Posts

Nursing Education Credits Now Available!

The CHUG Board of Directors is pleased to be able to offer, for the first time ever, Nursing Education Credits!

It is not too late – REGISTER NOW!

At CHUG, you’ll be able to earn up to 11.0 contact hours. Activity Number: 1214 Working with Southern NH AHEC, an Approved Provider of continuing nursing education by the Northeast Multistate Division (NE-MSD), an accredited approver of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation, CHUG is excited to be able to offer this additional educational opportunity to our membership.

AGENDA IS NOW POSTED! Here’s just a few of the sessions being presented this year:
* End the Year with a Bang!
* Health and Social Care: Closing the Gap in Clinical Outcomes
* Change Fatigue Getting You Down?
* The ‘A’ Team and the Importance of Changing Culture
* If Quality is the New Currency, Wellness Will Make it Rain!
* Painless Documentation in No Time!
* The Easy Button for Medical Quality – Templates with User Check (TUC)
* It’s a Tough Job but WE have to do it
* Narcissists, Drama Queens & Psychopaths – Everyone Can Adopt New IT Initiatives
* Save Time and Make Your Community Happy by Automating Common Administrative Tasks

And of course there are many more, to see the agenda click HERE.

Come early and attend any of these ten pre-conference classes!
* CPS-PM Custom Reports without the Embeddd Designer
* EMR Crystal Reports class (for CPS & CEMR)
* Beginning Visual Form Editor
* Intermediate Visual Form Editor
* InDxlogic 101: Basics: Health Information Management – Automated Document Indexing
* InDxlogic 201: InDxLogic Advanced Management Training, Workflow Optimization, and MACRA/MIPS
* Qvera Interface Engine Level 1 Certification
* Surescripts Patient Portal – Take your portal to the next level – Class
* Managing Interfaces in Centricity EMR and CPS
* Provider-Directed Design for CPOE Assessment & Plan with Clinical Decision Support, Making EHR Use Easier!

Click HERE to get more information about pre-conference classes.

We will be introducing exciting new Leadership and Teamwork Resources this Fall!
BE the leader your employees WANT to follow. A leader steps up in time of crisis and is able to think and act creatively in challenging situations, to inspire staff to perform and engage in achieving common goals. It’s about knowing your team, having a shared vision and setting staff up for success. To survive in this complex, ever changing market requires a strong, passionate and innovative team.

Don’t wait too long to register, Saver Discount only available for 3 more weeks! REGISTER NOW!

Hurricane Harvey – Disaster Exceptions/Exemptions for Medicare Certified Providers Affected by Severe Storms & Flooding

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is granting exceptions under certain Medicare quality reporting and value-based purchasing programs to acute care hospitals, PPS-exempt cancer hospitals, inpatient psychiatric facilities, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, hospices, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, outpatient dialysis facilities, long-term care hospitals, and ambulatory surgical centers located in areas affected by Hurricane Harvey due to the devastating impact of the storm. These providers will be granted exceptions without having to submit an extraordinary circumstances exception request if they are located in one of the Texas counties or Louisiana parishes, all of which have been designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a major disaster county.

The scope and duration of the exception under each Medicare quality reporting program is described in the memo posted on 8-31-17; however, all of the exceptions are being granted to assist these providers while they direct their resources toward caring for their patients and repairing structural damages to facilities.

If FEMA expands the current disaster declaration for Hurricane Harvey to include additional counties or parishes, CMS will update this memo to expand the list of providers eligible to receive an exception without submitting a request to include the hospitals, PPS-exempt cancer hospitals, inpatient psychiatric facilities, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, hospices, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, long-term care hospitals, and ambulatory surgical centers located in the additional counties and parishes.

In addition, CMS will continue to monitor the situation and adjust exempted reporting periods and submission deadlines accordingly.

Additional details and materials are available on the CMS Hurricane webpage. Please check back frequently for updates.

2018 CMS Quality Payment Program (QPP) Proposed Rule Webinar

2018 CMS Quality Payment Program (QPP) Proposed Rule Webinar on August 17th

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Customers:

Mark Segal, GE Healthcare Vice President Government and Industry Affairs, and Chad Dodd, General Manager of Ambulatory Practice Solutions, would like to invite you to attend an important session on 2018 CMS Quality Payment Program (QPP) Proposed Rule on Thursday August 17, 2017.

Read this communication to learn more and to register.

By FRIDAY JUNE, 23RD Responses needed for KLAS!

