eHealth in the Spotlight!
The eHealth initiative in Ontario has been taking a media-bashing for several weeks.  Without passing judgement on the various civil servants in the news, I recognize the impact is a loss of public confidence in our collective ability to implement information and communication technology solutions.  It’s bad press that affects health care funders, providers and the Health Information Technology (HIT) sector that delivers solutions.

Meanwhile, the annual report of the Ontario Health Quality Council noted for the fourth straight year that the lack of electronic health records (EHRs) and other information-technology tools is one of the biggest roadblocks to better health care in the province.

“Home Health Care seen as a Priority”
At the Ontario Home Care Association symposium on May 28, David Caplan delivered a speech in which he identified home health care as a priority in the delivery of health care.  He thanked the Providers in the room for their compassion and professionalism.  He then went on to tell us that the eHealth Ontario budget would be spent on Diabetes Registry, Mental Health and Wait times.  Unfortunately there was no investment or incentives mentioned for Home Health IT investment.

In Elinor Caplan’s report, Realizing the Potential of HOME CARE published in 2005 she recommended, “within home care the focus needs to be on electronic referrals from CCACs to community providers, common assessment of client need and an application that captures and stores the client's history and is a building block of the electronic health record”.   In 2009, we are still waiting for the government or CCAC to initiate an electronic health record within the home care sector.  Alberta is probably farthest along on this transformational journey.

When will Home Health get an Electronic Home Care Record?
Can you imagine a time when we have a single record of care for each client?  Clinicians will have access to client history and medical orders at the point of service, better information will lead to more informed decision making and client health outcomes will improve.  Health authorities, funders and providers will benefit from administrative efficiencies leading to a more of our funding going into direct client care.  If we can reduce overhead and administration burden on our care givers then our system capacity.

In the June 2009 US study, ‘Home Health Care Providers Looking to Electronic Health Records to Improve Patient Care’¹, nearly 70% of home health care and nursing home organizations say that EHRs will have a positive impact on their businesses.  The barrier most often mentioned is cost.

The vision of an electronic Home Care Record can be achieved using current and mainstream technology.  The largest challenge, in my opinion is organisational change at the provider level and system change at the health authority level.  We need our home care leaders and policy makers to understand the value of electronic health records and support the transformation of the sector.  Elinor Caplan had it right, now we need the likes of David Caplan to take decisive action.

Barry Billings, President, MedShare
barry.billings@medshare.com

Bayshore’s decision to implement MedShare™ eMotion electronic nurse charting solution reflects their commitment to high quality care based on best-practices. The eMotion software will allow Bayshore’s registered nursing staff to access client information, decision support and care documentation tools at the point of care.  “By moving clinical charting to an electronic format, Bayshore Home Health’s clinicians will be able to ensure positive client outcomes while providing benchmarks for financial and professional service accountability,” says Holly Quinn, chief nursing officer for Bayshore Home Health.

“MedShare’s eMotion system offered us the best solution for ease of implementation and acceptance by our 8,000 caregivers from coast to coast,” says Leigh Popov, director of information systems at Bayshore Home Health. “It is a true store-and-forward telehealth platform that works well with our internal systems environment, and allows seamless integration with outside stakeholders such as health ministries, regional health authorities, long term care facilities and primary care practices.

MedShare and Bayshore have been working towards this partnership for 2 years.  The cost of the electronic nurse charting solution and maturity of MedShare’s eMotion software will deliver a positive value to the organisation while improving the quality of care to Bayshore’s clients.

<Cambridge, Ontario> International Data Corporation (IDC), a leading technology research firm,  has chosen to highlight MedShare in their “10 Canadian Healthcare Solutions to Watch”.  MedShare’s mobile products, MedShare for BlackBerry and MedShare eMotion are helping transform the home healthcare sector from a paper-based industry to an integrated participant in the electronic health records movement.

Home health care workers work in a highly mobile environment and until recently, have struggled with access to scheduling and charting tools at the point of care.  MedShare has invested the last five years developing software solutions specifically designed to enable home care workers by leveraging the latest BlackBerry and Tablet technologies.

Working under the guidance of industry leaders, MedShare has worked closely with Home Care Workers to design improved client records access, improve decision support tools, and replace inefficient paper-based processes.  Traditionally the health care industry has been slow to adopt electronic tools and home health has been no exception. However, the home care industry is now at a pivotal point where the demand and readiness for mobile technology is increasing.  MedShare has established itself as the market leader by solving relevant problems unique to homecare. 

Recently, the National Research Council (NRC) recognized MedShare’s leadership position in the healthcare IT field and supported the research and development of MedShare’s leading Electronic Medical Record (EMR) repository, called MedShare Enterprise Server (MES).  The investment will help MedShare extend their interoperable EMR architecture.  The funding will also support a standardised HL7 integration into other care settings, hospitals and long term care.  MES provides a secure EMR for the home health care sector that can be accessed by nurses, therapists, or personal support workers in the field through a variety of mobile devices. 

A perfect storm scenario is being created through increased in demand for home care services driven by an ageing population that prefer to age at home, a shortage of trained homecare workers available to provide services and policy changes designed to support technology implementation.  IDC has recognized that MedShare is on the leading edge of this industry, and has decided to include them in this year’s annual report.  Krista Napier, analyst, Canadian ICT Innovation at IDC “The healthcare industry is embarking on a transformation – from antiquated technologies and processes to innovative solutions that are all about managing efficiency and accessing large flows of people and information across systems and providers, to reduce costs and improve patient care.  This represents a huge opportunity as they launch impressive solutions that are designed to improve how healthcare is delivered, managed, and experienced in Canada and around the world.”

MedShare is currently working with 5 of the largest home care agencies in Canada providing technology solutions that improve on the paper-based processes currently employed in these agencies.  MedShare enables their workers to perform their roles more effectively, saving these agencies time and money by leveraging technology to improve processes. 

The 2009 Federal Budget proposes a temporary 100% CCA rate for eligible computer hardware and software.  Computers and software need to have been acquired after January 27, 2009 but before February 2011.  Eligible computers and software must not have been used, or acquired for use, for any purpose before being acquired by the taxpayer for use in Canada. 

Additional good news is the fact that the 100% CCA rate will not be subject to the half-year rule.  This means that taxpayers will be able to fully expense their investment in computers in one year.

Check with your company’s tax accountant to determine how your company can best take advantage of this budget measure.

Over the last year, the Professional Services Team has been assessing the ‘Standard’ reports inventory offered in MedShare HC for all customers.  This Fall, PS will launch a new Training Program based on the need to re-group with all MedShare HC customers to review current reports and address the need for new ones.  Part of this delivery has been driven by input from our customers who are focussed and dedicated to measuring the data in MedShare HC in order to  provide the required metrics to their executive team.  As the CCAC’s attempt to drive Quarterly Standardized reporting, it is important not only for MedShare to continue to support the learning and knowledge transfer on these reports to our customers but to also support the ongoing need for improved and accurate statistical reports in MedShare HC.

Stay Tuned for more info coming your way......

On April 30th, the HCUG members held a meeting which was hosted by Community Rehab and gathered at their Cambridge office.  This meeting was considered to be a ‘working session’ whereby MedShare led a cooperative Seminar based on ‘Payment Reconciliation’ in MedShare HC.  Amy Morris provided supporting documentation to each customer represented, to assist in their operational adjustments required to understand how to perform this function in MedShare HC.  This was very well received!

Next HCUG Meeting:  MedShare’s AGM on September 16th.......See you there!

For more details please contact Alex Fuellos at AFuellos@commrehab.com