Healthcare Information Management Services

 

BulletImage Typical Problems
 
BulletImage As shown in Figure 1 a typical Healthcare delivery organization uses a number of niche software applications to manage information regarding patients or residents (in a long term care setting). Hence, care givers and ancillary staff members are required to access a number of IT applications in order to access different facets of patient information. Each application therefore has to have a basic subset of the patient’s identity information. If the identity information is manually entered, it is prone to errors. Also, the need to access multiple software applications to complete a task can be burdensome and lead to aggravation.
BulletImage In Long Term Care (LTC) settings, Residents progress through multiple care settings during their stay. When Residents progress from one care setting to another, identity and clinical information is usually manually transferred from one software application to another. This manual transfer of information is prone to data entry errors.

Figure 1: LTC Resident Progression Through Care Settings
Figure 1: LTC Resident Progression Through Care Settings

Also, when progressing from one care setting to another, Residents may also make visits to acute care facilities (i.e. hospitals) or other external providers as required. Clinical information therefore may have to be sent and received from these external providers. If this transfer of information is a manual process, it is again prone to delays and errors in care delivery. Also, when progressing from one care setting to another, Residents may also make visits to acute care facilities (i.e. hospitals) or other external providers as required. Clinical information therefore may have to be sent and received from these external providers. If this transfer of information is a manual process, it is again prone to delays and errors in care delivery.
BulletImage Some organizations may maintain care delivery processes that make use of both paper and electronic systems. In such settings, it can be hard or confusing to find information regarding patients. Such processes are difficult to control and audit, hence patient information may be prone to unauthorized access, tampering or loss.
   
BulletImage Solutions
  Cyrus-XP offers services via Electronic Health Record and Messaging infrastructures that can help Clients mitigate risks involved in manual management and exchange of Patient information.

Electronic Health Record
Electronic Health Record systems typically consist of an information repository and other several components. The following are examples of EHR system components:

BulletImage Master Patient Index (MPI)
  helps manage Patient identity information
BulletImage Workflow Management
  e.g. Admissions, Discharge, Transfer or ADT; scheduling…etc
BulletImage Rules Engine
  generates alerts based on user defined rules
BulletImage Portal Engine
  customized to user profiles - display information extracted from the repository
BulletImage Forms Engine
  allows for the ability to create and manage forms – users use forms to electronically capture various types of information
BulletImage Interface Engine
  allows for standards based communication between the EHR system and other systems internal and external to the organization

Electronic Health Record systems can help increase collaboration between care givers and care recipients. Increased collaboration between clinicians, family and friends can help improve a patient’s (Resident’s) sense of wellbeing and satisfaction. Especially in the context of a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC), access to a Resident’s care schedule, medication, progress…etc can help family members feel connected with the Resident.

Cyrus-XP’s services can help Clients compare various EHR systems and make informed decisions about best-fit.

Figure 1: Collaborative Care
Figure 1: Collaborative Care
 
Tolven Healthcare Innovations

Figure 1: Collaborative Care

Cyrus-XP has partnered with Tolven, developers of an open source EHR system, to offer our clients a low-cost, highly configurable, standards based alternative to implementing their EHR initiative. Tolven offers a solution that comprises of both PHR (Patient Health Record) and CHR (Clinical Health Record) components.

Tolven solutions fit well within the Cyrus-XP strategy to make open source technologies a core competency. The Tolven health record repository design is standards compliant and is based on the ‘document’ paradigm. These features facilitate the exchange of health information between both internal and external Health Information Management systems in a standards compliant manner.
Messaging
Healthcare Information ‘Messaging’ Systems transfer clinical information in the form of messages from one system to another in a standards compliant format. Messaging systems tend to fall into the realm of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). For e.g. X.12 is a standard that is commonly used to communicate Insurance information. Messages are transported over secure channels mutually agreed upon between the sender and receiver.

Cyrus-XP can help Clients design and implement messaging infrastructures to facilitate standards based communication internally within the organization and/or externally with other entities.

Figure 2: Transfer Of Information With External Entities
Figure 2: Transfer Of Information With External Entities

Figure 2 shows how a care delivery organization can interact with external payors and providers via standards based messaging. This type of collaboration can deliver a number of advantages to participating entities. The advantages can be in the form of better turn-around times, fewer errors, lower operational cost in the long-run…etc.