Responses are needed for KLAS Interoperability Questionnaire by Friday, June 23rd

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Customers:

Meaningful interoperability continues to be a pursuit of providers, vendors, and industry oversight bodies. As our recent work demonstrates, seamless clinical data integration can help practices save providers an hour per day in chart reviews and succeed in value-based care.

KLAS measures clinical and end-users’ experience with clinical data acquired from outside their organizations. Research regarding experience with ambulatory solutions, including GE Healthcare’s solutions, are particularly needed. Please respond via this link by Friday, June 23rd.

KLAS 2017 Interoperability Questionnaire.

Learn more about KLAS’s important research initiative in this communication from Chad Dodd, GM of Ambulatory Practice Solution.

REMINDER: EMPA Webinar on Thursday March 9th

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR customers:

GE Healthcare would like to remind you of our invitation to attend a webinar about our new solution, Electronic Medication Prior Authorization (EMPA), on Thursday March 9th. Manual medication prior authorization processes cost providers time, decrease patient satisfaction, and delay time to treatment. GE Healthcare’s Electronic Medication Prior Authorization (EMPA)solution helps practices streamline and expedite the process for increased provider efficiency and enhanced care quality. One practice saved their nurses over 10 hours per provider in the first three days.

Read THIS communication from Chad Dodd to learn more and to register for the upcoming webinar.

EMPA IS HERE! New time-saving solution for CPS/CEMR Customers

February 15, 2017

Dear Centricity™ Practice Solution and Centricity EMR customers:

GE Healthcare is excited to announce the general availability of our solution for Electronic Medication Prior Authorization (EMPA). Manual medication prior authorization processes cost providers time, decrease patient satisfaction, and delay time to treatment. GE Healthcare’s Electronic Medication Prior Authorization (EMPA) solution helps practices streamline and expedite the process for increased provider efficiency and enhanced care quality. One practice saved their nurses over 10 hours per provider in the first week.

CLICK HERE to read this communication from Chad Dodd to learn more and to register for our upcoming webinar.

ACTION ALERT: Ask your legislator to Co-Sponsor HR 3940 – the MU Hardship Relief Act

Message from AAOE:

You may have seen in the last issue of “Coffey Talk” that AAOE and similar organizations are pushing to have a new exception to the meaningful use program added into the omnibus budget legislation currently being negotiated in the halls of Congress. While staff is working with members of the House Committee on Appropriations to get this included, we need your help. The more co-sponsors the legislation creating the new exception has, the more likely it is to be included in the omnibus.

PLEASE, write your Representative and ask that they co-sponsor HR 3940 – The Meaningful Use Hardship Relief Act of 2015. Simply follow this link and TAKE ACTION.

Thank you for taking a few minutes to write your legislators. AAOE will keep you updated through Coffey Talk from the Hill and The OrthoActivist on this issue as it continues to develop.

Thank you!
Bradley Coffey, MA
Government Affairs Specialist
American Association of Orthopaedic Executives
3925 River Crossing Pkwy Suite 300
Indianapolis, IN 46240

Video – MU & Drug Interaction Patches

Message from GE Healthcare:

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Customers:
We would like to direct your attention to a video produced by GE Healthcare regarding the Meaningful Use and Drug Interaction patches. This video provides an overview of our two patches developed to ensure that your Meaningful Use numbers are accurate after the application of Service Pack 11, as well as ensure that your workflow is not impacted by an increase in Drug Interaction popup alerts.

Please click HERE to watch the video. Thank you!

Quality Reporting Preparation Program – Webinar Series Continues

Message from GE Healthcare:

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Customers:

As you continue your Meaningful Use (MU) and quality program preparations, we hope you found our recent webinars on the final rule and troubleshooting measures valuable. We have posted the recordings to the Quality Reporting Communities on the Centricity Practice Solution (CPS) and Centricity EMR (CEMR) Service Portals and scheduled new webinars to help support your preparations. Click HERE to read this communication from Chad Dodd to learn more.

Meaningful Use Stage 2 Tips: Core Measure 12 (Preventive Care)

To meet Core Measure 12, Centricity has the ability to mass generate letters in conjunction with Inquires to transmit targeted reminder letters. It is possible to retrieve a subset of patients with a certain condition who were seen on a given date range. After retrieving the list, reminder letters can be generated for each patient, pulling patient specific details into the letter template. To have the action counted with CQR, the letter MUST be saved in a folder with “Actionable” in the title.

