Scottsdale Institute

Tom Foley, Principal, and Brian Lee, Manager, Deloitte Consulting LLP. With the CMS mandate for the adoption of the ICD-10 code set, healthcare provider organizations face many challenges including decreases in coder productivity and decision support processes. Many automated tools such as Computer Assisted Coding (CAC) and “cross walk” applications are available to assist with […]

Robert Weeks, Director, Information Systems Division, Memorial Hermann Healthcare System. Memorial Hermann is a leading provider of healthcare in Houston with a strong tradition of enabling exchange of clinical information. With early initiatives focused on enabling affiliated physicians to have electronic access to lab results, radiology reports and other data, Memorial Hermann partnered with Cerner […]

Donald W. Fisher, PhD, CAE, President and CEO, American Medical Group Association, and John K. Cuddeback, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Informatics Officer, Anceta. In parallel with its advocacy for the ACO concept over the past decade, AMGA has brought medical groups together to learn what works (and what doesn’t) in redesigning the delivery system to […]

David Classen, MD, Vice President, CSC, and Associate Professor of Medicine Infectious Diseases, University of Utah. Dr. Classen reviews the November 2011 IOM report on HIT and Patient Safety, summarizing highlights of the report and emphasizing the recommendations that have a great impact on vendors and healthcare organizations.

Ray R. Bonnabeau, Attorney at Law, Hellmuth & Johnson, PLLC. IT contracts do not just contain legalese. Both the business and legal considerations need to be considered hand in hand. This discussion does just that.

Eric Finocchiaro, Specialist Leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP. Eric Finocchiaro, Specialist Leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP. Eric discusses Meaningful Use through the lens of clinician adoption and clinical workflow. He reviews lessons learned and best practices for driving change to achieve Meaningful Use. Eric also highlights how a focus on adoption and clinical workflow has enabled organizations […]

Erica Drazen, Managing Director, and Caitlin Lorincz, Research Analyst, Emerging Practices, CSC. Since the first IOM report on errors in care was published there have been many efforts to improve safety of inpatient care. But what about the ambulatory setting – where more care is delivered? We cover the findings of a review of ambulatory […]

Denney Hunter, Sr. Engagement Leader, Cerner Corporation. Denney discusses the draft rule for Stage 2, changes from the proposal from the HIT policy committee and Cerner’s strategy in helping health care organizations in meeting the requirements. If the rule is not out, the discussion will focus on the status of Stage 1, and new clarifications.

Dana Moore, SVP/CIO, Centura Health. Dana talks about the history of HIE in Colorado and Centura’s journey with CORHIO. The discussion includes sustainability of CORHIO and how Centura and other Colorado CIOs were able to partner to make CORHIO a reality.

Erica Drazen, Managing Director for Emerging Practices, CSC, discusses the NPRM for Meaningful Use Stage 2, changes from the proposal by the HIT Policy Committee, and challenges in meeting the requirements. A summary document is included and is also posted on our home page.

Eric Finocchiaro, Specialist Leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP and Harry Greenspun, MD, senior advisor for health care transformation and technology at the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. A review of the the Meaningful Use Proposed Rule for Stage 2 as well as the companion regulations which establish the standards, implementation specifications and certification criteria to ensure […]

Lyle Berkowitz, MD, FACP, Medical Director, IT & Innovation, Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group. Dr. Berkowitz discusses a primary care group’s innovative model of care coordination that uses basic EMR functionality and low cost staff to improve quality, access, efficiency and financial performance. See how they leveraged an EMR’s basic functionality of messaging and centralized chart […]

Erica Drazen, Managing Director for Emerging Practices, CSC. While the focus is on NPRM from CMS for Stage 2 of Meaningful Use, in the accompanying NPRM from ONC there are new standards for data and security and important changes to certification that provide more flexibility for systems certification.

William D. Marder, SVP Analytic Consulting and Research Services, Thomson Reuters, describes an analytical approach to understanding spending trends across areas that impact accountable care organizations. Bill highlights how the degree of illness in a population, combined with the geographic variation in the number of commercially insured, can create a financial burden for providers. He […]

Karl M. Kochendorfer, MD, FAAFP, Assistant Professor of Clinical Family and Community Medicine at the University of Missouri’s School of Medicine, Director of Clinical Informatics in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, and Adjunct faculty member of the MU Informatics Institute and the Department of Health Management and Informatics. This session provides an update […]

