Louisiana Primary Care Association Annual Conference June 27-30

michellelin — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:04:17 +0000

2010 LPCA Annual Conference

Improving Community Health Center Quality & Efficiency Through Technology CE COURSE

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

from 8:00 am – 9:45 am.

Shreveport Convention Center

Presenter: Remyi Fredson-Cole, CEO ThotBox Solutions Group

(Shreveport, LA) The Louisiana Primary Care Association’s Annual Conference kicks of at the Shreveport Convention Center on June 27-30th, 2010. At the conference,ThotBox Solutions Group CEO Remyi Fredson-Cole will be teaching a course entitled “Improving Community Health Center Quality & Efficiency Through Technology.” On June 30th at 8:00 AM, the CE course will give an overview of Health Information Technology (Health IT), the considerations for planning and implementing Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems, as well as the benefits of utilizing Health IT in the community health center setting. Mr. Fredson-Cole will also discuss the current federal government grants through the “Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act,” (HITECH), which will subsidize physicians, hospitals and health centers to implement EMR.

This course is the first in a series of workshops and webinars that ThotBox is developing. With 10 years of active IT experience under his belt, Mr. Fredson-Cole is passionate about leading the charge in Health IT by conducting these informative workshops and seminars to demystify the new federal grants/requirements, healthcare technology and considerations for EMR systems. One set of workshops are planned for physicians/group practices, one for community health center administrators, while another track will train individuals to become Health IT technicians and specialists.

ThotBlog Project Spotlight: Daughters of Charity Services of New Orleans

michellelin — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:32:28 +0000

Ribbon cutting ceremony at DCSNO St. Cecilia center, April 30 2010

Daughters of Charity Services of New Orleans (DCSNO) recently launched a new community health center in St. Cecilia, marking a successful collaboration of administrative, architectural and IT management efforts. The goal: to bring quality health care to under-served, post-Hurricane Katrina communities. DCSNO, with IT Management provided by ThotBox Solutions Group, is providing two new facilities and upgrading existing ones that will support approximately 45,000 patients, tripling their current capabilities. In this article, we examine how technology had to be carefully planned and then implemented to increase the efficiency of launching and running a large scale community healthcare center project.

(l-r) Thotbox CEO Remyi Cole and DCSNO CEO Michael Griffin

DCSNO, led by President/CEO Michael Griffin, an experienced professional in hospital administration, discusses the considerations for planning and implementation of technology. Mr. Griffin holds both entrepreneurial and public health management experience under his belt and takes an honest, direct, and practical approach to the capabilities and challenges of technology in the community healthcare center setting.

Consideration: In-House IT Staff vs. Outsourcing

At the outset of any project, the decision on whether or not to hire a consultant must be weighed upon the capabilities of current staff or the cost effectiveness of hiring dedicated staff.

Michael Griffin: “We came to that decision by knowing our own administrative limitations and saying look how much more can we squeeze into this already busy day and team? How much can we squeeze into that and when do we need to outsource it? Especially when we need a specialist that can keep up with all these things on the day-to-day. We wear a lot of hats and do a lot of different things, but we’re not specialists on the technical side of technology and we need to have that type of expertise especially when we’re building something new like we are now.”

Consideration: Growth

The challenge with implementing technology for health centers is the coordination of the mission-critical applications. The applications must be “data-aware,” of each to insure work-flow supports the staffs operations. One must consider EMR, Pharma IT, Optical IT and Inventory Management along with a host of other sub-applications.

Michael Griffin: “We address a lot of considerations: adaptability of systems, flexibility of the companies we’re working with and their products and compatibility with others. All of those are major considerations. For instance with EMR (electronic medical records), we needed to adapt that to do population based management tools, care management, modules that we been able to build and integration with dental, pharmacy and other systems is what we’re going towards. Implementing the HL7 platform and having the ability to get info real time at stroke of a key are important.

Consideration: Integration

Integrating different software packages as well as managing multiple vendors proves to be a serious challenge for health care centers.

Michael Griffin: “Integration of systems, which (ThotBox) is working on, integrating pharma, dental, with EMR, practice management system, integrating that technology where other specialists and hospitals could be externally integrated. Technology makes that more possible. When I started out in this field 15-16 years old, we tracked things on paper then you went back to audit files but now you can enter things into data sets. Now, at a stroke of a key you can pull a lot of info, see outcomes and instead of having a small sample, you will have a more representative sample size. All of that is doable through technology which I think is better for the long term in treating patients and for care.”

Consideration: Training

The reality of integrating new systems means that staff will need to be trained on how to use them. The downtime and learning curve must be factored in.

Michael Griffin: “There’s always the gap of the human condition in really learning new technology. Every 6 months there’s something new and really just keeping up. Training all levels of your staff to up to speed and up to date on the latest and greatest technology and how to best use it.”