Example: To setup an inquiry to retrieve diabetic patients seen in a month, an inquiry can be setup with these criteria:
FIND patients WHERE problem code ICD-9, active CONTAINS ’250′ AND FIND patients WHERE appointment date IS ON OR AFTER 01/01/2015 AND FIND patients WHERE appointment date IS BEFORE 02/01/2015.

After clicking search and retrieving the information, reminders can be generated by selecting the activity of SEND REMINDER. Find the letter template and click print.

Mike Baeske
Software Applications Specialist – Team Leader
Ortho NorthEast (“ONE”)
1330 Medical Park Drive, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 46825

Product Info Notice: Service Pack 11, Drug Interaction Overrides

Message from GE Healthcare:

December 4, 2015

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Customers:

We would like to direct your attention to a scenario which may increase or change drug interaction override popup frequency after the Service Pack (SP) 11 upgrade. Each user may be affected differently based on their enterprise and user preferences and the patients’ active medications. Please read this communication from Chad for recommended steps to reduce the drug interaction override popups.

REMINDER: Customer State of the Union Address Sept 16th

Message from GE Healthcare:

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Customers,
Jon Zimmerman, VP & GM of Clinical Business Solutions and I would like to invite you to attend our next Customer State of the Union webinar on WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2015.

The State of the Union provides important updates and, as you saw from our prior communications, forms an intergral part of our preparation series. Click HERE to read this communication from Peter Kinhan with details.

LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER – 2015 CHUG Conference

Take a minute to listen to how two of our users describe the CHUG experience. Click HERE to see why you should attend CHUG!
FLASH SALE: Save $50 with discount code FLASH50 – HURRY expires FRIDAY September 25th.

LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER AND SAVE!
The CHUG Fall 2015 conference taking place at the New York Marriott Marquis, October 1st – 3rd, 2015 is quickly approaching.

We know it’s hard to break away from the day to day workload at your organization, however, the CHUG conference provides you with unprecedented access to GE Healthcare executives and product managers along with crucial networking time with your peers, who can help you solve some of the challenges you have been facing.

REGISTER NOW!

Take a LOOK at our jam packed agenda, see you in New York!

2015 Quality Reporting Preparation Program for MU, PQRS & CPCi

Message from GE Healthcare:

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Customers;

We are pleased to announce the launch of our 2015 Quality Reporting Preparation Program. This preparation program, modeled after our highly successful ICD-10 preparation program, is designed to help your practice prepare for Meaningful Use (MU) and the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) as well as the latest addition to our supported quality programs, the Comprehensive Primary Care initiative (CPCi).

The submission deadlines for these programs are about six (6) months away, and we are eager to share with you the resources we have developed to help you prepare and be successful.

Click HERE to read this communication from Peter Kinhan with additional details.

PQRS & Meaningful Use – Take Action by End of Month

Message from GE Healthcare:

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Customers:

We have three important message to communicate regarding PQRS and Meaningful Use (MU):
1. PQRS and GPRO – Action due June 30th
2. MU and PQRS – Additional Clinical Quality Measures – No Action Required
3. MU – Application for Hardship Exception for 2014 – Due July 1st

Please read this communication from Peter Kinhan to learn more!

Stage 3 NPRM Comment Period Now Open: Submit by May 29th

CMS and ONC invite the public to submit comments on the recently released notices of proposed rulemaking (NPRMs) on Stage 3 requirements and 2015 Edition certification criteria for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. Comments must be received by May 29th to be considered.

How To Submit Comments
The public can submit comments in several ways, including via electronic submission or mail:

1. Electronically
* You may submit electronic comments to http://www.regulations.gov Follow the “Submit a comment” instructions.
2. By regular mail.
3. By express or overnight mail.
4. By hand or couier.

View the Stage 3 and 2015 Edition certification criteria proposed rules online for more information. Submissions must be received by 11:59pm ET on May 29, 2015 in order to be considered.

For More Information
For more information on the Stage 3 and 2015 Edition certification criteria proposed rules, review the press release and fact sheet.

Merit-based Incentive Payment System: Summary & Analysis

Notice from AAOE:
HR 1470, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2015 creates the Merit-based incentive Payment System (MIPS) which will combine the three quality incentive payment programs (PQRS, VBM, and EHR MU) into one quality incentive payment program. This sheet summarizes the planned MIPS program as it appears in the proposed legislation. Changes to the program are likely as the legislation makes its way through Congress. This should not be viewed as a final summary of the program.

Click HERE to read the rest of the summary and analysis.

