HIMSS Exhibits: On Your Mark, Get Set, Explore!
It's day 2 for ADVANCE at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Convention in Chicago, and the action keeps on coming.
The morning kicked off with a general session. As attendees took their seats, video played on the jumbo screens, featuring "man on the street" interviews with passerbys in Chicago about health care. One woman said it was easier to get her pet's medical records than her mother's, while another said her medical information was kept in paper charts and all that was required to access them was jumping over the receptionist's desk. The comments generate laughs but also provoked knowing nods as attendees knew such problems in health care all too well.
The star of this morning's general session was George Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Foundation, who spoke about the need for "systematic improvements" in health care. He attributed health care's high costs and inefficiencies to "inconsistent, uncoordinated and unmeasured" delivery of care. According to Halvorson, the nation could save a half trillion dollars per year "if we got care right."
Halvorson emphasized the need to move away from paper records, which are "incomplete," "Inactive," "illegible" and "inadequate," to electronic systems that let information flow "inside the care system, between caregivers and out to our patients." During a question and answer segment, he noted the push to go electronic will ultimately come from patients as they become more educated about the opportunities in EHRs.
As always, there were plenty of topics to choose from during the morning and afternoon educational sessions. I checked out a session led by Julie Bryant, RHIA, from Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, who is leveraging the Stark exemption to get physicians on staff to implement EHRs in their offices that connect to the hospital campus. A presentation on open source technology for health information exchange attracted health care stakeholders interested in alternatives to proprietary systems, while a session on the privacy and security implications of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act drew a large crowd of curious (and maybe a few concerned?) attendees.
Today's activities also included a 5K "Fun Run," but I think I covered the same ground circling the exhibit hall. Aisles and aisles of booths offer a bevy of information--and entertainment, too. Healthcare Management Systems set up a 1950s soda shop on the exhibit floor, while OnBase software followed a sports bar theme. Amid the fun and games, attendees still managed to get down to business and learn about products and services that can meet their HIT and HIM needs.
The day's starting to wind down, but I'm not off the clock yet. This evening, I'm checking out the HIMSS Stage 6 and 7 Awards ceremony, which recognizes health care institutions that have achieved extensive use of EHRs.