Electronic Health Information Systems adoption in Mental Health

Forty-six states (94 percent) are either incorporating or planning to incorporate electronic health records in state psychiatric hospitals and planning to support their use in community mental health systems.  SAMHSA, Characteristics of State Mental Health Agency Data Systems, the report’s overview describes the increasingly crucial role IT plays in helping the states provide mental health services.

Public mental health services increasingly rely upon their IT systems to provide essential functions such as:

• Monitoring the public mental health service system for service gaps
• Ensuring that persons living with a mental illness receive timely, appropriate, and needed services
• Reimbursing mental health providers for services provided
• Building accountability performance targets and outcome measures.

These findings demonstrate that state mental health agencies are devoting considerable resources to improve their mental health information systems by installing EHR systems, building data warehouses, linking multiple data systems, and enhancing the capacity of their information systems.

Source: SAMHSA

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HIS Health informatics (also called Health   Information Systems, health care informatics, healthcare   informatics, medical informatics, nursing informatics, clinical   informatics, or biomedical informatics) is a discipline at the   intersection of information science,   computer science,   and health care. It deals with the resources,   devices, and methods required to optimize the acquisition, storage,   retrieval, and use of information in health and biomedicine. Health informatics   tools include not only computers but also clinical guidelines,   formal medical terminologies, and information and communication systems. It   is applied to the areas of nursing, clinical   care, dentistry, pharmacy, public health, occupational therapy,   and (bio)medical research. EHR An electronic health record (EHR) is an evolving   concept defined as a systematic collection of electronic health information   about individual patients or populations. Sharing can occur by way of   network-connected enterprise-wide information systems and other information   networks or exchanges. EHRs may include a range of data, including demographics,   medication and allergies, personal stats like age and weight, and billing   information. Each healthcare environment functions differently, often   in significant ways. It is difficult to create a   “one-size-fits-all” EHR system. An ideal EHR system will have   record standardization but interfaces that can be customized to each provider   environment. Modularity in an EHR system facilitates this. This customization   can often be done so that a physician’s input interface closely mimics   previously utilized paper forms. At the same time they reported negative effects in   communication, increased overtime, and missing records when a non-customized   EMR system was utilized.  Customizing   the software when it is released yields the highest benefits because it is   adapted for the users and tailored to workflows specific to the institution. Source: Wikipedia

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New Business Technology puts the squeeze on Small and Mid Size Firms

Using  technology  to cope with today’s ever changing business pressures varies with business size.

Current trends in business technology in general are smaller, faster, cheaper, free on the internet.

Business of all size are and have been rushing to get there.

• Large companies throw together teams to investigate and implement technology to their advantage.
  • They have the benefit of large budgets and resource pools.
  • Maintaining their operations and customers is not a problem simply because of their depth of resources.               
• Mid sized firms  can outsource for  limited adoption of technology
  • have more limited resources
  • operations and customer maintenance is not significantly affected because they can bring in some resources
  • can use “free” tools but typically do not want to host the “free” advertising associated with free tools
• Small companies have to try to find a way to adopt new technology themselves or utilize so called “free” tools on the web.
  • have typically neither resources or money
  • have overhead and customers to keep happy
  • Have day to day operations/services  to maintain
  • Have to live with the free advertising to get the free tools
• Start ups can carve out a niche and  spend hundreds or thousands of man days developing a specific solution that they can provide cheaper, faster, slicker.
  • Startups have little to no overhead and need only do one thing really well.
  • No current customers to keep happy. 
  • may have deep pockets if they are lucky enough to have an “angel”
  • on the down side they have little to no revenue

Two points can be made from the above observations:

1.  So called “free” internet resources to adopt technology to your business are not “free”. The adage ” there is  no such thing as a free lunch” could not be more true. Utilizing free tools with or without the advertising takes paying for help to implement or hundreds of hundreds of hours  to first implement and configure and then constant on going attention to feed the content and or tweak the configuration .  Don’t get me wrong the internet “free” tools, and low cost services are great. but  they are in no way free.
2. The small to mid- sized firms that create jobs and hire people are being squeezed by new technology more than the Large and startup firms.

