Mumbo Jumbo of Acronyms

Without the use of acronyms, our brains would overheat and crash trying to memorize a complex group of words.  

However, the same effect takes places when we try to recollect what each letter stands for, especially if the same letter represents a different word!

On Wednesday, my boss left me a list of projects that he would like for me to oversee and make my own.  He had already left for the day when I came in after class.  All I saw were a jumble of acronyms.  Frightened, I was.  Let's consider "PACS"...now, I know what PACU stands for...Post-Anesthetic Care Unit.  But, how was I to know that PACS is an acronym for Picture Archiving and Communication Systems?!  

Luckily, I was leisurely reading "Healthcare Informatics" when I came home later that day.  Lo and behold!  I found an article in the table of contents titled "PACS Centralization"  Quickly, I turned to page 64 and scanned the first few paragraphs and found out.  You would laugh if you saw the excited expression on my face as I sat alone in my apartment reading a trade magazine.  

This weekend I saw a copy of Health Data Management magazine and the cover story is titled "The Value of Speaking the Same Language."  (Isn't it simply fabulous how these articles fall into my hands when I need them most?)  I absolutely adore the cover art for the magazine, so as soon as I find my camera, I will take a picture and upload it.  

The article starts off like this...

"What in the world is the difference between an 'electronic medical record,' [EMR] 'electronic health record' [EHR] and 'personal health record' [PHR]?  What's the difference between a 'regional health information organization' [RHIO] and a 'health information exchange' [HIE]?"

Did you know that the Department of Health and Human Services funds two work groups that are working to standardize the use of these words within the industry?  RHIOs and HIEs are being handled by the Networks Work Group.  The Records Work Group is working on the EMRs, EHRs and PHRs.  The name of the work groups gives you a clue to what each deals with.

The article goes on to talk about how industry professionals use these acronyms interchangeably, depending on their audience and how diverse they want to be perceived as.  There are legal issues as well.  Federal and state I.T. grants are available to healthcare organization and they use these terms.  But if everyone uses them interchangeably, who really knows what is being funded and what is being rejected?  

All of this is so complex and confusing...I wish I were a part of those workgroups.  I think it would be fascinating to come to a conclusion and set a standard definition for these acronyms.  Once these terms are clearly defined, the nation can take a leap towards a national database of EHRs which includes every little detail about every little incident at every hospital and doctor's office visits in person's medical history.  

Isn't that amazing?  Imagine the upgrade in the quality of service you will receive at your next office or emergency room visit.  You wouldn't have to bother listing off all your allergies to medication and history of operations with your broken wrist proving itself useless. 

Interesting Little Tidbits

With all the excitement of my car breaking down (for the first time), Valentine's Day, and starting my internship, I have not had the chance to research too much this week. 

However, I do have a couple of interesting tidbits to share.

While touring the Emergency Department (ED) at the hospital, I noticed a flashy big screen tv mounted near the nurses' station. The television served as a high-tech monitor for MedHost. If you would like a glimpse of what it looks like, please follow this link: MedHost Screenshot. The icons by surrounding the patient beds indicate the status of lab results, medications, and vitals. This software is amazing as it serves as a visual reminder for nurses.

As I spoke with my boss, I finally understood the structure of healthcare IT. Most large hospitals outsource IT to consulting firms. The hospitals and consulting firms draw a long-term contract and the consultants work in-house at the site. Did you know that all of the technological equipment are owned by the consulting firms and are rented out to the hospital? Everything from the servers, computers, kiosks to the keyboard and mouse are rented to the hospital! I found this to be quite fascinating.

Well, that's all I have to share for now. Please check back next week!

The Introduction Entry

My name is Sally, and I am a graduating senior at USC's Marshall School of Business. In May I will receive my Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Information Systems. My interests will let you know that I am a true geek at heart. Though I am not exceptionally good at anything, I like to take a stab at everything.

My current hobbies include flag football, golf, reading celebrity gossip, trying new recipes, going to musicals, playing Rock Band and Madden '08. Now, I know this is quite embarrassing, but my database management class is taking over my life. Last week, I was scrolling through my iPod and I started thinking about the conceptual diagram of the database I could create. I became giddy as I was thinking about the cardinalities, entities and attributes.

My true passion lies in hospitals. Don't worry; it's not a morbid obsession. I just find it fascinating how hospitals keep it together through the day's chaotic operations (forgive the pun). What is more amazing is how behind the times they are. Utilizing the technology that is available today would allow hospital to operate more efficiently and effortlessly. The future of healthcare administration lies in technology.

Yesterday, I began my internship at a hospital. I consider myself fortunate because I am working directly with the CIO, who was a guest speaker in my Information Systems Design and Analysis class last semester. Opportunities at hospitals are hard to come by, mainly because hospitals do not participate in on-campus recruitment. The lack of effort on their part makes eager students, like myself, believe that they don't need us. Surprisingly enough, hospitals are in dire need of geeks, not just doctor geeks, but IT nerds too. If you are interested in healthcare IT, you should take the initiative and reach out to hospital administrators and offer yourself to them. Hospital staffs don't have the time to reach out to you. They are busy keeping the hospital in operation.

Just think about the difference you could make in a healthcare environment! As the use of technology increases, bedside care should be less stressful to the nurses who handle a handful of patients suffering from a variety of ailments. This would in turn decrease the number of human errors that occur due to high case loads and stress. Also, as hospitals are attempting to make the transition into becoming paperless organizations, the need for IT professionals is extremely high.

In this blog I will talk about my experiences at my internship, current trends in healthcare IT and anything else I find interesting about the future of hospitals and healthcare IT.