HR 1470 – SGR Repeal & Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2015

Notice from AAOE:
On Thursday, March 19, 2015 legislation was introduced in Congress to permanently repeal the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate. AAOE understands that this is an exciting development for our members who are eager to avoid a 21% cut in physician payments on April 1, 2015. Below, readers will find AAOE’s section-by-section analysis of the legislation and what is means for their practices.

This legislation is likely to change as it makes its way through the legislative process. AAOE will continue to update its members on changes to the legislation as they occur.

Click HERE to read the full article by AAOE.

Product Issue affecting PQRS & MU: CQMs CMS 68 & CMS 147

Message from GE Healthcare:
Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Customers:

We are writing to advise you of an important issue pertaining to PQRS and Meaningful Use reporting with Clinical Quality Reporting (CQR). We have learned that results for Clinical Quality Measure (CQMs) CMS 68 and CMS 147 may not be calculated appropriately for your practice. This communication describes the nature of the problem, what we have done to resolve it, and actions we recommend to ensure the appropriateness of your PQRS and/or Meaningful Use reporting using CQR results.

In summary, we recommend four scenarios for action.
* For those who plan to use or have already used CQR for PQRS and for those who plan to use CQR for Meaningful Use, we recommend the actions described below.
* For those who have already used CQR for Meaingful Use for Medicare, NO ACTION is required.
* For those who have already used Crystal Reports or plan to use Crystal Reports (or another reporting mechanism) to attest for Meaningful Use, NO ACTION is required.
* For those who have already used CQR for Meaningful Use for Medicaid, we recommend that you contact your state for guidance.

Click below for additional information:
For CPS customers
For CEMR customers

CMS Extends Deadline for Medicare Eligible Professionals to Attest to Meaningful Use

New EHR Attestation Deadline for Medicare Eligible Professionals: March 20, 2015

Eligible professionals now have until 11:59 pm ET on March 20, 2015, to attest to meaningful use for the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program 2014 reporting year.

CMS extended the deadline to allow providers extra time to submit their meaningful use data. CMS continues to urge providers to begin attesting for 2014 as soon as they can.

This extension also allows eligible professionals, who have not already used their one “switch”, to switch programs (from Medicare to Medicaid, or vice versa) for the 2014 payment year until 11:59 pm ET on March 20, 2015. After that time, eligible professionals will no longer be able to switch programs.

Medicare eligible professionals must attest to meaningful use every year to receive an incentive and avoid a payment adjustment. Providers who successfully attest for the 2014 program year will:

Note: The Medicare extension does not affect deadlines for the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program. Additionally, the EHR reporting option for PQRS has been extended until March 20, 2015. Please be on the lookout for a separate listserv with information regarding the PQRS program extension.

How to Attest
Submit your data to the Registration and Attestation System, which includes 2014 Certified EHR Technology (CEHRT) Flexibility Rule options.

Tips for speed:

  • Attest during non-peak hours, such as evenings and weekends
  • Start now to:
    • Check that your information is up to date
    • Begin entering your 2014 data

To learn more, see the Educational Resources on the CMS EHR Incentive Programs website.

For help, call the EHR Information Center: 1-888-734-6433
TTY for people with hearing impairments: 1-888-734-6563
Monday – Friday, 8:30 am – 7:30 pm (ET)

Webinar: Thriving in an Age of Consumerism: Focus on Patient Engagement Technology

A FREE web event sponsored by Medfusion Patient Portal:

Date: February 24th          Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM (EST)

As patients become more price sensitive and shop around for their healthcare, is your practice prepared to adapt?

It’s not just good enough to install patient-facing technology; discover how to harness it to create a win/win for your patients – and your practice.

Join practice operations expert Elizabeth Woodcock to explore how to effectively integrate patient engagement technology to enhance patient communication, improve referral management, retain patients and reach Meaningful Use goals.

Register for this FREE web event today!

Surescripts agrees to spin-off Kryptiq / population health business

Notice from Kryptiq:

Dear Centricity Users,

I am writing to share some very exciting news: Surescripts has agreed to spin-off Kryptiq and its population health business – CareManager.The new company will be largely employee-owned. Surescripts will own a stake in the new company, and it will continue to operate the patient portal and clinical messaging business.

Why now?

The population health market is dynamic and growing rapidly. The majority of healthcare providers are adoption population health management processes to improve the cost and quality of care. But current IT systems do not support population-based care, nor do they enable clinically integrated networks to pursue team-based care. Kryptiq has been formally recognized as a market leader by IDC Health Insights and KLAS for doing these very things. We believe that our new structure will provide the speed and agility we need to keep pace with you as your organization adapts to new clinical workflows, new reimbursement patterns, and new technologies.

