transactions3. Fill status notifications

E-Prescribing: Future

• We don’t know????BUT!

• Medicare is offering incentives towards physicians that offer E-Prescribing.

• This program began January 1, 2009 and provides incentives for eligible professionals who are successful e-prescribers.

Datamining

Jeff Budnick

Data Mining: Past

• Prior to 2001• There was none • Everything done by paper• No way to send great amounts of data without great amounts of

paper• Trees would hate us

• After 2001, only limited data• Only raw data.• Info on diagnosis data• Limited Sending abilities

Data Mining: Present

• After Implementation…• Able to:

• gather large amounts of data• send large amounts of data• disassociate data from patients

• Send data to multiple places to be analyzed• ACHA

• SCHA

Data Mining: Future!

• There will be Deloreans• Soon while we fly around in cars, we’ll be able to control

everything about our health care• We’ll be able to:

• View test results online • Make appointments online• Perform simple tests at home

• All the data that is gathered can be sent to your doctor and to other organizations

Examples of HIT at Other CollegesThe Bad…The Good…The Questionable…

Michele Kiker

Who?•UC Berkeley and Mills College

What?•160,000 Total •97,000 SSN

When?•October 9, 2008•April 9, 2009

How?Secured Databases

UC Berkeley

Indiana University Who?•Students and Families

What?•PHR’s•EHR’s•Online appointments

When?•2009

How?

Mid-State Technical College, University of Wisconsin Marathon County & Northcentral Technical College.

Who?•Women•State Medicaid program

What?•Screen Kiosks•Free Contraceptives

How?•Foundation Award

Questions? Thoughts? Comments? Witticisms?