William G. Bithoney, MD, National Medical Leader, Thomson Reuters Healthcare, and former interim president and CEO, COO and CMO at Sisters of Providence Health System/Mercy Medical Center, Springfield, MA, discusses his team’s work in managing a full risk Medicare Advantage Accountable Care Organization. This work resulted in marked decreases in hospital admissions (from 380/1000 per […]

Dean F. Sittig, PhD, and Daniel A. Gonzalez Carrero, University of Texas – Memorial Hermann Center for Healthcare Quality & Safety. A recent report by the Institute of Medicine, “Health IT and Patient Safety: Building Safer Systems for Better Care” recommends that healthcare organizations have contingency plans in place to mitigate any potential issues related […]

Patrick Rossignol, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP. Patrick summarizes the IT capability needed to support an ACO, making a distinction between core/base capabilities and advanced ones. He outlines known IT issues/current limitations, and some remediation strategies. He also defines a phased ACO IT deployment model and high-level budget projections.

Rich Pollack, MS CPHIMS, FHIMSS, VP and CIO, Sallie Lewis, PMO Director, and Jack Koller, Sr. Project Manager, VCU Health System. Rich and Sallie discuss VCU’s evolution of a mature and effective PMO that began five years ago as a complement to a longstanding and solid IT governance. They describe the embedded prioritization part of […]

Jane Metzger, Research Principal in Emerging Practices, CSC. Between the demands of health reform, payment reforms and the meaningful use requirements of the HITECH act, there’s no shortage of resource-intensive, mission critical initiatives facing health care organizations. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to predict that pursuing them separately will result in duplicated work and […]

William G. Bithoney, MD, National Medical Leader, Thomson Reuters Healthcare, and former interim president and CEO, COO and CMO at Sisters of Providence Health System/Mercy Medical Center, Springfield, MA. Hospital employees are at higher risk for illness than other workers. They utilize 18% more hospital days and have 22% more ED visits. Overall they incur […]

Rich Pollack, MS CPHIMS, FHIMSS, VP and CIO, Harold Harris, Manager of Service Delivery, and Jamie Trull, Lead Nurse Informaticist, VCU Health System. While not under IT at VCU, BioMed is playing an increasingly complex but critical role in bedside data integration. In an effort to bring some sanity to this complexity, three-party SLAs were […]

Colin Buckley, Strategic Operations Manager, KLAS, Orem, Utah. Meaningful use is one of the most focused-on initiatives currently in American healthcare. As of November 2011, 833 (or roughly 14%) of U.S. hospitals have attested to meeting Stage 1 requirements, with many more lining up to follow. CMS data shows that both large and small hospital […]

Marianne Laouri, Specialist Leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP. Marianne focuses on definitions of Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) and its drivers in the current health care marketplace. She addresses when and how life sciences can engage in CER and comparative evidence generation to inform their business questions and develop competitive advantages. Resource requirements and communication of CE […]

Ray R. Bonnabeau, Attorney at Law, Hellmuth & Johnson, PLLC. IT consulting agreements govern a wide variety of engagements, from development efforts to project management and staff augmentation. The issues within IT consulting agreements are equally varied as well, spanning from ownership, rights to use, payment terms, residual clauses and termination rights. Learn what to […]

Jordan Battani, Managing Director, CSC. Accountable care, so closely linked with healthcare reform efforts, is a method for organizing and delivering healthcare that empowers providers and holds them accountable for patient healthcare outcomes and financial constraints results. Accountable care expectations are taking hold across the healthcare industry – and developing accountable care capabilities is emerging […]

Graham Triggs, Senior Research Director, KLAS, Orem, UT. Graham shares recent findings collected from healthcare providers about computer assisted coding (CAC). This presentation delves into the reasons providers are choosing a CAC system, examines the key issues they face, delineates the vendors that are being considered to meet coding needs, and explains the perceived strengths […]

Marti Slot, and Peter Lundeen, MD, Physician Solutions Architect, Technology and Information Solutions, Spectrum Health. Marti and Dr. Lundeen discuss lessons learned from their medication reconciliation journey, including the critical roles of pharmacy technicians, completely mapping out the complete medication history/medication reconciliation process from beginning to end for each unique transition of care, training and […]

Asif Dhar, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP. Asif discusses the use of data analytics to enable healthcare reform. Focusing on trends within the industry, he also discusses lessons learned in leveraging analytics, and providing a general overview of the analytics landscape.

