General Interest
Charlotte Eliopoulos, Executive Director of the new AALTCN, explains the mission of the new association and discusses how regulatory compliances and the recession are effecting LTC nursing.
Ten years ago, few of us imagined that we’d be trading in our paper records for computer stations and hand-held electronic devices, and we had no clue what EMR, PHI, HIM, PPS, and all the other alphabet-soup-like labels commonly used today in reference to health care information might mean. Technological advances in health care information management have changed all our lives and brought some great rewards (along with significant pain in the process of working toward those rewards).
Glenda J. Motta, RN, MPH, ET
President, GM Associates Inc.
Reimbursement refers to payment for a product, technology or service. U.S. health care insurers process billions of claims for payment each year.
Reimbursement for wound care products and technologies is complex and often confusing. When a clinician asks, “Will this new dressing, technology or service be reimbursed?” several pieces of information are required to answer the question, including the following:
The title phrase, by Edward Topsell (1), has become a cliché over the 400 years since it was written. This is no doubt because of the human tendency to spend little for prevention and a great amount on subsequent problems foreseen and unforeseen. The cliché fits no situation better than the medical world’s current approach to the management of heel pressure ulcers.
Electronic medical records have been under discussion for more than 10 years, but President Bush’s endorsement of this technology has provided an impetus for hospitals and other sites of health care delivery, physicians, and insurers to move away from paper documentation and toward electronic records.
Will the dressing you choose do the job? Use the following chart as a general guide for matching wound characteristics with an appropriate dressing type.
A movement is growing in the United States to create, make accessible, and maintain electronic health care records for patients and their care providers. In line with this effort, an increasing number of hospitals, health care programs, and providers are purchasing and implementing software programs, thereby rendering paper charts a thing of the past.
1. Health information and data
2. Result management
3. Order management
4. Decision support ...
Protocols, critical pathways, guidelines, algorithms—are they really valuable and necessary for the day-to-day business of caring for wounds? Absolutely. They are not only necessary; they are essential for a health care provider’s economic survival in the competitive and litigious health delivery environment we face today.
