University Radiology Group CIO Describes Practice's Steps Toward Achieving Goals and Objectives of ARRA for Health Information Technology
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- MedInformatix, Inc. late last month presented a webinar in which the CIO of one of its longest standing radiology customers provided a detailed description of how his practice leveraged MedInformatix Radiology Information System (RIS) V7.5 to become one of the industry's first radiology providers to achieve Stage 1 meaningful use and objectives under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for Health Information Technology.
Dr. Alberto Goldszal, CIO of East Rutherford, N.J.-based University Radiology Group (URG), along with Dr. Keith Dreyer, Massachusetts General Hospital's Vice Chairman of Radiology – Informatics and Assistant Professor of Radiology at the Harvard Medical School, incorporated a slide presentation that walked attendees step-by-step through URG's several months of preparations for meaningful use, through the practice's full implementation of Stage 1 meaningful use in early August.
URG is reaping the benefits of Stage 1 by utilizing MedInformatix V7.5 to capture data. The program's Electronic Health Records (EHR) module facilitates and enables practices to meet data capture requirements, including interdepartmental data retrieval and sharing of critical information for better patient outcomes.
In addition to sharing details about URG's IT staff's collaboration with MedInformatix technical support staff toward Stage 1 certification, Drs. Goldszal and Dreyer conducted a spirited post-presentation question and answer session addressing such attendee concerns as how best to incorporate MedInformatix RIS and its EHR component to seamlessly allow radiologists, front desk staff and IT to access and work with data without requiring a realignment of individual practices' best practices.
"MedInformatix RIS is a flexible program that adapts easily to individual radiology practices' operating procedures, rather than one that forces users to adhere to rigid steps that hinders instead of helps physicians and office personnel's efforts to leverage patient data for the best possible outcomes," said Thomas McGonigle, MedInformatix' CEO. "It doesn't matter to us how our customers retrieve patient information. Our company's goal has always been to help users use our products to improve practice operations, not to wrestle them into submitting to an inflexible way of using them.
"MedInformatix RIS and our entire product suite exists to improve, not to impede practice operations," McGonigle continued. "Our work with University Radiology Group reflects our ability to adapt our software, in this case RIS, to our customer's specific requirements, in concert with specific internal business operations and procedures."
While requiring radiology practices to make a capital investment toward the replacement of existing analog with a digital records system, Stage 1 implementation recoups these costs through time savings, and a lessened need for staff to maintain and access patient records. Government incentive payments of as much as $44,000 per provider for facilities that implement certified technology by 2012 also significantly softens the initial financial blow.
MedInformatix, in response to webinar attendees' enthusiasm and requests from CIOs and other radiology practice leaders unable to attend the original event, has posted a replay of the entire hour-long "Preparing for Meaningful Use as a Radiology Practice—University Radiology Group's Experience" webinar at: http://medinformatix.com/muWebinar.htm.
About MedInformatix:
MedInformatix, Inc. (www.medinformatix.com) is a leading national provider of fully integrated Electronic Health Records. The products have been built around MedInformatix's 25 years of workflow expertise. MedInformatix's suite of products is designed on a single database using Microsoft SQL. Whether the client is a single physician who went live in 1994, a 13-location cardiology practice, the busiest radiology practice in Manhattan, or one of 15 other serviced specialties, MedInformatix accommodates their needs. MedInformatix can turn the dream of a paperless, integrated practice into a reality.
MedInformatix Version 7.5 is now certified to meet 2011-2012 criteria supporting Stage 1 Meaningful Use requirements under the American Recovery and Reinvestment act (ARRA) as a Complete EHR by the Drummond Group.
This Complete EHR is 2011/2012 compliant and has been certified by an ONC-ATCB in accordance with the applicable certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. This certification does not represent an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or guarantee the receipt of incentive payments."
MedInformatix, October 22, 2010, Version 7.5, 1022201024238, Clinical Quality Measures: NQF0013, NQF0421, NQF0041, NQF0024, NQF0028, NQF0038, NQF0059, NQF0061, NQF0064. Additional software used: TrueCrypt v2.0, email software, spreadsheet software.
SOURCE MedInformatix, Inc.