We at AdvanTec Information Systems, LLC  recognize this and work with the small and mid- sized firms to help them adopt and adapt to new technology.

www.advantecis.com   www.findsocialservicesoftware.com

New technology — causes a new look at mobile business applications

Historically business has wanted field deployed personnel to capture data at the point on customer interaction for at least the last 20 years.

There have been and continue to be many variations and ways of achieving this end.  To date all have been relatively expensive. 

They historically  broke down into three classes of use:

      Paper and transcribe

• inexpensive to implement   ↑
• costly to maintain – data transcription ↓
• possible transcription errors ↓
• latency — delay from collection to system input ↓

      Batch capture and upload

• device expense  ↓
• latency  – delay from collection to system input  ↓
• communications availability  ↓

       Real time interaction

• communications availability ↓
• communications cost  ↓

 At the same time the internet has matured enabling direct customer involvement on the web reducing the need for field personnel in many areas / industries. (e.g. routine sales calls) 

Industries where the services are being performed (at least in part) by the field personnel still need mobile data devices.  (e.g route sales, home health care, inspection / estimation services,  delivery, field sales,  etc)

Time and technological improvements have vastly reduced the cost and availability of mobile devices and communications.  Thus causing a resurgence of interest in mobile solutions.

Now we can affordably combine the best of all of these improvements to provide Hybrid Mobile solutions that:

• capture while offline  — costs ↓ 
  • notebooks
  • netbooks
  • pocket hotspots
• are real time when connected online — counnications costs ↓ 
  • smart phones (blackberry, IPhone, IPod touch)
  • WIFI
  • 3G/4G networks
• upload off line captured data whenever you go on line — communications avaialbility ↑ 
  • Public WIFI
  • Home internet widespread
• and deliver local hard copy or on screen advices via the internet.  ↑

 Our ATEC2GO, AT-e-Commerce  and e-Server Modules enable these mobility solutions for our clients. Call one of our consultants or agents to discuss how AdvanTec Information  Systems, LLC can enable your field personnel and improve your process and bottom line.

High-Variety – Business Models: Provide high value to your clients.

Manufacturing – Sales – Supply — Service

 High-Variety Manufacturing:

The term High-Variety Manufacturing refers to businesses that are in: mass customization, Job Shop, made to order, build to order, High-mix-low-volume.  These businesses have similar needs and issues: Job specific work orders, tracking, and variability in costs of goods and labor. My definition would not exclude standard made to stock operations – short and long run for the sake of completeness.

 High-Variety Sales:

It used to be that a firm did one or two modes of sales: Inside sales – Field Sales, Retail Stores – Cash-n-Carry, Wholesale – Standard: order- ship-bill, Supply Center – Counter Sales

 In today’ world companies need to be able to address many different modes of sales to keep up: Standard, Brokered, Counter, Retail, POS- Pick Up, E-Commerce, re-Supply, Special Order,  configuration, Remote/Mobile,  Affiliate Sales, Sales Agents, MFG Rep,  Job/Project,  EDI

 High-Variety Supply:

In like fashion firms that used to depend of a single of source(s) of supply are increasingly using: multiple vendors, manufacturing, contract manufacturing,  real inventory, virtual inventory, made to order, and logistics firms to a handle fulfillment.

 High-Variety Service:

Where a single work process used to accommodate work assignment and tracking now there can be a many different work order flow processes thorough out a company as well: Made to Order -MTO, made to Stock -MTS, Maintenance -MNT, Pick-UP-PUP, Deliver-DEL, Process -PRO, Refurbish- REF, Repair – REP, Service – SVC, Warranty – WAR, Install-INS, Engineer, Furnish, Install -EFI, Remove – REM, Assemble – ASS, Dissemble -DIS.

 Each firm may not need or do all of these but increasingly each firm is doing more and more of these.   

 Mid range firms, in particular, are being squeezed from the bottom and the top. One pony firms are nipping at their heels  by doing one thing and doing it cheaply to the exclusion of all else.  Big firms have the resources to provide all things to all people and are chomping off the top of the mid range market.

 Flexibility and adaptability are the key to economic survival, Small- Mid range firms need to have affordable tools to provide each and all of these modes of operations as needed to remain competitive and viable.  We all know that it is not about price alone, it is about value.

 Value = Price + Quality + Service

 Our Industrial Edition provides the tools, affordability, and flexibility to enable your business to provide high Value to your clients.

www.advantecis.com