Medication Management Experts Aid Hospitals in Meeting Meaningful Use Requirements
Rockville, Md. — January 14, 2011 DrFirst, Inc., the nation’s leader in providing medication history and electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) services to the healthcare industry, today announced the establishment of its newest line of services, Hospital Services Group (HSG). Hospitals today are short-staffed, underfunded, and mired in “must-do” projects that can take significant amounts of time to complete due to complexity and collaboration. Medication management is one of those projects. Over the last three years as a MEDITECH partner, DrFirst recognized the need to offer reasonably priced consulting services to help hospitals quickly and cost-effectively achieve meaningful use EHR (electronic health records) objectives and qualify for federal incentive money through medication management for their facilities.
The HSG services provide expert advice to hospital administrators nationwide on how to integrate medication management into hospital operations to qualify for EHR incentive funds made available through the HITECH Act (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act). This federal legislation provides monetary incentives to healthcare providers and hospitals demonstrating and reporting meaningful use of EHR with the goal of improving patient care and safety.
The Hospital Services Group is made up of experienced clinical and information technology professionals with a history of overseeing successful hospital medication management implementations. They include:
Edward J. Korba
Edward J. Korba is the Principal Consultant for DrFirst’s Hospital Services Group division. Prior to joining DrFirst, he was Executive Vice President of FormFast, Inc., in St. Louis, MO. During his tenure in the healthcare field, he developed successful relationships with HCA and over 360 hospitals in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Korba spent many years in sales, marketing, and technology positions with companies including JetForm Corporation and Standard Register Company. Prior to joining FormFast in 1995, Korba led a sales team with the JetForm Corporation, once the world’s leader in e-forms eventually acquired by Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Caroline Samuels, MD
Caroline Samuels, MD, Medical Informatics Consultant, has over 25 year of clinical experience in the internal medicine training programs at the District of Columbia General Hospital and Prince George’s Hospital Center. She has been the physician lead and director of three ambulatory services including the Internal Medicine teaching clinics of both institutions. Samuels has held a variety of medical informatics positions at DC General Hospital, Prince George’s Hospital Center, and Medlantic Healthcare Group (now MedStar Health). In each of these positions, she created working relationships between the technical and clinical groups to support the clinical process. She has extensive experience facilitating communication between clinicians and staff in information systems.
Lora Harrison
Lora Harrison, Pharmacy Consultant, has over 17 years of clinical experience in acute care hospitals, information systems administration, project management, and consulting. She has been the lead on multiple informatics installations requiring exceptional attention to detail and customer requirements for effective project management. Harrison recently completed a project for integrated hospital electronic medication reconciliation software for a 140-bed hospital. The project included a full pre- and post-gap analysis with workflow analysis, hardware assessments, revised policy and procedures for staff and the organization and full integration into the electronic medical record. Harrison has also worked in the auditing field conducting Pharmacy/PBM and CMS Retiree Drug Subsidy audit reviews.
David Sellars
David Sellars, Hospital Integration Engineer, has over eight years of MEDITECH/LSS implementation and support experience. Prior to joining DrFirst, Sellars was a Senior MEDITECH Systems Analyst for Avera Health System in Sioux Falls, S.D. From 2003 to 2006, he was a MEDITECH Programmer/Analyst at Regional Health, a regional medical center in Rapid City, S.D. His experience in MEDITECH Magic and MEDITECH Client Server ranges from the implementations of MEDITECH Clinical Modules to large multi-hospital platform migrations.
A variety of consulting services are available to assist hospitals with not only reaching Meaningful Use goals but to also increase medication management efficiencies and improve patient safety. They include:
Readiness Assessment- DrFirst consultants identify current Medication Management procedures, protocols, workflows and staff efficiencies and provides a report defining the gaps in current processes and makes recommendations for future implementation to ensure electronic medical records stimulus requirements are met.
“Best Practices” Training – This service is designed to educate hospital staff members about the latest recommended practices utilized by hundreds of hospitals today. Based on the Readiness Assessment, the DrFirst consultant provides specific parameter recommendations to align the organization and EHR modules for best practice.
“Go Live” Support – DrFirst Hospital Services Group provides on-site assistance for 24 to 48 hours during the “Go Live” implementation with DrFirst products. This service is designed to help clients when they first use DrFirst medical history and e-prescribing software in a “live” environment.
Experienced based “Best Practices ” in building modules for Electronic Medication Management — This service helps hospitals decrease the amount of time it takes to begin using medical history and e-prescribing software in a “live” environment by having the DrFirst team assist the supporting modules for Electronic Medication Management.
DRx Alert Hospital DischargeRx Volume and Alert Service – This service monitors the electronic prescription output of hospitals and provides electronic notifications to designated hospital staff when the current prescription volumes fall below pre-defined thresholds due to technical failures, interfaces rejections and interface engines which have the potential to slow down or occasionally fail.