North Shore-LIJ (NY) Health System Investing $400M to Connect
Up to 7,000 Physicians, 13 Hospitals with Electronic Health Records System
Per North Shore-LIG and Allscripts September 28, 2009 Press Release: “The North Shore-LIJ Health System announced today it is subsidizing up to 85 percent of the cost of implementing and operating an Electronic Health Records (EHR) system in the offices of its more than 7,000 affiliated physicians in New York City and Long Island — part of a $400 million investment to strengthen the quality of care throughout the region by automating inpatient and outpatient records in all medical settings, including 13 hospitals. In implementing the largest EHR program in the New York metropolitan area and one of the largest in the nation, North Shore-LIJ will provide physicians with individual subsidies of up to $40,000 over five years.”

Michael J. Dowling, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the North Shore-LIJ Health System said “We’re not going to measure our return-on-investment (ROI) in terms of dollars and cents; our ROI will be based on our ability to improve patient outcomes.”

“Glen Tullman, CEO of Allscripts, noted that providing physicians with real-time care guidelines via the EHR increases the probability of achieving fundamental improvements in the quality of patient care.”

John Bosco, North Shore-LIJ’s chief information officer said “the Allscripts’ EHR will connect to a separate inpatient clinical information system from Eclipsys Corporation that North Shore-LIJ is deploying at its hospitals and other facilities.”

Several accounts following this story in conjunction with Press Release:
–Steve Lohr of New York Times broke the story previous day on September 27, 2009 reporting ”The nation’s drive toward computerized medical records is getting a push from big hospitals, which hope not only to improve patient care but to gain an edge on competitors.”
–Ridgley Ochs of Newsday reported on September 28, 2009 “Dr. Paul Moulinie, a cardiologist in Huntington and Syosset, said he is excited – and nervous – that his practice will be one of the first to get rid of paper charts and go completely electronic.” Moulinie said that physicians could do a better job of patient care with immediate access to complete patient histories.
–Claude Solnik of Long Island Business News reported September 28, 2009 that Dr. Robert Williams, director of Deloitte Healthcare Consulting said “No comparably-sized hospital system in the country is providing this level of financial assistance to so many physicians to integrate an electronic health record.”  Solnick also quoted Stanley Bergman, CEO of Melville, Long Island-based Henry Schein, one of several independent distributors of Allscripts’ system to physicians, but it appears that the North Shore deal is directly with Allscripts.

See previous e-Healthcare Marketing post on “Connecting All Your Docs at ‘Most Wired’ Hospitals.”

Digital Dilemma for Hospital Medicine Physicians
The September 2009 issue of The Hospitalist does an overview of the HITECH Stimulus act and what Hospitalists face in terms of implementing EHRs, not getting left behind, and facing privacy and communication obstacles.

Added note: What’s the dilemma? The boxed sidebar entitled “DON’T GET LEFT BEHIND” describes the dilemma, though the article and my brief summary above should have pointed this out. According to the Society of Hospital Medicine  ”The term ‘hospitalist’ refers to physicians whose practice emphasizes providing care for hospitalized patients.” Yet, as the sidebar points out that the hospitalist must get involved from the earliest stages, taking time away from their immediate focus of caring directly for patients, to work through what may seem tedious discussions and activities to make EHR adoption successful: attend meetings with hospital leaders and IT about adoption; speak up with your concerns; participate in design forums, testing, and feedback sessions; and plan ahead.

Hospital Medicine and Hospitalists
Web site for Society of Hospital Medicine:
http://www.hospitalmedicine.org
The Society for Hospital Medicine estimates that there are about 20,000 hospitalists in the country, with 30,000 expected by the end of the decade. In June 2009, the American Medical Association approved recommendations for 15 Prinicipals for Developing Sustainable and Successful Hospitalist Programs. While the AMA does not represent the majority of physicians, it does maintain a generally accepted database of all US physicians and its official specialty count for US Hospitalists was about 110 at the end of 2008. This specialty was added relatively recently to the AMA’s physician database.

Thanks to a LinkedIn member for noting that the original brief summary needed more value, and not just another click before the full text.

Connecting All Your Docs at ‘Most Wired Hospitals’
Alden Solovoy reports in the September 2009 issue of American Hospitals Association’s H&HN–Hospitals & Health Networks “ The majority of the Most Wired (hospitals and hospital systems) do not distinguish between employed and independent physicians in their integration efforts, with 57 percent subsidizing both types of physician practices.” 93% of the 2009 Most Wired provide some EHR support to at least one category of practices. Story includes useful charts plus quotes from John Halamka, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, #1 Most Wired; Daniel Barchi,  Carilion Clinic, Roanoke, VA, #7 of 100 Most Wired;  John Schrenker, Lakeside Health System, Brockport, NY, one of the 2009 Most Improved; and Jerry Peter, Lakeside Hospital System, Painesville, Ohio, one of the 2009 Most Improved.

H&HN Lists of Most Wired, Most Improved, Most Wired–Small and Rural, and Most Wireless. Published in July 2009.

See Sept 29 post on e-Healthcare Marketing about North Shore-LIJ subsidizing up to 7,000 physicians.