Ray R. Bonnabeau, Attorney at Law, Hellmuth & Johnson, PLLC. Ray examines a number of licensee challenges in software licensing agreements. Ten key software license agreement areas are discussed, with a focus on what to do and what not to do in each area. From getting the license right, to obtaining meaningful acceptance testing and […]

Jane Metzger, Research Principal in Emerging Practices, CSC. Preventing readmissions is turning out to be the first real test case for continuity of care since capitation put a dollar value on it in the 1990’s. This presentation provides an overview of the research base concerning what works, the current state of the practice for hospitals, […]

Virginia Lorenzi, Manager, HIT Standards and Collaborations, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and Associate, Columbia Department of Biomedical Informatics. This timely discussion focuses on standards adoption as Washington finalizes regulations, and providers and vendors roll up their sleeves preparing for the next leg of the meaningful use journey. Survey findings are presented and discussed with the goal of […]

Ed Marx, CIO, Texas Health Resources. What is innovation? How do you create a culture that encourages innovation? Once created, how do you sustain innovation in your enterprise? Learn how Texas Health created and sustained innovation leading to improved business and clinical outcomes.

Thomas Payne, MD, Medical Director for IT Services, University of Washington. mPages build on the Millennium foundation to permit sites to address workflow, display, and simple data entry needs quickly. It is a satisfier for busy clinicians, which is particularly helpful when much of what EMR implementation involves is not well-received by all. Creating mPages […]

Jean MacQuarrie, Vice President Payment Integrity Services, Truven Health Analytics, formerly the Healthcare Business of Thomson Reuters. As your organization prepares to take on risk, consider protection from fraud and abuse: there are over $700 Million in fraudulent healthcare claims annually. Section 6028 of the Affordable Care Act will require that all risk-bearing entities have […]

Karen Bell, MD, Chair, CCHIT. Dr. Bell provides an update on EHR certification programs available to hospitals and health systems. Learn about the anticipated changes in certification programs coming with the ONC’s Permanent Certification Program and their 2014 edition of criteria and standards, and find out how hospitals have successfully certified internally developed or customized […]

Karen Cabell, DO, CMIO, and Chris Stevens, CIO, Billings Clinic. Dr. Cabell and Chris present the Billings Clinic’s journey towards effective population management utilizing Cerner’s Clinical Information System, Disease Management Registries, and processes for identifying gaps in care. They highlight their steps towards ACO and NCQA Medical Home, including methods to engage patients, point of […]

Michael R. Udwin, MD, FACOG, Medical Director, Analytic Consulting and Research Services, Truven Health Analytics, formerly the Healthcare Business of Thomson Reuters. Why do we continue to drive off the road despite guard rails? Order sets and clinical pathways promised to be the solution to physician practice variability. Yet, quality and utilization continue to represent […]

Linda L. Kloss, RHIA, Kloss Strategic Advisors, Ltd., former CEO of AHIMA. Innovation of the methods and tools for information management are undergoing profound change. Speech recognition, natural language processing, clinical vocabularies and the upgrade to ICD-10 are examples of advances in information management necessitated by the new challenges of managing the exploding volume of […]

Alexander Turchin, MD, MS, Senior Medical Informatician, Quality Performance Management, Partners HealthCare. The presentation combines a review of the existing literature and the presentation of his study: “Bridging the Chasm: Effect of Health Information Exchange on Volume of Laboratory Testing” published in the March 26, 2012, issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, which examined […]

Robert Rinck, IT Director, Tom O’Keefe, IT Manager, and Aaron Predum, Biomedical Electronics Manager, Spectrum Health. Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, MI, has been voted by Reuters as a Top-10 Healthcare System in 2010 and 2011. In 2007, Spectrum Health integrated Clinical Engineering and Information Technology teams into a single organization. In a five-year retrospective […]

Barry Hieb, M.D., Chief Scientist, Global Patient Identifiers, Inc., Sponsor of the Voluntary Universal Healthcare Identifier Project. Accurate patient identification is a prerequisite for the information exchange envisioned as part of the Nationwide Health Information Network. Support for various patient consent and privacy paradigms is also a necessity. Join us for a discussion about how […]

Carolina Herrera, Research Director, Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI). Carolina reviews the first-ever report using health plans’ claims data from HCCI: the nation’s largest private insurers show that prices, not utilization, are driving health spending growth.

