AtTask

Mike Meikle November 26, 2013 Leave a Comment

Of Portals and Patient Care: Education and the Healthcare PM

Patient Education, Literacy and Patient Portals are Making Healthcare Inroads

Patient Education and Literacy are among the key topics that are bandied about in the Preventative Medicine discipline and its quest to reduce healthcare costs. Of course the fact that 42 percent of patients do not understand “empty stomach” guidelines for medication is a cause for concern and a data point for how effective healthcare and wellness education has been to date.With that in mind AtTask has published a short piece of mine that covers Patient Education and how it impacts healthcare professionals and the project managers tasked with implementing Patient Education-based projects.

Here’s a bit of the post and then follow the link for the remainder of the article:

I had mentioned in my last post, Hazards on the HIE Road – A Map for Project Managers, that I was going to discuss Patient Education and what projects that PMs were going to be exposed to in this space.

Like most things in healthcare, patient portals and education are linked to HIPAA, Meaningful Use and the Joint Commission. Project Managers must understand the various technological, business and healthcare related drivers that are moving these tools to the fore.

Patient Learning and the tools associated with that discipline have gained considerable traction in the healthcare field. Driven by regulatory, technological, and patient forces, healthcare providers are launching suites of tools that allow patients to access their medical records online, order tests and interact with providers. Medical professionals are relying more on patient portals and other tools to drive better results for their practice and efficiently facilitate patient visits.

Not only do patient learning tools and portals educate the client, they provide risk management and business process management benefits. These tools help coordinate the distribution of clinical, administrative, and financial activities including multi-disciplinary and multi-care settings, plans of care, active care coordination, and the automation of compliance management with a healthcare provider.

– See more at: Of Portals and Patient Care: Education and the Healthcare PM

Mike Meikle August 9, 2013 Leave a Comment

Hazards on the HIE Road – A Map for Project Managers

Quite a few pitfalls await the Project Manager

Health Information Exchanges are at the forefront of information security and general news these days. Since HIEs play an important role within the overall state and federal Health Insurance Marketplaces and the security controls within these marketplaces are looking a bit dubious; the overall discussion of HIEs and how they impact healthcare project managers is a timely topic.

With that in mind my latest AtTask Work Management blog post is up. I cover the HIE technical, regulatory and process backgrounds and how it impacts healthcare project managers.

Here’s a bit of the post and then follow the link for the remainder of the article:

In my last post, “Healthcare’s Creative Destruction & the Project Manager” I mentioned that I would outline Health Information Exchanges and what a project manager should know about the current state of this local, state and federal initiatives. Why is this topic so important? In the scale of software development and database integration, few projects like the Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN) have been so sweeping in scope; no matter the industry.

One facet that defines the scope of this massive effort is the dollars spent. The Affordable Care Act mandates (Meaningful Use) that healthcare providers shift to Electronic Medical Records (EMR). Without EMRs, a NwHIN would not be possible. In order to facilitate this, the Federal government has doled out $12.6 billion in subsidies to providers since 2012. For the first two months of 2013, $425 million has been handed out for EMR meaningful use. These large numbers do not take into account the vast sums that will be spent on local, state and federal HIE/HIX promotions, setup and operations (currently estimated at $5 billion).

– See more at: Hazards on the HIE Road – A Map for Project Managers

Mike Meikle July 3, 2013 Leave a Comment

Healthcare’s Creative Destruction and the Project Manager

My latest AtTask Work Management blog post is up. I cover the current creative destruction that is ongoing in healthcare and how this is impacting the project manager and the discipline as a whole.

Here’s a snippet and then follow the link for the remainder of the article:

“It’s already here; the churn of healthcare change. Small physician practices are being swallowed up by large healthcare organizations. Older practitioners are retiring sooner, rather than slog through the tremendous business process and regulatory changes that are buffeting healthcare. Local, state and the federal government are embarking on a massive data sharing project with Health Information Exchanges.

These issues all lead to a tremendous amount of risk for the healthcare project manager. To combat this, a PM in healthcare will have to have contract, technology, regulatory, and business savvy when piloting an outreach or new clinic project.”

– See more at: Healthcare’s Creative Destruction & the Project Manager

Mike Meikle July 3, 2013 Leave a Comment

Navigating the Churn of Healthcare Project and Work Management

Joining AtTask’s Work Management Blog as a Guest Author

I have done some work in the past for AtTask such as Podcasts and Webinars. They recently invited me to become a guest blogger for their Work Management blog. I will be writing on the topics of healthcare, project management and cybersecurity.

My first article was recently posted. Here is a snippet with a link to the remaining piece:

So, back to the healthcare priorities, what are they? Well, that’s part of the problem. There are so many priorities at the moment in the healthcare space, it’s almost impossible to get a clear direction. There is an alphabet soup of healthcare initiatives that are pressing down on the industry (HIPAA, HITECH, ARRA, ACA, HIE, HIX, ICD-10, Meaningful Use) that, like a tsunami, has engulfed all resources available in many organizations. – See more at: Navigating the Churn of Healthcare

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