Clinical Alerts have been and are continuing to be used in a number of different applications. Many health insurance companies utilize clinical alerts in order to alert caregivers to certain services that are recommended for a member but have not been administered. The goal of this type of application is to improve the quality of clinical care that is provided to insurance members. Through the use of clinical alerts the goal is to provide more of a higher quality of care. Other uses of clinical alert are to warn healthcare providers of possible negative interactions between prescriptions and a patient’s past medical history. There are however doubts at how the clinical alert system is set up, and the way the information is analyzed and processed by the computer systems. As the system is fine-tuned there is a lot of potential for improvement within the health care system.

The pay for performance model also proposes to include a number of disincentives as part of the system. Examples of these would be not receiving payments for medical errors as well as cost increases. The goal of the pay for performance model of health care payments and rewards is to encourage an improvement in the quality of care provided as well as the efficiency of the overall health care system.

This system has been tested in a number of different health care systems including both large and small service providers. While these studies have shown some improvements within very specific circumstances, including an increase inefficiency, there has been no measurable decrease in cost. The reason for this is being linked to a higher amount of administrative tasks necessary to put the system into place. Other issues that are being seen with this model is how the quality of care is measured as well as the amount of autonomy and privacy between patients and physicians.

There are a number of different types of plans offered by Medicare Advantage. The four most common types include Special Needs Plans, Private Fee-for-Service plans, Preferred Provider Organization plans as well as Health Maintenance Organization plans. All of these plans differ slightly in the way their costs are structured as well as the amounts of out of pocket costs as well as monthly rates.

The private insurer will charge the consumer a set monthly premium and through Medicare Advantage, each month Medicare will pay a fixed amount of that monthly premium cost. While the amount that Medicare pays monthly is fixed, the individual insurance companies can vary in the amount of care costs including emergency and non-emergency care and out of pocket costs. Any plan provided by a private insurance company will have to adhere to the same services offered by Medicare parts A and B, however the amount of service covered does not need to be the same.

Many providers and practitioners of health care believe that by utilizing a comprehensively run and constant management of health IT many aspects of the health system would benefit. One of the most important parts of improvement is thought to be seen in the quality of health care received and administered. Through health IT analysis, medical errors should be able to be stopped and health care systems will be able to cut the cost of providing care. In addition it will eliminate a certain amount of paperwork which will help to increase the amount of efficiency within administrative work.

Health information technology focuses on the actual computer hardware as well as the software that is utilized in order to obtain many types of information and later share and analyze data. As these technologies improve and companies begin to invent new technologies, or build on existing ones, it is believed that the health care system will improve in quality and efficiency as well.

Chronic care management is a unique method of care because it focuses on such as pecific group of patients. Many patients with chronic illness benefit greatly from being educated on how to deal with their sickness both in medical and non-medical ways. Much of chronic care management is not necessarily providing medical services, but is instead about how patients learn to interact and how they learn to adapt and change their lifestyles to better live with their illness. This is accomplished through the help and advice of health care professionals as well as the support from both family and friends. Many patients have a difficult time changing their lifestyle and learning to place importance on following the treatment routine and regimen.

As with the majority of health care practices within the nation’s health care system, the goal of this type of management is to provide the patient with the highest quality of care while maximizing the cost savings. Case management focuses on a single patient rather than a large group of patients with similar health issues. The patient’s case is commonly managed by a single case manager who works with a number of other social workers in a number of agencies with the goal of coordinating knowledge and efforts in order to expand the necessary services that are offered to the patient. Through coordinated efforts case management works to create a care plan that is personal and specialized for each individual patient. Through evaluation followed by adjustment, this management technique is improved with each case.

There are a number of different goals that disease management hopes to achieve. There have been sources who have linked the practice to possibly reducing health care costs, however that goal is less focused on when it comes to this practice. The first and foremost goal is to minimize the negative side effects of the disease, as well as improve the patient’s overall quality of life. In many cases disease management communities or networks will focus on one or a couple of chronic diseases that affect a fairly large amount of the population. Some of the most common chronic diseases that utilize this health care practice include obesity, asthma, osteoporosis, coronary heart disease, hypertension, sleep apnea, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as a number of other common sicknesses.

