SCHIMSS 2019 Conference Abstracts

Keynote Address: Listen! You Might Learn Something
Judy Ferraro, Owner, Judy Ferraro & Associates, Inc.

If you like improv, this interactive session is for you. Learn how high-level listening and questioning skills will increase communication, shorten sales cycles, and help develop better relationships. And BTW, it’ll make you a better person.

Presenter Bio: Judy Ferraro is a trainer, speaker, author, and coach. Her eponymous consulting group provides corporate training in leadership, sales, and customer service. Judy’s comedy background (she studied at Chicago’s Second City) informs her seminars that are known for being interactive, informative, and fun. She emphasizes the importance of listening, the art of asking good questions, and the ability to laugh at oneself.
Lessons Learned: Achieving True Digital Transformation with Public Cloud Adoption in Healthcare
Andy Sajous, AHEAD

Presentation Abstract: Traditionally, Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems have been relegated to the data center, but healthcare is now at the forefront of public cloud adoption. As more and more healthcare systems and academic-funded hospitals shift their focus to research and analytics, their databases have grown exponentially, along with their need to streamline operations.

This session will focus on using the public cloud for research projects like genomic sequencing, to analytics applications for claims and denials databases. Providing a positive patient experience and ensuring efficient operations is also critical in healthcare IT (HIT). Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a game-changer. Now we have use cases ranging from bed scheduling and ambulatory; automated and dynamic maps to for wayfinding; and improved check-in and discharge.

We’ll highlight lessons learned in public cloud adoption, particularly around the importance of defining an organization’s Public Cloud Operating Model. We’ll discuss best practices for developing a multi-cloud strategy, building out foundational governance and security, maintaining full HIPAA/NIST compliance, and continued operations while managing patient information (PI).

Objective 1: Learn about various public cloud use cases and benefits, ranging from research and analytics to streamline operations and improved patient experience.
Objective 2: Learn best practices for public cloud adoption, including the development of a Public Cloud Operating Model to ensure governance, security, compliance, cost optimization, monitoring, networking, backup, and training and education.
Objective 3: Learn how to manage the skillset gap within a legacy, siloed IT team to ensure competitive hiring and employee retention, as well as the creation of a “Cloud Center of Excellence” for internal education and training.

Presenter Bio: Andy Sajous is an experienced senior client solutions architect with an established history of working in the information technology and healthcare industries. Skilled in the public cloud, data center design, and network security, he brings over 10 years of experience to the AHEAD team. Andy holds a Bachelor of Science in Network Technology and a Master of Science in Computers, Information and Network Security from DePaul University, where he’s currently an adjunct professor in the College of Computing and Digital Media.

Do You Know Your Patient’s Social or Economic Determinants?
Tiffany Ortiz, SCHIMA

Presentation Abstract: How do hospitals, doctor’s offices, clinicians, or health care systems know when they’re doing a good job? We send patient satisfaction surveys and look at revenue streams, but does that truly tell us if we’re adequately taking care of our patients? In 2017, a patient in the U.S. spent, on average, $10,000 per year for healthcare, while comparable countries spend half as much. Not to mention, women in the U.S. are 4 times more likely to die due to complications from childbirth than women in comparable countries.

The American Medical Informatics Association has taken the recommendations from 2 reports by the Institute of Medicine published in 2014 discussing the need to capture socio-economic determinants within the electronic health record. Are social and economic determinants that helpful? The University of South Florida, College of Public Health, Tampa found that health care spending equating to about $2,400 per person was saved when patients were connected to social service that could address social barriers.

While ICD-10-CM Codes can capture many of these socio-economic determinants, there will also be the need for informatics to get involved in assisting with creating screening tools within the EHR that can pull discrete data into a dashboard where other members of the healthcare team can see it, and address the patient’s needs.

Objective 1: Define social and economic determinants.
Objective 2: Learn how social and economic determinants apply to healthcare and informatics.
Objective 3: Discuss how social and economic determinants are worthwhile data.

Presenter Bio: Tiffany Ortiz is an SC HIMSS executive board member. She has a 20-year history in healthcare, starting as a nurse before transitioning to HIM. She has worked for the Veterans Health Administration for over 23 years and has served in various capacities of HIM to include coding, auditing, education, and enrollment coordinator for MyHealtheVet.
organizations’ pursuit of operational excellence.