Ultimate goal: Improve Client Care

The true test of technology is whether it can be utilized to improve results which in healthcare also means improving the care of patients. Planning, implementation and maintenance of IT systems are crucial to this goal.

Michael Griffin: “Technology can be great if you’re maximizing and using it to its fullest capacity, if you’re not it can be a hindrance. Making sure there’s not a barrier to delivering the best care to our patients is always a challenge because you have to make sure everyone is effectively changing and keeping up with any changes that may happen.”

New Orleans Specific Challenge & Goal:

In 2005, catastrophic Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans nearly destroyed and facing a state of emergency. The hurricane, coupled with the country’s economic recession and nationwide health care crisis put New Orleans in an uphill battle. With the closing of Charity Hospital due to financial issues, the emergency rooms of other hospitals have become congested with non- life threatening visits.

Michael Griffin: “Bottom line New Orleans has been a hospital driven focus, many people use the ER as primary care. These new sites and centers are really focused on primary care and prevention in your neighborhood, in your community, the highest level of care and the latest and greatest technology that we can bring and doctors and providers to that population in a neighborhood and community easily accessible. Not waiting in the ER 4-5 hours, mainly sometimes 12 hours, having a scheduled appointment, having open access where a patient can get in that morning when they need to because lets face it 80% of what can be done in an emergency room can be done in a doctors office in a primary care setting, so having all of the tools in those locations to do that and provide the highest level of coordination of services and care is what these centers will accomplish. We will have behavioral health, dental, optometry and of course all the primary care specialties: pediatrics, internal medicine, OB, family medicine, all in a one-stop-shop. You can take care of all your needs at one time. The whole family could come and get most of their services taken care of.”

On Healthcare Reform:

Michael Griffin: “The whole focus of this has been on a more appropriate care, that’s your efficiency in the system and getting people into medical health and that is huge. It’s a major impact. I say that coupled with the motto that we (DCSNO) have will change the lifestyle and health status of communities. There are people because of having insurance getting into a primary preventative care instead of waiting will better their health status over a longer time.”

About DCSNO:

DCSNO is a key partner in many community partnerships that are working to improve the health of the residents of the greater New Orleans area. A central purpose of DCSNO’s mission is to improve access for persons of low income or without health insurance to primary care and preventive health services.
www.dcsno.org

New Recovery Act Investments in Health IT

michellelin — Thu, 06 May 2010 16:37:33 +0000

Vice President Biden and Health and Human Services Secretary Sebelius announce the selection of 15 communities to serve as pilot communities for eventual wide-scale use of new health information technology. May 4, 2010.

DCSNO St. Cecilia Grand Opening & Ribbon Cutting

michellelin — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:04:15 +0000

Daughters of Charity Services of New Orleans launches the opening of their newest community health center facility in St. Cecilia this Friday, April 30 2010 at 10AM. ThotBox will be attending and are proud to be serving as lead IT consultants on the project.

Harris County Medical Society Business Expo

michellelin — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 15:52:14 +0000

ThotBox is pleased to be exhibiting at the Harris County Medical Society Business Expo for Physicians and Practice Managers. Harris County Medical Society hosts business expos for its membership twice a year. The expo offers physicians opportunities to attend complimentary CMEs focusing on the business of medicine, and to learn about products and services in the market that can enhance their medical practice, patient care, and their lives. Please stop by the Reliant Center on April 17 from 9:30am-3pm and see us at Booth 41.

ThotBox at work in New Orleans for Daughters Of Charity Services

michellelin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:01:15 +0000

ThotBox is pleased to be working with Daughters of Charity Services of New Orleans (DCSNO) on two new community health centers and two remodeled centers. Many hospitals were damaged after Hurricane Katrina, leaving New Orleans in a health care crisis. DCSNO provides necessary and quality health services to local communities which have become increasingly challenged after the disaster. ThotBox is rolling out a set of services customized to design, build and manage the technological infrastructure. The project began at the end of the 4th quarter of 2009, with the first center anticipated to be open as soon as April 2010 in St. Cecilia.

“We see and appreciate the unique position the Daughters of Charity is embarking on to better serve the community with new service areas of dental and optical, providing more insurance and federally funded access options, as well as other new and improved services. We plan on delivering well planned, innovative tools and solutions to assist DCSNO in their mission,” says Remyi Cole, CEO/founder of ThotBox.

The large scope project requires a team of skilled architectural, technical, and administrative professionals to assess and meet the needs of the community health centers. The centers will have all the full advantages of ThotBox’s Environmental Technology Design (ETD) and Video, Audio, Network (VANGUARD) system and maintenance through Thotbox’s PCiNeed managed IT services.