Where in disease management, the participants are most commonly volunteers, or those suffering from more severe forms of a disease, population management include all members of a healthcare plan afflicted by a disease, no matter what the level of severity. Through this application of health care management, the system is able to both treat the severe cases, as well as provide preventative care for the cases which are less severe.

Just as with disease management, as large part of the possibility of success of population management lays within the communal sharing of knowledge, as well as effort from all sides of the equation, from the patient, family and health care practitioner. This is done through member education, as well as support systems for those who care for these patients whether, family, friends or hired help. It is also focused on the coordination and cooperation of multiple different physicians, and healthcare practitioners as well as many different health care institutions.

The foreground for this type of health care organization originated with the study of how doctors and care givers within a hospital work together. Through this the realization was made that this group of health care providers worked as a network in order to provide more comprehensive care. The thought then became, how can we made a similar model to this work with physicians and care providers who work outside of a single establishment. From this thought process, the scope of accountable care organizations has begun to focus more on the application of the system when observing health care practices including specialty groups as well as IPAs, or independent practice associations. As with any typeof health care service it is likely that the applications of accountable care organizations will develop and evolve as it is discovered what parts of the system are effective and what parts are inhibiting.

Underlying this commitment, GE Healthcare is unveiling the following new product introduction and range of breakthroughs in ultrasound at RSNA:

LOGIQ S8

The LOGIQ S8 is a lightweight, portable ultrasound system that fits easily into small exam rooms, can be easily transported within a facility and provides superb images across a variety of clinical areas including abdominal, breast, vascular, musculoskeletal and cardiology.

Built upon established LOGIQ technologies, the LOGIQ S8 helps provide outstanding image quality and allows for a streamlined workflow that helps clinicians shorten exam times, as well as create consistent, highly detailed images that help increase clinical confidence. The combinations of advanced features and system design help create the balance between performance and affordability.

Among its many features are:

• S-Agile Ultrasound, proprietary GE Healthcare technology that uses flexible clinically-based models of the body to help deliver consistently clear images for virtually all body types. This is particularly important given the growing number of overweight and obese patients who are being seen by healthcare providers.
• Scan Assistant, software that allows for a streamlined workflow, enabling the operator to customize the system to perform frequently used functions automatically, helping to reduce busy work and exam times.
• Extreme ergonomics, which accommodates the stature and working style of sonographers, and helps reduce user fatigue and risk of injury, while enabling high-quality exams and efficient workflow.

LOGIQ E9 updates

Because ultrasound imaging is one of the pillars for disease assessment and determining treatment options, image quality and procedure accuracy are paramount. The LOGIQ E9 has continually added advanced capabilities to help meet the needs of clinicians. This year, enhancements¹ for the LOGIQ E9 include:

• Continued image quality improvements for color and 4D, which particularly benefit shared service applications
• Expanded elastography applications for prostate, thyroid, musculoskeletal, liver and gynecology
• Volume navigation enhancements, expanded to more transducers enabling clinical applications such as transcranial, as well as the ability to load in multiple data sets including positron emission tomography (PET) images
• Enhanced needle-tracking capabilities with an additional device, the Virtual Needle tracker

ViewPoint 6.1®

Using more than 20 years of experience and feedback from customers across the globe, GE Healthcare has worked to simplify ultrasound reporting and image management into one flexible and intuitive system.

ViewPoint 6.1 is one of the most comprehensive data management solutions on the market allowing for improvements to workflow while covering a broad range of applications. The solution provides the ability to:

• Integrate ultrasound with HIS, RIS, EMR and PACS systems
• Communicate across departments, hospitals and enterprises
• Help reduce dictation and transcription
• Create preliminary and final reports easily using new “quick reports” templates
• Utilize 4D View for offline processing