The Fault in mHealth Plans: Refocusing on the Patients Rather Than the Technology
Thomas Graham, CynergisTek

Presentation Abstract: Mobile health (mHealth) has proved that it can help address the health needs of rural and underserved populations. However, its current design limitations have led to improper use from an operational and security context. This limitation is compounded by a focus on how to operate the devices by developers and providers, but not how to properly use mHealth in daily routines. Recent studies have focused on the need to understand these routines to better train patients on proper use. A quantitative study that was recently conducted showed that in contrast to earlier studies, habit played a major role in utilization which was in contrast to previous studies where performance was the primary motivator. The results of this recent study showed that around 70% of actual use is influenced by habits; dependent on the age group.

HIPAA must be taken into account when mHealth devices are connected to an EHR. While it is necessary, it is often not accounted for in organizational HIPAA compliance programs, and compliance officers may not be aware of the devices being connected to the organization’s network. This creates a loophole in privacy and security that increases the risk for breach of ePHI and incorrect treatment for patients. mHealth acceptance and security can be significantly enhanced by understanding patients’ habits of using mHealth, the amount of effort expected to use it, and expected benefits of using it.

Objective 1: Analyze the current security and privacy trends in mHealth.
Objective 2: Develop internal security and training programs to protect health data.
Objective 3: Identify differing influences of mHealth security behavior use.

Presenter Bio: Thomas Graham serves as the CISO for CynergisTek, a top-ranked healthcare security company based in Austin, Texas. He previously supported the Defense Health Agency in a variety of roles. His team recently received a FedHealthIT award for innovation presented at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Thomas holds an MBA and MS-Technology Systems degrees and is in the final stages of his Ph.D. in Information Assurance. He achieved CISSP and HCISPP designations, along with other industry-recognized certifications and served on the MIS advisory board for East Carolina University.

SWAT-ing Sepsis Mortality: Sepsis Workup & Treatment
Jennifer Wright, MUSC
Corrie Scharrenberg, MUSC
Malcolm Lanter, MUSC
Chip Tinley, MUSC

Presentation Abstract: The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services makes recommendations based on the Surviving Sepsis Guidelines to decrease sepsis mortality. Medical University of South Carolina (MUSE) Sepsis outcomes were lower than desired triggering a focus on Sepsis management across the hospital, starting with the Emergency Department as a primary access point.

An interdisciplinary workgroup considered literature and best practices from other organizations to create a design for a future state workflow and build elements. The current state duel Sepsis Workup and Treatment (SWAT) alert process decreased the sense of urgency, a lack in consistency for using tools, and no standard assessment process. The new process included alerts based on specific sepsis criteria, collection of a lactic acid level, and lead to a SWAT huddle facilitating the use of innovative and evidence-based tools. Sepsis Warrior Training aimed to increase overall knowledge about sepsis, the new SWAT process, and foster unit-based resources and experts.

Since implementation in May, MUSC has seen an overall improvement associated with sepsis care of emergency department patients. The quality of care afforded these patients in a defined process and supported by trained sepsis warriors is more efficient, timelier, and has contributed to improved patient outcomes and survival rates.

Objective 1: Discuss a standard approach across the enterprise for the management and documentation of patients at risk and diagnosed with Sepsis from the Emergency Department.
Objective 2: Discuss the implementation of the MUSC Inpatient Sepsis Predictive Model.
Objective 3: Discuss ways to decrease mortality as associated with Sepsis and decrease the total volume of patients who develop Septic Shock.

Presenter Bio: Jennifer Wright, RN, MSN is a member of the clinical informatics team at MUSE. She has practiced nursing for 15 years and is certified in pediatric nursing. Jennifer received her Bachelors in Nursing Science from Clemson University and Masters in Nursing Science: Leadership and Management from Walden University.

Presenter Bio: Malcolm Lanter has been a nurse at MUSC for 22 years, 16 spent in adult critical care and 6 in information solutions. He is Epic-certified in orders and decision support with an emphasis on the best-practice advisory build. Malcolm enjoys helping clinicians develop EHR processes and tools to deliver high-quality patient care.