Jeff Christoff, Principal, Tom Foley, Principal, and Michael Janis, Senior Manager, Benchmarking Center, Deloitte Consulting LLP. Consolidating operations into a shared services model has been popular in many industries for many years. Healthcare providers are becoming more interested in shared services and many have already incorporated aspects of their operations into a shared services model. […]

Melissa Rubel, RHIA, Product Manager, OptumInsight, describes how NLP is helping hospitals overcome the challenges they face today – fragmented healthcare, labor shortages and diversity in clinical documentation – while preparing them for tomorrow’s challenges, including ICD-10. Learn Melissa’s experience with a leading academic medical center to adapt computer-assisted coding (CAC) and the NLP engine […]

Jared Rhoads, Senior Researcher, and Owen Pate, Healthcare Risk and Compliance Executive, CSC’s Global Institute for Emerging Practices. Achieving excellence in privacy and security is essential to care delivery, yet for many hospital executives this can seem like a continuously moving target. New technologies, an increasing reliance upon data, and changing regulations make now the […]

Michael I. Harrison, PhD, Sr. Social Scientist, Organizations & Systems Center for Delivery, Organization, and Markets, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and Spencer S. Jones, PhD, Associate Information Scientist at the RAND Corporation. The AHRQ “Guide to Reducing Unintended Consequences of Electronic Health Records”, available at , is an online resource providing practical, troubleshooting […]

Sean Gaskie, MD, Physician Director, Sutter Health, and Laura Kreofsky, Impact Advisors and Program Director for Sutter Health’s Meaningful Use Program. Dr. Gaskie and Laura describe the approach taken to ensuring maximum value and utility in the organization’s Meaningful Use reporting toolset – including the reports from Epic and those internally developed. With a focus […]

Joe Van De Graaff, Research Director, Business Intelligence, KLAS. More than half of the providers KLAS recently spoke with said that they plan to replace or purchase a business intelligence (BI) solution. A wide variety of vendors offer tools to collect, aggregate, and report data -leaving many providers wondering which vendor tools provide predictive analytics, […]

Steven Simpson, MD, and Amanda Gartner, RN, The University of Kansas Hospital, and Bryan Eckert, Healthcare Group, CSC. The University of Kansas Hospital (KUMED) has made great strides in improving outcomes for sepsis patients using an “early warning system” supported by seasoned critical care nurses acting as a special team of clinical surveillance and triage […]

Paul Keckley, Ph.D., Executive Director, Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, Deloitte Consulting LLP. Dr. Keckley examines the Affordable Care Act’s implementation status, what to expect regarding the 2012 elections, why the lame duck session is not so lame, and what to watch for in 2013.

Tim Reiner, VP Revenue Management, Adventist Health System. Second only to Meaningful Use, Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) is essential. About 60% of Registration and Patient Accounting applications were purchased prior to 1999, and HIMSS estimates 40% will replace RCM solutions in next 4-5 years. Your current EMR supplier will have a high impact on the […]

David Jackson, Senior Consulting Manager, Analytic Consulting and Research Services, Truven Health Analytics, formerly the Healthcare Business of Thomson Reuters. Building on the momentum created by PPACA legislation and commercial market payment innovation, new tactics for bundled payment are beginning to gain traction. David describes approaches used to support health systems in developing a bundled […]

Ed Marx, SVP and CIO, and Elizabeth Ransom, MD, Chief Clinical Leader – North Zone, Texas Health Resources. After scaling smaller mountains, a team of officers and doctors at Texas Health Resources fixed their eyes on summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro. The planning progressed, and this seed of an idea grew into a mission that would encompass […]

Karen Broz, EMR Training Team Coordinator, and Elaine Hinton, EMT Staff Development Coordinator, University of Missouri Health. Karen and Elaine discuss how they have changed traditional nurse and resident physician onboarding models to accommodate the realities of today’s EMR-enabled world. Learn how they reduced the total amount of time to get the clinician to the […]

Lorri Luciano, RHIA, Manager, HIM Product Hospital Specialist, OptumInsight. Lorri provides a detailed discussion of ICD-10 and coding; how this impacts hospitals and what you should be thinking about. She shares her experience in helping hospitals implement computerized-assisted coding (CAC), the benefits these hospitals have seen, as well as information from other hospitals adopting CAC […]

Rajeev Ronanki, Director, and Quinn Solomon, Senior Manager, Deloitte Consulting. Mobile Applications have been rising as a technology allowing patients to better understand and manage their health, as well as being effective tools for care professionals to handle their day-to-day work. Yet, mobility can also be an effective enabler of new strategies as part of […]

Shawn Griffin, MD, Chief Quality and Informatics Officer for MHMD – Memorial Hermann Physician Network. Dr. Griffin reviews the multiple new analytics tools being utilized by Memorial Hermann’s Medicare Shared Savings ACO to track performance metrics, manage population health, and support ambulatory care management. He also discusses both claims-based analytics and EMR based “middleware” for […]