We are honored that you rely upon Kryptiq for your population health and patient relationship management needs. You have our pledge that the new company will continue innovating as we learn from your efforts to achieve healthcare’s Triple Aim. From product development, to service and support, you can continue to count on us to be your trusted business partner.

What is in store for 2015?

The coming year will begin a watershed era for Kryptiq. We will introduce a new user interface complete with updated and expanded clinical guidelines in the core CareManager product; we will bring our new team-based care tasking engine out of beta into full commercial release. And, we plan to expand the utility of our curated, evidenced-based clinical guidelines by driving new health improvement and condition management programs. We will continue to offer an integrated suite of patient relationship applications, including DocuSign for Patients and Patient Payment Services.

In the past year, Kryptiq has emerged as the clear choice for many of the nation’s leading healthcare organizations seeking a population health management IT solution. But these are the early days of healthcare transformation in the US, and our work has just begun.

I look forward to many shared successes in the months and years to come. Certainly, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me or any member of my team.

Sincerely,

Luis Machua, Chief Executive Officer, Kryptiq Corporation

Get Involved – CMS potential EHR Incentive Changes for 2015

Notice from the CHUG Board:

Dear CHUG Members,

Are your providers tired, overworded and struggling to meet meaningful use measures? Have staff starting asking “What is the point”?

Yesterday CMS announced a potential EHR Incentive Program Change for 2015! These proposed changes will reduce program complexity and ease the administrative burden on physician practices.

The CHUG Board is strongly recommending that you DON’T WAIT – GET INVOLVED….if you did not respond before NOW IS THE TIME! Reach out to Congress and let your voice be heard. MGMA members can also use this link.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) intends to engage in rulemaking this spring to help ensure providers continue to meet meaningful use requirements.

In response to input from health care providers and other stakeholders, CMS is considering the following changes to the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs.

  1. Shortening the 2015 reporting period to 90 days to address provider concerns about their ability to fully deploy 2014 Edition software.
  2. Realigning hospital reporting periods to the calendar year to allow eligible hospitals more time to incorporate 2014 Edition software into their workflows and to better align with other quality programs.
  3. Modifying other aspects of the program to match long-term goals, reduce complexity, and lessen providers’ reporting burden.

Please note: these modifications must still be finalized through formal rulemaking, expected to occur this spring. While CMS intends to pursue these changes through rulemaking, they will NOT be included in the pending Stage 3 proposed rule. CMS intends to limit the scope of the pending proposed rule to Stage 3 and meaningful use in 2017 and beyond.

For further information, please read Dr. Conway’s blog on the announcement. For more information on the EHR Incentive programs visit CMS.

SAVE THE DATE: FALL CHUG Conference, New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square, New York City, October 1 – October 3, 2015

Patient Education Transition of Service

Notice from GE Healthcare:

We want to ensure you saw the following notice that was communicated via email and posted to the Service Portal on November 21, 2014. Slides and the recording from the referenced webinar are available in the “View Past Webinars” section of the Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR Service Portals. Sincerely, GE Healthcare

Patient Education Transition of Service

Dear Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR customers:

We want to make you aware of an important change to the patient education material we support. As a reminder, the embedded ExitCare handouts we have historically supplied do NOT support your providers for Meaningful Use (MU) 2014. As a result, GE Healthcare has partnered with Truven to provide CareNotes patient education materials to all current Centricity Practice Solution (CPS) and Centricity EMR (CEMR) customers at no additional charge. Theses materials offer numerous benefits:

  • Over 8,400 education documents, covering problems, medications, and allergies.
  • Regular upgrades, maintenance, and support.
  • All documents available in English and Spanish and some in significantly more languages.
  • Support for MU Stage 2 Core Measure 13 (Patient-Specific Education) when accessed via the InfoButton from CPS 12 and CEMR 9.8.

For an additional cost you may also subscribe to provider referential information that supports MU Stage 2 Core Measure 6 (Clinical Decision Support) when accessed via the InfoButton.

 

  • If you have upgraded to CPS 12 or CEMR 9.8: Follow the instructions in the InfoButton Statement and Survey letter sent in April to configure your system for access to patient education via the InfoButton.
  • If you have NOT upgraded to CPS 12 or CEMR 9.8 – OR if you also want online access:You can still access the Truven patient education. Follow these Instructions for Online Access to Truven Patient Education to add a shortcut to your desktop. PLEASE NOTE: Online access will NOT count toward MU 2014.

To make this transition even easier, we will walk you through these instructions step by step in the following informational webinar.

