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April 25, 2003 - Press Release
Massachusetts Healthcare Organizations Cooperate on Innovative Strategy: Regional Collaboration
Health plans, hospitals, physicians, and state government commit to S.H.A.R.E. initiative
WALTHAM-April 25, 2003 -- A group of health care organizations, under the auspices of the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium (the Consortium) (http://www.mahealthdata.org), have made a commitment to collaborate and explore how information technology can be used to address the critical issues of healthcare quality and administrative efficiency and integration. This new venture is called S.H.A.R.E. - Simplifying Healthcare Among Regional Entities. Two of the region's prominent healthcare organizations, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) (http://www.bcbsma.com) and Partners Healthcare System (Partners) (http://www.partners.org), are playing leadership roles in the start-up of the S.H.A.R.E. initiative and encouraging the participation of other organizations.
Carl Ascenzo, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of BCBSMA says, "S.H.A.R.E. will create a plan to use information technology to address healthcare issues that have proven to be difficult to solve by any single organization. We realize that all of the healthcare stakeholders must work together. We recognize that the challenge of integration is regional - the solutions are likely to be different here in Boston and Worcester than they are in Los Angeles or Indianapolis."
S.H.A.R.E. will focus on three major objectives:
Patient Safety: Geoffrey Cole, President & CEO of Emerson Hospital says, "As patients move among numerous providers and settings to get their care, information does not always following them and they are frequently asked to recount their own clinical profile. Mistakes could be made by well-meaning healthcare providers because they do not have complete, accurate information about the patients they are treating. A wrong drug could be prescribed or an unnecessary procedure performed because of this lack of information."
Administrative Efficiency: Thomas Sullivan MD, President-elect of the Massachusetts Medical Society says, "The costs of operating a physician office has increased substantially over the past twenty years. Providing integrated administrative and clinical data at the point of service will result in substantial cost savings and improved care."
Integrated Reporting: Christine Ferguson, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health says, "Massachusetts and the Consortium have impressive histories as leaders and collaborators on medical care issues. S.H.A.R.E. can continue this legacy by integrating and analyzing clinical data from multiple sources to enhance patient outcomes, reduce medical errors and provide more cost effective and efficient care.""
Massachusetts is uniquely qualified to pursue a collaborative healthcare initiative like S.H.A.R.E. for the following reasons:
More than 70 percent of Massachusetts citizens are insured by health plans based in the region
There is a history of cooperation and collaboration among the Chief Medical Officers of Massachusetts' health plans through the Alliance for Health Care Improvement
Massachusetts is home to some of the premier hospital networks in the country
Massachusetts payers and providers have a national reputation for innovation, quality, and patient satisfaction
Payers and providers in the state have a multi-year track record of working together on IT initiatives such as the New England Healthcare EDI Network (NEHEN)
The Massachusetts Health Data Consortium (the Consortium) has achieved a trusted role in the state's healthcare industry as a convener, coordinator, and catalyst
Our new Governor, Mitt Romney, is committed to work with the state's healthcare industry to improve the quality of life for Massachusetts' citizens
Gordon Vineyard MD, Chairman of the Consortium, will assume the role of Chairman of the S.H.A.R.E. Steering Committee. Dr. Vineyard says, "Support for S.H.A.R.E. has been voiced by the Massachusetts Medical Society, Massachusetts Hospital Association, the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, the Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors, and the new Romney administration. A broad-based Steering Committee is being formed and will convene in early May. A S.H.A.R.E. workgroup has already been organized to examine the feasibility of streamlining the process for electronic prescription histories. Over time, these histories would be available throughout the state at the point of service."
The focus of S.H.A.R.E. will be on the regional adoption of national data standards, technology standards, innovative demonstration projects, and overcoming barriers to implementation. Elliot Stone, CEO of the Consortium says, "S.H.A.R.E. will not attempt to build a new monolithic health care technology infrastructure in the state. The health care industry has experienced failures when trying to construct a single approach. Instead, our CIOs and business managers intend to build on, transplant, and catalyze a variety of successful technology solutions using national standards."
