LTPAC HIT Summit: Leaders reveal goals, concerns for 2012-2014 and meaningful use

Morning speakers sketched out the two-year scope of LTPAC’s health information needs and goals at the 8th annual Long-Term and Post-Acute Care Health IT Summit in Baltimore.

“Unveiling the 2012-2014 LTPAC HIT roadmap,” presented by Peter Kress, CIO, ACTS Retirement-Life Communities, sketched out the priorities and challenges for health IT during the next two years.

The new roadmap focuses on five areas: Care coordination, quality, business imperative, consumer-centered care, and  workforce acceleration.

Yet, much progress has been made in the past two years, including surging numbers of EHR certifications and new initiatives between LTPAC organizations and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), Kress reminded the audience.

“There’s a business imperative around the practice of health IT in our industry,” he said. “We’re building compelling new business models, where everything is increasingly more person-centered.”

The current focus on reducing hospital re-admissions is the perfect example of why all sectors of the healthcare continuum need to collaborate, he said. “We can’t deal with hospital readmissions without paying attention to what’s going on in the LTPAC space.”

Meeting the timetable for Meaningful Use requires even more collaboration among entities, and Kress encouraged attendees to get involved in the LTPAC Collaborative and/or the LTPAC workgroup.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS: "MEANINGFUL" MEANINGFUL USE

The old days of using the excuses of siloed information are long gone, said keynote speaker Judy Murphy, RN, FACMI, FHIMSS, FAAN, Deputy National Coordinator for Programs and Policy, ONC. Electronic health record data exchange and clinical reporting will be requirements rather than luxuries, especially in pay-for-performance models: “If you’re going to get paid for performance, you have to know what your performance is,” she said.

Stage One of Meaningful Use (MU) does plenty for safety and documentation, but doesn’t really get to the exchange level, she explained. “We have to get to the ‘meaningful use’ of meaningful use.”

Stage Two models for data exchange include direct exchange (provider A to provider B), consumer-assisted exchange (involvement on health portals), and a new query-based exchange model where one party can query for health information without knowing in advance where the data resides, she said.

As the MU stages are developed, standards have to keep up with the needs. Murphy identified several crucial standards that are needed for the MU endeavors to happen:

·         Vocabulary and code sets, including vocabulary for ADL observations and pharmacy

·         Content structure – How information is entered/formatted

·         Transport/exchange – How data gets from A to B

·         Services – how do health exchange participants find each other, securely verify each other

·         Policies

Murphy’s take-home message is one of involvement: “The window of opportunity is now, but it tightening and closing. Because it’s a consensus-building process, we don’t have a lot of time.”

After the keynote, John Derr reiterated the ticking clock, urging the attendees to take the message back to coworkers and administrators, since no one can afford to be unaware of the changes coming down the road. “Take our programs. Take our slides,” Derr said. “Use them to put together a program to show the people you report to how important this is moving forward. Because this train left the station long ago.”

DERR WINS INAUGURAL SPECTRUM AWARD

John Derr, RPh, GoldenLiving, LLC, was awarded the first Spectrum Award by the LTPAC HIT collaborative members. Derr, a co-founder of the summit and a fervent proponent of collaboration among providers and the HIT community, co-founded the first LTPAC HIT summit in 2005. Derr received heartfelt thanks from the collaborative team members at the podium and a standing ovation from the audience.

The LTPAC Health IT Summit is June 18-19, in Baltimore. Follow the conference on Twitter at #LTPAC2012. Watch for our continuing coverage on Twitter @LTL_tabar.

Pamela Tabar

Pamela Tabar was editor-in-chief of I Advance Senior Care from 2013-2018. She has worked as a writer and editor for healthcare business media since 1998, including as News Editor of Healthcare Informatics. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Kent State University and a master’s degree in English from the University of York, England.