University of Michigan plans massive overhaul to electronic medical records system
The University of Michigan Health System is planning a massive overhaul in the way it stores and shares medical records with a new electronic medical records system.
U-M recently signed a contract with the company Epic Systems Corp. to "replace and unify" a number of electronic systems already in use at the health system.
It will help the health system meet the government's goals for use of electronic health records, U-M announced in a release.
Just last week, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department announced it would make it easier for hospitals to obtain incentive payments from the $27 billion allocated by Congress to hospitals adopting technology. Only 20 percent of doctors and 10 percent of hospitals use basic electronic medical records, the Wall Street Journal reported.
"With this approach, we’ll be able to harness the power of a truly integrated digital health care environment offered by a primary vendor model,” Andrew Rosenberg, chief medical information officer for the health system, said in a statement.
Last year, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital made its own health system-wide switch to a comprehensive electronic medical record system, its first upgrade in IT records-keeping systems in 15 years.
It's part of a $400 million electronic medical records overhaul by Trinity Health, the parent company for St. Joseph Mercy Health System. Trinity Health is moving from a patchwork of different electronic records systems to a more unified system of applications.
In the next few months, Epic and U-M will analyze processes that rely on paper or information technology.
Tina Reed covers health and the environment for AnnArbor.com. You can reach her at tinareed@annarbor.com, call her at 734-623-2535 or find her on Twitter @TreedinAA.
Comments
Olan Owen Barnes
Fri, Jul 23, 2010 : 1:14 a.m.
Edit: Stephen, I am a retired Disability Examiner for Social Security and an a retired Social Security Rep (both combined over 34 years and even picked up a Regional Commissioner citation along the way) and a organ recipient to boot. I bet I know the system better than most. From what I see this is boondoggle that could hurt the private patient and private sector and will cause problems for people who wants to keep up with their daily lab results on a informal basis. If I was still trying to get medical records for clients I could see an expensive mess. This is a "tie in" to the paperless case processing envisioned for SSA which is taking over the SSA throughout the disability process - paperless data case processing. I was at the medical records section and it still looked like a shambles to me and I just walked in - an observation only and I could be wrong but I was not impressed.
Olan Owen Barnes
Thu, Jul 22, 2010 : 10:29 p.m.
Stephen, I am a retired Disability Examiner for Social Security and an a retired Social Security Rep (both combined over 34 years and even picked up a Regional Commissioner citation along the way) and a organ recipient to boot and I bet I know the system better than most. From what I see this is boondoggle for the private patient and private sector and will cause who wants to keep up with their daily lab results on a informal basis. If I was still trying to get medical records for clients I could see an expensive mess. This is a tie in to the paperless case processing envisioned and in large place now in place by the SSA throughout the disability process - paperless data case processing. I was there and it still looked like a shambles to me and I just walked in - an observation only and I could be wrong but I was not impressed.
Michael Cohen
Thu, Jul 22, 2010 : 4:47 p.m.
I hope AA.com will keep following this story. How good a job Epic and UM are able to do will provide a lot of insight into how the national effort is going, and therefore on whether we are getting reasonable value for the $27 billion.
Stephen Lange Ranzini
Thu, Jul 22, 2010 : 10:44 a.m.