John Glaser, CIO of Partners says, "This approach is not Star Wars. The technology and standards are available now to implement these ideas. However, implementation will take the commitment, cooperation, and leadership of the entire healthcare community in the state. Through S.H.A.R.E., Massachusetts expects to be the national leader in using information technology to address the issues of quality and efficiency in healthcare."
For more information on S.H.A.R.E., contact:
Joseph A. Miller
Project Director
Massachusetts Health Data Consortium
Phone: 781-768-2501
E-mail: jmiller@mahealthdata.org
The Massachusetts Health Data Consortium's 25th Anniversary Conference on Friday, April 25th, has as its theme "Public and Provider Views on Public Safety". Robert J. Blendon, ScD will be the keynote speaker for the conference and he will discuss the findings of a survey conducted with the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, the results of which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (Dec, 2002). While physicians and patients both report that they have experienced medical errors, they have very different ideas about what can be done to curtail these errors.
The survey looked at how physicians and members of the public view preventable medical errors in light of actions recommended in the aftermath of the Institute of Medicine's reports on such errors: "To Err is Human" and "Crossing the Quality Chasm".
Ron Winslow, the Wall Street Journal's Deputy Editor for Health & Science, will explore the disparity between public and physician perspectives on medical errors as part of a panel reacting to Blendon's keynote address. Joining him will be Mitchell Adams, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, who will address this hesitancy about adopting new health care technologies; James Conway, Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who will describe the Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors which works on the premise that collaborative efforts to promote "best practices" in health care can curb medical errors; and Luke Sato, MD, Chief Medical Officer of the Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions who will discuss how analyzing past errors allows health care institutions to prevent similar errors in the future.
Breakout sessions include:
The contributions of "public use" data sets to applied research on factors contributing to patient safety and outcomes with Gary Gaumer, PhD, Randall Ellis, PhD, of Boston University School of Medicine; Christopher Collins of Bristol Group Mitretek; and Marian Wrobel, PhD, also of Abt Associates.
A panel addressing HIPAA Electronic Transactions includes Dana Holmes, Manager of Health Systems for the Massachusetts Medical Society, Janice Wadsworth, DMA, Director of Provider Operations for the Division of Medical Assistance (Medicaid). Jonathan Bush CEO of Athenahealth, Laurance Stuntz, Sr. Technical Architect of CSC (for NEHEN); and Bill Scatchard Vice President of Lighthouse Medical Management. Panelists will discuss the physician's need for information from health plans and clearinghouses about which vendors and HIPAA electronic transaction products have tested successfully and which ones are considered "troublesome" so that physicians will have enough time to make decisions and purchase new products, if necessary, before the October 16 HIPAA deadline.
Karen Grant, Chief Privacy Officer for Partners HealthCare System and Anne Doyle, Compliance and Privacy Officer for Tufts Health Plan, will moderate a panel on "HIPAA Privacy Regulations: Post-April 14th Continuing Conundrums & Approaches". The moderators will be joined by panelists Alexander Ziss of Weston Pediatric Physicians, PC; Leon Goldman, MD, of CareGroup HealthCare; and Nancy Schwartz of Fallon Healthcare. The panelists will discuss where the risks of implementation are from legal, health plan and provider points of view.
The HIPAA Security Rule is the subject of the fourth breakout session and will be moderated by Kenneth Patterson, Information Security Manager,of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Co-Chair of the Consortium's Security Officers Forum. The panel will discuss the most important changes that organizations should now consider that may be different from the Proposed HIPAA Security Rule. Joining him on the Panel are: David S. Szabo JD, co-chair of Nutter, McClennen & Fish's Healthcare Group; Lori Sylvia of OpenReach; and Marie Maloney of BMC HealthNet Plan.
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