Presenter Bio: Chip Tinley has worked at MUSC since 1990, having spent most of his career in critical care and emergency services. His more than 25 years of practical clinical experience includes working as a nurse manager, operations coordinator, educator, and accreditation coordinator.

Establishing an Information Ecosystem to Support Value-Based Care Analytics
John Walton, CTG

Presentation Abstract: Fundamental shifts in healthcare payment models means that provider organizations need to gather and use data differently. Measuring value-based performance requires organizations to build outcomes-based financial models derived from a sound data infrastructure. Failing to do so, jeopardizes reimbursements, which can negatively affect revenue, growth, and a provider’s critical ability to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage.

If data is to be used to support day-to-day operations and drive transformation, it must be trusted, scalable, actionable information from across the enterprise and that requires a thoughtfully planned enterprise information management (EIM) ecosystem.

In this timely presentation, attendees will learn the essential requirements for developing a healthy EIM ecosystem. This includes ensuring analytics frameworks, business processes, and governance structures are in place to rapidly consume data from multiple, highly complex data sources, and to transform raw data into the KPIs required for effective value-based care measurement and analysis.

Objective 1: Explain how clean, integrated data sources support optimized value-based care contract revenue.
Objective 2: Describe 3 key steps for establishing a healthy value-based care analytics ecosystem.
Objective 3: Describe the role of an analytics blueprint in effective value-based performance measurement.

Presenter Bio: John Walton is a client solution executive responsible for CTG’s EIM offerings. His 26 years of healthcare project management experience includes working with a broad range of healthcare and life sciences organizations. John is recognized for his ability to craft and implement practical and effective solutions to complex business challenges. In this capacity, he has worked closely with many C-suite executives, physicians, nurses, and healthcare IT professionals to identify opportunities to improve the quality, timeliness, and usefulness of data through the transformational use of EIM technologies and best-practice methodologies.

Presenter Bio: Jeanette Ball, BSN RN, PCMH CCE, is a client solution executive for population health solutions at CTG. She is a senior advisory consultant, PCMH expert, outpatient optimization specialist, population health expert, and registered nurse with more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Jeanette has an extensive 10-year history of outpatient medical center executive administration and more than 10 years of clinical application design, population health strategies, and outpatient advisory and optimization management. Jeanette is among the first 100 NCQA PCMH Certified Content Experts in the nation.

Health Information Exchange: Pricing & ROI
Russell Calicutt, Carolina eHealth Network

Presentation Abstract: The decision to participate in a health information exchange can be complicated as one weighs the investment of dollars, time, and effort with the returns realized in monetary as well as intangible benefits. Simply stated, ROI measures the benefit an investment generates with the cost of investment. When considering the HIE ROI, the answer is different for each organization, whether it be a practice, health system, or accountable care organization.

This presentation is designed to provide healthcare professionals with the knowledge to evaluate the valuable benefits resulting from participation in a health information exchange. Financial gain can be determined by measuring the investment cost against the increased returns. The intangible gains can be measured in enhanced productivity and efficiency, reduced disruptions to workflow, improvements in care, and increases in risk adjustment scores and quality metrics. Employing aggregated longitudinal clinical data from an HIE means patient records are up-to-date, lab work and medications are current. The outcome is reduced time that physicians and staff spend searching for PI, and increased risk adjustment factor scores on patients to help drive cost-benchmarks in value-based payment models.

Objective 1: Provide education on Health Information Exchange in a centralized structure.
Objective 2: Define Return on Investment as applicable to health care professionals in their day-to-day operations.
Objective 3: Define Risk Adjustment and provide examples of how HIE enables RAF/HCC improvement

Presenter Bio: Russell Calicutt is a healthcare executive with a background in physician practice operations, quality improvement, data integration, healthcare policy, governmental reporting, and consulting for clinically integrated networks and accountable care organizations. He is currently the executive director of the Carolina eHealth Network, where he has grown it from 3 to over 100 sites. Russ’ goal for the network is to connect all healthcare delivery systems and independent practices in the state so physicians providing care can have access to the data they need to deliver the best possible care at the lowest.