Industry Insight

HIT Helps Alabama Hand-Washing Initiative
Alabama Power is partnering with 27 hospitals across the state and Birmingham-based Proventix Systems, Inc to help reduce healthcare-associated infections, improve patient outcomes, and help push down health costs.

The Putting Power Into Healthcare Initiative focuses on increasing hand hygiene in hospitals, which studies show can help cut down on healthcare-associated infections. These infections can complicate a medical condition, extend the time a patient stays in the hospital, and boost the costs of healthcare and health insurance.

The hospitals involved in the project have installed Proventix's nGage System, which uses active communication units and radio-frequency badges tied to a data and compliance monitoring system. By using the system, hospitals can measure when and how often their badged employees and healthcare professionals wash their hands. Participating hospitals have installed the system in patient rooms and other places where patient care is provided.

— Source: Alabama Power

 

IHI Board Appoints New Chair and Board Members
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) recently announced that Gary S. Kaplan, MD, FACP, FACMPE, FACPE, has been named the new chair of the IHI board of directors, succeeding A. Blanton Godfrey, who has held the position since 2009. Elliott S. Fisher, MD, MPH; Helen Haskell; and Arnold Milstein, MD, MPH, also joined the board. All have substantial healthcare leadership experience with distinctly different areas of focus and expertise.

Kaplan, who has been a member of the IHI board of directors since 2007, is chairman and CEO of the Virginia Mason Health System in Seattle, where he is also a practicing physician in internal medicine. He is a founding member of Health CEOs for Health Reform and has been recognized nationally for his healthcare leadership. In 2009, Kaplan received the John M. Eisenberg Award from the National Quality Forum and The Joint Commission for individual achievement at the national level for his outstanding work and commitment to patient safety and quality.

Fisher is the James W. Squires, MD, professor at Dartmouth Medical School and director of population health and policy at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. Fisher’s research has focused on exploring the causes of the twofold differences in spending observed across US regions and healthcare systems, on understanding the consequences of these variations for health and healthcare, and on the development and testing of performance measurement approaches and payment reforms that can support improvement.

Haskell is founder and president of Mothers Against Medical Error (MAME), a South Carolina-based group dedicated to improving patient safety and providing support for patients who have experienced medical injury. MAME collaborates on a national and international level with other consumer and professional organizations on patient-oriented quality improvement programs, including infection disclosure and prevention, patient-activated rapid response systems, and disclosure of medical error, among others.

Milstein is medical director at the Pacific Business Group on Health, a nonprofit business coalition focused on healthcare. He is also the National Health Care Thought Leader at Mercer, where his work focuses on improving managed care programs for large purchasers and government. Recently, Milstein was appointed a tenured professor of medicine at Stanford University, where he will establish a new research center dedicated to accelerating innovations in healthcare delivery. Since January 2002, he has also served on the Strategic Advisory Council of the National Quality Forum. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine in October 2006.

— Source: Institute for Healthcare Improvement

 

Aetna, Banner Health Expand Accountable Care Relationship
Aetna recently announced it is expanding its relationship with Banner Health Network to include full technology support for population health management and patient services for more than 200,000 patients. The agreement includes support for the 50,000 Medicare fee-for-service patients covered under the Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) shared savings program and members in Aetna's ACO relationship with Banner Health Network.

Aetna will fully implement its broad "technology stack" and care management services to support greater care quality, coordination, and convenience for these Banner Health doctors and their patients. The agreement includes implementation of the following capabilities from Aetna companies:

• health information exchange technology from Medicity to enable the secure, two-way exchange of health information across a patient's entire care team, including hospitals, physicians, labs, pharmacies, and other ambulatory services;

• Active CareTeam from Active Health Management to give physicians access to CareEngine-powered, point-of-care clinical decision-support services and a desktop-based workflow tool to track, monitor, coordinate, and report on patient health outcomes; and

• smartphone and online appointment and preregistration services for patients through iTriage.

— Source: Aetna

 

VitalHealth Software Appoints HIT Veteran to Leadership Team
VitalHealth Software recently announced that Blair Butterfield has joined the company as president of its North American division. With more than 20 years of management experience in new market and business development, strategic marketing, product strategy, and government initiatives related to HIT, Butterfield will expand the company infrastructure and lead all operations in the United States and Canada.

Prior to joining VitalHealth, Butterfield held various senior management positions at GE Healthcare IT. In his most recent role, Butterfield was vice president of eHealth International Development, where he led multiple teams on high-profile multimillion-dollar initiatives in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, China, and Asia Pacific. While at GE he also served two terms on the board of directors and leadership council of the eHealth Initiative, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization that plays a key role in national HIT advocacy and policy development.

— Source: VitalHealth Software