Activating and Accessing Truven CareNotes Patient Education DATE: December 5, 2014 TIME: 10:30-11:00AM PST (1:30-2:00PM EST)

Should you wish to continue using ExitCare patient education after the embedded handouts expire, you may contract with Elsevier directly via email or by phone at 800-694-6669 ext 1, for other access options, such as online access, for an additional fee. PLEASE NOTE: Online access will NOT count toward MU 2014.

We expect the Truven CareNotes patient education content to satisfy a broader range of your patient education needs and more easily keep your educational materials current. If you have any questions about this transition, contact Centricity Suport Services at 1-888-436-8491.

Sincerely,

Peter Kinhan, Vice President & General Manger, Ambulatory Practice Solutions, GE Healthcare IT

CQR Notice: DOWNTIME & New Instructional Resource

Notice from GE Healthcare:

Dear Clinical Quality Reporting Customer,

We want to share with you an important downtime notice for Clinical Quality Reporting (CQR) and introduce a new instructional resource, Monitoring Meaningful Use Data Flow.

The upcoming downtime is designed to implement a number of performance enhancements, including enabling practices to export multiple providers’ performance data to a single spreadsheet file. We expect to post release notes to the CQR section of the Centricity Practice Solution (CPS) and Centricity EMR (CEMR) Service Portals on Monday January 26th.

Please be aware of the following:

  • We will bring CQR down for a short period starting early Saturday, January 24th, and we expect the system to be available for full use by the evening of Saturday, January 24th:

o   The CQR Dashboard will be unavailable early Saturday morning through that afternoon.

o   CQR ingestion processes will be suspended briefly for some customers during that time.

  • For this maintenance period, you do NOT need to turn off your CQR Channel in QIE nor your CQR subscription in the CPS or CEMR application.  However, we recommend you review QIE for errors that may have occurred during the downtime or as a result of configuration changes within the CQR application. Instructions for CQR and QIE Error Review have been posted to the Service Portal.

We will work expeditiously to make these updates, and we will post an announcement to the Service Portal when the system is available.

To receive notifications directly to your email account when we post these updates, please log in to the CQR section of the CPS or CEMR Service Portal, click on “follow” in the top right hand corner of the page, and check “Inbox”. Should you need assistance in configuring your account to follow these pages, please read Getting Started: Following Products and Communities and Email or Stream Notifications?.

In addition, we recommend you review the new instructional resource, Monitoring Meaningful Use Data Flow, which describes how to monitor for successful flow of data to CQR on an ongoing basis and how to troubleshoot errors. It is now available to CPS and CEMR users on the Service Portal.

If you have any questions, please call Centricity Support Services at 1-888-436-8491.

Sincerely,

Peter Kinhan Vice President & General Manager, Ambulatory Practice Solutions GE Healthcare IT

 

CQR Notice: Tues January 20th – EMERGENCY MAINTENANCE PARTIAL DOWNTIME

Notice from GE Healthcare:

Dear Clinical Quality Reporting Customer,

We want to share with you an important emergency partial downtime notice for Clinical Quality Reporting (CQR) beginning on Tuesday January 20th, 9:00PM PST. The downtime is required to address delays some customers are experiencing in generating results. We currently expect the system to be available for full use by midnight.

During the current downtime we will to continue to receive documents into CQR from your QIE engine. Only the CQR Dashboard Service will be unavailable for use during the downtime.

We thank you for your patience during this time. If you have any additional questions, please call Centricity Support Services at 1-888-436-8491.

-Tim Donnelly, Cloud Services Leader

CQR Notice: DOWNTIME January 10-11

January 7, 2015

Dear Clinical Quality Reporting Customer,

We want to share with you an important downtime notice for Clinical Quality Reporting (CQR). This downtime is designed to accelerate turnaround times following some calculation requests, support PQRS-specific reporting and the download of large QRDA III files, and implement a number of other enhancements.

We expect to post release notes to the CQR section of the Centricity Practice Solution (CPS) and Centricity EMR (CEMR) Service portals on Monday January 12th.

Please be aware of the following:

  • We will bring CQR down for a short period starting early Saturday, January 10th, and we expect the system to be available for full use by the morning of Sunday, January 11th.
  • The CQR Dashboard will be unavailable early Saturday morning through that afternoon.
  • CQR ingestion processes will be suspended briefly for some customers druing that time.
  • For this Maintenance period, you do NOT need to turn off your CQR Channel in QIE nor your CQR subscription in the CPS or CEMR applications. However, we recommend you review QIE for errors that may have occurred during the downtime or as a result of configuration changes within the CQR application. Instructions for CQR and QIE Error Review have been posted to the Service Portal.

