by
Brendon Nafziger, DOTmed News Associate Editor | May 30, 2013
From the May 2013 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
This can create conflicts and confusion, as the problem with the data glut is not just how to store information or share it, but to ensure it’s accurate and useful. For instance, if patient information gathered in the admissions department doesn’t match up with similar data acquired by the health information management department. “It’s happened for years,” Washington explains. “There’s a realization now, as we move into analytics, that that’s going to be critical for new payment models or care models. You’ve got to have good data, and data has to go across departments and can’t be siloed anymore. EIM is an attempt to bring down those silos, those islands of data.”
For the past six or seven years, some vendors, including big ones like IBM and Microsoft, have started to provide EIM products, and they’re moving into health care. OpenText says one of its customers is EMP, a staffing group that provides emergency room doctors to hospitals on long-term contracts. OpenText helped develop the technology that allows EMP’s physician portal apps to be developed on mobile phones, letting doctors check claims denial rates, satisfaction scores and other things that track their performance.
But for hospitals looking to set up EIM, they should start soon. Washington says it takes at least 12 to 18 months to get one program off the ground. “It’s not really a system, it’s more of a plan or a strategy,” she says. “It doesn’t happen overnight.”
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