While getting the internal systems up to speed are important, I for one am disappointed that UMHS is not collaborating with the six other major health systems in southeast Michigan, St. John Health System (Ascension), Beaumont Hospitals, Detroit Medical Center, Henry Ford Health System, Oakwood Healthcare System and Trinity Health, who are at the table building the South East Michigan Health Information Exchange (SEMHIE). SEMHIE is also one of 4 sub-state HIEs working on building a state-level HIE offering shared services including access to the 7 state government run databases of health information and the National Health Information Network (NHIN) run by the federal government. SEHMIE is also working on automating the production of health records in digital form, so that @Olan Owen Barnes (and everyone else) can get his records sent where ever he needs them to be quickly and without additional cost. The first implementation of this project is under a $2.98 million contract to automate the process of getting health care records data to the Social Security Administration so that claims for disability under social security can be accelerated from 457 days to six hours and a final decision made within 2 days. That system alone will be a tremendous benefit to the 40,000 people in SE Michigan who have a SSA Disability Claim pending. Hopefully, the UMHS will join SEMHIE and we all can get the benefit of this work across the entire region. Lastly, yes, revenue cycle is medical billing, however there is a need to bring medical billing and revenue cycle into the 21st century and SEMHIE is partnering with the banking industry and the Federal Reserve Bank to pilot modern and convenient internet based payment and revenue cycle solutions to untangle the current mess we're in and to see what can work for everyone's benefit. The potential cost savings here are huge. Unbelievably, currently 95% of all medical procedures result in the payment by a paper check. Although it is the largest industry in the U.S. the health care industry is the least electronified for payments.
SonnyDog09
Thu, Jul 22, 2010 : 7:55 a.m.
The move to Epic is part of UMHS' efforts to qualify for "meaningful use" funds. A provider is required to use a "certified" EHR product, and the home grown system that UMHS uses is not certified. Epic is certified. Regarding getting copies of your records: the final rule for meaningful use of healthcare information technology will require hospitals and doctors to "provide patients with an electronic copy of their health information (including diagnostic test results, problem lists, medication lists, medication allergies) upon request" The expectation is that this information can be sent to your PHR (like google health or something similar) or written to a USB stick or burned to a CD-ROM. The certified EHR will provide this functionality. This quote is from the Final Rule, which was published last week (all 864 pages): Comment: Several commenters indicated that a provider should be allowed to charge a fee for providing an electronic copy of a patients health information. Response: We do not have the authority under the HITECH Act to regulate fees in this manner. Rather, the charging of fees for this information is governed by the HIPAA Privacy Rule at 45 C.F.R. 164.524(c)(4) (which only permits HIPAA covered entities to charge an individual a reasonable, cost-based fee for a copy of the individuals health information). We would expect these costs to be very minimal considering that the ability to generate the copy is included in certified EHR technology. Additional clarification on the fee that a HIPAA covered entity may impose on an individual for an electronic copy of the individuals health information will be addressed in upcoming rulemaking.
Olan Owen Barnes
Wed, Jul 21, 2010 : 11:24 p.m.
That is 27 billion not million. A lot of people are going to make money on government boondogles and vendors will create more make work turmoil with no improvement for the patient except more expense.
Drake
Wed, Jul 21, 2010 : 9:01 p.m.
Another boondoggle to the tune of 27 million dollars to put thousands of more people OUT of work and on unemployment-fantastic-really good thinking -again.Just who thinks up this stupidity any way?
Olan Owen Barnes
Wed, Jul 21, 2010 : 4:59 p.m.
The change I see is that you could get medical records for your own personal file for free for the first 20 pages and now you pay from page one. I was there today and to inquire about records and it looked like a mess IMHO and was told changes started from the 19th - new law? - I do not see any patient improvement only turmoil and slowness?
treetowncartel
Wed, Jul 21, 2010 : 12:59 p.m.
While electronic medical records have some good qualities, the default entries allowed to the health care workers add to laziness in changing the entries on the something like the previous SOAP note, and the documentation is not as detailed. So, who is on the Board of Directors at EPIC?
SparklePants
Wed, Jul 21, 2010 : 12:51 p.m.
@AlwaysLate I believe the first stage of this implementation and upgrade is to include Ambulatory, Emergency Department, revenue cycle systems, and clinical scheduling systems. Sounds like that includes billing.
AlwaysLate
Wed, Jul 21, 2010 : 10:56 a.m.
A wiser investment for the University of Michigan Health System would be to upgrade and improve its entire billing system. Including the retraining of its employees UMHS has a well-deserved reputation for being the worst at billing and record keeping. With this approach, well be able to harness the power of a truly integrated digital health care environment offered by a primary vendor model What did he say?? He sounds like a former UMHS billing representative to me!