We will work expeditiously to make these updates, and we will post an announcement to the Service Portal when the system is available.

To receive notifications directly to your email account when we post these updates, please log in to the CQR section of the CPS or CEMR Service Portal, click on “follow” in the top right hand corner of the page, and check “InBox”. Should you need assistance in configuring your account to follow these pages, please read Getting Started: Following Products and Communities and Email or Stream Notifications?.

We thank you for your patience during this time. If you have any additional questions, please call Centricity Support Services at 1-888-436-8491.

Sincerely,

Peter Kinhan

Vice President & General Manager, Ambulatory Practice Solutions GE Healthcare IT

 

MU Crystal Reports v1.10.4 now available

Message from GE Healthcare:

December 22, 2014

Dear Centricity Customers:

The Meaningful Use Crystal Reports that support Meaningful Use 2013 criteria have been updated to support Patient Level Detail. The package includes all changes from versions 1.10, 1.10.2, and 1.10.3. It updates all Functional Measures to display Patient Level Details when running the reports in Centricity Practice Solution v12.0 and Centricity EMR v9.8.

We recommend that you run these patient level detail reports and save them for audit purposes. For more details, please reference the release notes for CPS and CEMR that we have posted to the service portal.

As a reminder, these reports are available to support the MU Flexibility rule finalized by CMS August 29, 2014, where some Eligible Professionals (EPs) may qualify to use alternate methods for attesting for Meaningful Use in 2014. Review the recorded webinar and CMS Meaningful Use Flexibility Scenario Tool on the service portal for further details on the available flexibility options.

Sincerely,

Peter Kinhan, Vice President & General Manager, Ambulatory Practice Solutions, GE Healthcare IT

Additional Meaningful Use Resources

Message from GE Healthcare:

December 22, 2014

Dear Centricity Customers:

We have recently released additional resources to help you make your final preparations to attest to Meaningful Use.

  • Service Pack 7 is now generally available. This release supports 14 additional Clinical Quality Measures (bringing the total of supported CQMs to 36), it includes PQRS updates to identify Medicare Part B patient visits, and it incorporates the MU Functional Measure changes originally available only through the Meaningful Use Update Patch.
  • We published a revision to the Meaningful Use Workflows Info Sheet that describes new workflows and resolutions to help ensure you capture the appropriate data for calculations.
  • Finally, we released an updated version of the Meaningful Use User Guide for Centricity Practice Solution and Centricity EMR customers that will serve as your comprehensive resource for understanding how the measures are calculated and workflows that support those measures.

We hope you find these resources useful. We are committed to your success and are standing by to support you through your final phases of Meaningful Use 2014 preparation.

Sincerely,

Peter Kinhan, Vice President & General Manager, Ambulatory Practice Solutions, GE Healthcare IT

CLINICAL VISIT SUMMARY – Product Information Notice

Message from GE Healthcare:

December 19, 2014

Dear Centricity Customer,

We would like to make you aware of potentially unexpected behavior when attaching a clinical visit summary to a patient’s chart that, if not immediately addressed as instructed below, has the potential in limited cases to inadvertently lead to health information from one patient being available to another patient. Users of Centricity Practice Solution 12.0.x or Centricity EMR 9.8.x should follow the instructions in this letter to determine if you have experienced this issue in the past. We recommend that you upgrade to Service Pack 7 to ensure you avoid the situation in the future.

Clinical Visit Summary Appending Incorrectly SPR 60572: In certain rare circumstances, a clinical visit summary (CVS) generated from within one patient’s open chart will append to another, previously-closed patient chart. This CVS could then be provided to the other patient, whether manually or automatically via secure message.

Recommended Actions We have posted to the service portal a script that can identify the patients’ charts at risk of containing an incorrectly appended CVS. We recommended that you follow the steps in the Release Notes to run the detection script. The Release Notes can be downloaded from the Access Documentation section of the CPS Service Portal or the CEMR Service Portal. We recommend that you examine any at-risk charts identified by the script for incorrectly appended summaries. If any are found, we sugges you

  1. change the incorrect CVS to Filed in Error AND
  2. retract any secure messages that may have delivered the summaries.

Please note: only some of the charts identified by the script will contain an incorrectly appended summary. You will need to run the detection script frequently and manually remediate any issues until you upgrade to a version where the situation is corrected. A fix is available for those on Service Pack 6, and the situation is corrected in Service Pack 7.