David Voran, MD, Medical Director, Heartland Health. Heartland Health quietly turned on Cerner’s patient portal in 2007 and after several years of piloting it in one clinic, has now expanded it throughout it’s entire network. The primary benefit has been to provide patients with secure communication directly with their providers. Patients also have access to […]

Carla Robelli, Vice President, PMO, and Tauana McDonald, Vice President, Integration Services, Trinity Health. In 2011, Trinity Health attested for over 25 hospitals as early adopters of Meaningful Use Stage 1 and subsequently plan on early attestation regarding Stage 2. Trinity has established ongoing governance and developed a comprehensive plan to prepare for the new […]

Joe Van De Graaff, Research Director, Business Intelligence, KLAS, moderator, Lee Pierce, Director of Business Intelligence, Intermountain Healthcare, Mike Kramer, MD, CMIO, James Schweigert, MD, Associate Medical Director Quality and Medical Director Emergency Medicine, Kristen Farmer, Manager Quality & Professional Practice, Spectrum Health, Wendy Wright, VP Clinical Integration, MissionPoint, Shawn P. Griffin, MD, Chief Quality […]

Bruce A. Wacker MT(ASCP), Director of Customer and Regulatory Services, Adventist Health System. Bruce discusses the timeline of AHS’s Meaningful Use activities and outcomes, governance structure, implementation strategy and tools, status management, and lessons learned on their way to reaching meaningful use.

Sally Fingar, Senior Manager, Deloitte Consulting LLP. Sally focuses on the background of exchanges, the current state of the state for exchanges in the marketplace and at the federal level, and discusses the specific impact to providers.

Colin Buckley, Strategic Operations Director, KLAS, Orem, Utah, and Andrew Croshaw, Partner and Managing Director, Leavitt Partners. Recently KLAS and Leavitt Partners embarked on a joint research project to provide greater insight into the evolution of accountable care organizations – including partnerships, practices, and payment arrangements. Colin and Andrew highlight what solutions are being applied, […]

Doug Dietzman, Executive Director, Michigan Health Connect. With the Stage 2 Meaningful Use and evolving risk-based funding models continuing the push for widespread data exchange beyond current EMR system and enterprise boundaries, why is the reality of sustainable community HIE still so elusive? Michigan Health Connect shares its story and current status, as well as […]

Deborah Hunt, RN, Specialist Leader, and Saurabh Vyas, MD, Consultant, Deloitte Consulting. Resource constraints, regulatory climate and rapid innovations in technology are driving the evolution of telehealth from being a tool for remote healthcare delivery to being a complement to traditional care models helping organizations achieve operational efficiencies while increasing patient satisfaction. Emergent care can […]

Andrew W. Proctor, MS, Senior Director of Business Intelligence, Medical Operations Division, and Brian Harte, MD, Medical Director, Business Intelligence and President, Southpointe Hospital, Cleveland Clinic. In 2006, The Cleveland Clinic implemented its Enterprise Business Intelligence program. Initial success from the early dashboards provided the platform for using BI to introduce an Executive dashboard, Quarterly […]

Jane Metzger, Research Principal in Emerging Practices, CSC. Care coordination is clearly a core competency for accountable care. This talk reviews the likely processes based on the evidence so far from demonstration projects, collaboratives, and safety net institutions, as well as models for collaboration between primary care teams and external care management programs in three […]

Laura Kreofsky, PMP, CPHIMS, Principal, and Jason Fortin, Senior Advisor, Impact Advisors. Jason and Laura review key MU Stage 2 timing elements, including the special 2014 EHR reporting periods and the time periods on which penalties are based on verses assessed in. EHR Certification requirements are also covered, including how to satisfy “possessing Certified EHR […]

Adem Arslani, MS, RN, Director Information Systems & Clinical Informatics, Advocate, discusses EMR adoption strategies employed at a large academic medical center and physician productivity results achieved after a two-year combined rollout of Speech and Physician documentation. Adem has recently transitioned to a Community Hospital, which is part of the same health system, and discusses […]

Mike Smith, Senior Vice President of Services Research, and Coray Tate, Senior Vice President of Software Research, KLAS, Orem, Utah. As accountable care organizations, HIE, and meaningful use requirements continue to drive the future of healthcare technology, Mike and Coray examine the top-performing vendors of 2012 to help providers understand which HIT companies are rated […]