Three things I wanted to recognize in this month’s newsletter:
1) A big thank you to our clients who participated in KLAS’s performance report, “Healthcare IT Advisory 2016: The Experience Factor,” as Navin, Haffty & Associates (NHA) was rated as the 4th best consulting company for professional services among those providing comprehensive services and is rated ahead of every other MEDITECH READY-certified firm. More on this in our monthly section on KLAS.
2) NHA has completed a study on the financial impact of CMS quality and value measurements and has found hospitals that use MEDITECH outperform those that use Cerner or Epic. The study is included in this month’s newsletter and may be very interesting, especially to executives.
3) Another big thank you to all who stopped by to visit us at our booth at the MUSE International Conference in Orlando a few weeks ago. I appreciate the great feedback on our services and our newsletter and enjoyed the time to meet many of you in person. Also, the keynote speech by two of MEDITECH’s executives was inspiring, and a link to this presentation as well as more information on the MUSE conference is provided below.
John Haffty, President
NHA recently completed research regarding the financial impact of CMS quality and value measurements and has concluded that hospitals that use MEDITECH’s EHR outperform those using Cerner and Epic on CMS Quality and Value measures. These findings come from the CMS database and use Meaningful Use (MU) attestation and EHR data, as provided by Definitive Healthcare, to validate each hospital’s EHR.
Below is a summary of the results using FY2016 data.
Highlights include:
The table below provides the number of hospitals in the study and presents the number impacted by category. Note that hospitals that provided data to CMS for one but not all categories were included only in the adjustment statistics for categories in which they provided data.
While correlation does not necessarily imply causation, these are statistically significant findings and may dispel the notion that greater spending on an EHR translates into improved quality measures and related financial performance.
Of the 10 hospitals with the largest negative financial impact, 7 are on Epic, and 3 use Cerner. The largest projected impact of almost $8 million in penalties is at Florida Hospital, Orlando, using Cerner, while the second largest projected penalties were over $5 million at Yale New Haven, an Epic shop.
When NHA began this research, we were trying to identify those MEDITECH hospitals where we could leverage our knowledge and expertise with their software to have an impact on both their quality and financial performance. When we found fewer hospitals than expected, we expanded our study to all of the major EHRs to ensure we did not miss anything. Upon further study, we believe the following reasons might explain the variation among MEDITECH, Cerner and Epic:
Note that this study removed those hospitals that are not subject to these Medicare penalties. They consist of critical access hospitals, specialty hospitals, DOD and VA hospitals and those few hospitals that did not provide data to CMS. Further, Maryland hospitals are exempt from penalties under their CMS waiver, and hospitals in non-state territories are exempt from the program.
If you’d like more information, contact John Haffty at jhaffty@navinhaffty.com.
Here are some notes from the KLAS performance report referenced in our opening comments. “Healthcare IT Advisory 2016: The Experience Factor” was released by KLAS on June 7, and here are some of the findings:
Background on this study:
NHA:
Quotes from this study:
For more information on NHA’s results from this study, click here. To see the full report, go to www.klasresearch.com.
I wanted to share a few thoughts from this year’s MUSE conference.
We are pleased to announce the winner of our raffle from this year’s conference. This year’s winner is Alice Rogers, Clinical IT Specialist at Uvalde Memorial Hospital in Uvalde, Texas. We hope you enjoy your Apple Watch!
Coincidental to our study on CMS quality measures, MEDITECH has launched their new Sepsis toolkit for all platforms. The following is from the MEDITECH website, including links to the specific site relevant to your hospital:
Did you know that MEDITECH’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) supports your organization in the early detection and treatment of sepsis? Check out our Sepsis Management Toolkit, a new resource for 6.x, Client/Server, and MAGIC customers.
Sepsis is a life-threatening complication of an infection which can cause tissue damage, organ failure, or death. According to the CDC, there are over one million cases of sepsis each year, killing more than 258,000 Americans, and it is the ninth leading cause of disease-related deaths. In 2011, $20.3 billion was spent on sepsis-related hospitalizations, making sepsis one of the most expensive conditions treated in U.S. hospitals.
The Sepsis Management Toolkit promotes MEDITECH’s sophisticated EHR technology and supports customers in the early detection and treatment of sepsis. Built and maintained in collaboration with MEDITECH customers and staff clinicians and aligning with recommendations provided by the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) SEP-1 core measure, this toolkit provides evidence-based and outcomes-focused implementation guides outlining best practice workflow and system set-up recommendations.
MEDITECH is committed to helping your organization achieve clinical and operational excellence. Be sure to visit our EHR Excellence web page regularly for additional guidance, best practices and educational materials on quality measurements. Customers can sign up for upcoming 6.x, Client/Server, and MAGIC webinars on how your organization can take advantage of the Sepsis Management Toolkit.
One of the points we have consistently made is that while Epic is a very good EHR, the cost of implementing and maintaining this system can overwhelm even some of the largest and most profitable hospitals in the country. Becker’s recently reported on eight hospitals that have had a sizable negative impact on their finances associated with their recent Epic implementations. While some present this as short-term, others report that higher-than-expected operating expenses would adversely impact them into the future. To see the details, click here.
To keep up with the demand from our clients, NHA continues to need excellent MEDITECH specialists. We have been named among the top 100 Best Places to Work in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare for the second consecutive year.
We believe there are significant advantages to being part of NHA. As part of the largest consulting company focused exclusively on serving the MEDITECH community, we enjoy an exceptional working relationship with MEDITECH, offer a collaborative work environment and treat each of our staff with respect. Our competitive compensation package includes exceptional medical insurance coverage as part of our extensive benefits as well as ongoing education to maintain and develop skills and talent. Our employment approach and focus on long-term business relationships has led to an unparalleled record for consultant and client retention.
If you have interest in consulting and have solid MEDITECH experience with implementing one of their applications, please contact us. We have an outstanding mentoring program for new consultants and the best reputation in the MEDITECH community for training and development of our staff. We are the first company certified in the new MEDITECH READY implementation methodology.
We are also interested in experienced consultants from other companies. As the largest company that works exclusively with MEDITECH, you would be supported as you continue to build your skills. In addition, our management approach has demonstrated a respect for our consultants and created a collegial atmosphere that encourages information sharing and support.
While we have a number of openings, at this time, we are particularly interested in candidates with strong project management experience (6.x preferred), Revenue Cycle and Ambulatory experience.
If you are interested please contact us at recruiting@navinhaffty.com or call us at 855-309-9334. See what positions are currently available by visiting the NHA Current Openings page.
Please note that at this time, we are only able to consider those able to travel up to 80% of the time. (Current employees of MEDITECH or of our clients cannot be considered.)
If you are interested in exploring new positions at other organizations visit the client job board section of our website. This is a free service of NHA to the MEDITECH community. Currently, there are many postings from MEDITECH organizations. If you or a colleague are interested, take a look and see what’s open.
If you would like to include your organization’s listing on the NHA website, please email Katie Kelly at kkelly@navinhaffty.com. (Please note that as this is a courtesy to the MEDITECH community, we will not accept postings from recruiting companies.)