Contact Information If you have experienced this issue or have questions, please contact Centricity Support by calling 1-888-436-8491.

Maintaining a high level of quality is our highest priority. If you have any questions, please contact us immediately per the contact information above.

Sincerely,

Peter Kinhan, Vice President and General Manager, Ambulatory Practice Solutions GE Healthcare IT

Is there Light at the end of this Healthcare Tunnel?

“Stress is not what happens to us. It’s our response to what happens.  An response is something we can choose at any moment.” www.livelifehappy.com

Does anyone else feel like healthcare is consuming most of your life these days? I am reading blogs on Healthcare IT, Healthcare law, Healthcare updates, Healthcare mandates, Healthcare…you get the idea.

As a Practice Administrator, I feel as though I should have an IT, law, administration, accounting, and marketing degree. I am fortunate to work for a Physician that believes in investing in his employees and providing resources to get our jobs done, but I wonder about those that don’t? Even with endless resources, the burden to stay on top of the latest news in healthcare is cumbersome. On top of the things you HAVE to do, what about the things you want to do?

Read more

CQR Notice: DOWNTIME December 5th-8th

December 3, 2014

Dear Clinical Quality Reporting Customer,

We want to share with you an important downtime notice for Clinical Quality Reporting (CQR). This downtime is necessary to support the continually growing volumes of data and calculation requests. The update also provides support for additional Meaningful Use workflows and makes some changes to the clinical quality measures displayed on your dashboard. Please refer to the release notes that we expect to post to the CQR section of the Centricity™ Practice Solution (CPS) Centricity EMR (CEMR) and Service Portals on Monday, December 8

Please be aware of the following:

  • We will bring CQR down for two short periods starting the evening of December 5th, and we expect the system to be available for full use by the evening of December 8th.
  • The CQR Dashboard will be unavailable Friday evening through Saturday morning.
  • CQR ingestion processes will be suspended briefly for some customers on Monday beginning at 9:00 AM PST.
  • We will be reaching out to some of you prior to the downtime to make configuration changes to your system. A project manager will contact you by Friday, if this is required for your system.
  •  For this Maintenance period, you do NOT need to turn off your CQR Channel in QIE nor your CQR subscription in the CPS or CEMR applications. However, we recommend you review QIE for errors that may have occurred during the downtime or as a result of configuration changes within the CQR application.  Instructions for performing this task will be posted to the Service Portal on Monday.

We will work expeditiously to make these updates, and we will post an announcement to the Service Portal when the system is available.

To receive notifications directly to your email account when we post these updates, please log in to the CQR section of the CPS or CEMR Service Portal, click on “follow” in the top right hand corner of the page, and check “InBox”. Should you need assistance in configuring your account to follow these pages, please read Getting Started: Following Products and Communities and Email or Stream Notifications?.

We thank you for your patience during this time. If you have any additional questions, please call Centricity Support Services at 1-888-436-8491.

Sincerely,

Peter Kinhan

Vice President & General Manager, Ambulatory Practice Solutions GE Healthcare IT

 

11 Reasons to say “Yes” to a Scribe

How much is your time worth as a provider? Or a better question, what is YOUR hourly rate? With the increase in government regulations and the need for timely, accurate documentation, scribes are a great option.

1. Help Me, Help YOU

Making your job as a provider easier should be a reason to consider a scribe. Not only is your scribe taking down your documentation into the EHR as directed but they are also there as your “assistant.” You may choose to pull an already clinical person, such as an MA or a nurse, to become your scribe. This will allow your scribe to assist you with minor procedures, injections, casting, etc.

2. Can I get a witness?

Unfortunately there are times when a patient visit becomes a “He said, She said” moment. With a scribe, you will have a witness in the room documenting the information in “real time.”

3. Call for some Help

Read more

MU 2: 2 Fast 2 Soon?

Those who have upgraded to EMR 9.8 or CPS 12 have done so most likely with the plans to attest for Meaningful Use Stage 2. Here we are, almost to the end of the year and many users are throwing their hands in the air. An article written in August by Healthcare IT News, has noted many meaningful users are falling short. They note “too few people really, truly grasp the magnitude of the changes compared to Stage 1.”

Read more

Meaningful Use Admin Set up for Dummies

If you are on the systems administration side of things, you have been given the daunting task to set up the administration side of CPS12 to get ready for Meaningful Use 2. Unfortunately, the easy button to do this requires many steps. Here is an admin check list for you to reach Meaningful U use 2 core measures using CPSv12: Read more