The Centricity EMR (electronic medical record) and practice management system has been upgraded by GE Healthcare in order to assist doctors in their preparation for the change to ICD-10 codes and Meaningful Use. This is being done through CPS 10 (Centricity Practice Solution), which is the newest version of the GE EMR system. His will include several additional features and upgrades that will be geared towards this changeover.
The new CPS 10 will also support the HIPPA 5010 guidelines set down by ANSI (the American National Standards Institute). This means that claims may be submitted after the deadline that occurs on January 1st, 2012.
In an announcement made last Tuesday, it was stated by officials that this latest version features a redesigned interfaced that was compiled according to suggestions by feedback from physicians. This limited the number of mouse clicks that are needed to proceed from the initial registration through the clinical evaluation. Practices can now also continuously monitor the financial cycle from insurance claims to accounts receivable to billing using a feature known as a financial performance dashboard. This will be accomplished using real-time data and layouts that can be customized. These are features that will enhance the workflow in practices that range in size from small to large.
In addition, there will be a package included in the software that will handle e-prescriptions, clinical messaging (with security features) and a patient portal. Quality reports will also be embedded in the EMR directly. It has been pointed out by the vice-president and general manager of GE Healthcare IT, Michael Friguletto, that this software package is the only EMR solution that is backed by a database of 20 million patient records and integrated quality reporting metrics. This was stated in “InformationWeek Healthcare”.
The patient database that he is referring to is the GE MQIC (Medical Quality Improvement Consortium). This is a quickly growing EMR research and reporting database of clinical data. This database allows data benchmarks for practices on a nationwide scale against similar sized practices with similar complexities, according to Figuletto.
A significant improvement in medical practice workflow has been reported by Internal Medicine Associates, which is based in Fargo, N.D. The clinical administrator there, Kathy Barrows stated that CPS 10 has clearly demonstrated an ability to optimize overall cost efficiency. Training costs were also minimized due to the system’s intuitive nature.
“We’re extremely happy with the results of our beta test transition results”, Barrows indicated.