This month, those of us who are committed to promoting the widespread adoption of aging services technologies received 2 early holiday presents. One present came from LeadingAge and Ziegler, a LeadingAge Gold Partner.
The other present came from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).
LZ 150: High Technology Adoption Rates
Our first holiday present was the 2014 LeadingAge/Ziegler 150 (LZ 150) report. This annual report provides us with a valuable snapshot of the largest not-for-profit systems providing aging services through senior living in the United States.
This is the second year that the LZ series, which was expanded from 100 to 150 this year, has featured information about technology adoption among the nation’s largest not-for-profit aging services organizations.
I’m happy to report that this year’s report demonstrates very clearly that technology-enabled services are playing an increasingly important role within the organizations that lead innovation in our field.
For example:
- 74.7% of largest 150 not-for-profit senior living communities have adopted electronic medical records and/or electronic health records (EMR/EHR).
- 76.6% of these senior living organizations have adopted electronic point of care or point of service documentation systems.
This is great news for all of us. It shows how much progress we have made in promoting the use of technology to enable and enhance the important work that LeadingAge members do.
Of course, there is more work to do in this area. As our article about the report states, LZ 150 organizations have the greatest opportunity for enhanced technological capacity in 3 areas where adoption is lowest:
- Teleheath/remote patient monitoring (4%).
- Telecare/telemonitoring/behavioral monitoring (7.6%).
- Medication monitoring technologies (21.2%).
ONC Strategic Plan
Our second holiday present came in the form of ONC’s 2015-2020 Federal Health Information Technology (IT) Strategic Plan.
I’m happy to report that the draft report takes a much broader view of health IT adoption than ONC’s previous strategic plans.
We were particularly pleased to see the plan acknowledge and express concern over the fact that use of health IT remains low among providers practicing in long-term services, post-acute care and behavioral health settings.
We hope ONC follows through on its intention, stated in the plan, to spur health IT adoption by expanding assistance to organizations that were ineligible to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.
The draft strategic plan also calls for expanding adoption and use of 2 types of technologies—telehealth and mobile health—that CAST believes have a major role to play in the delivery of aging services. We were pleased to read about strategies for funding these technologies through federal programs or payment innovation initiatives.
The Federal Health IT Strategic Plan is not a “done deal” by any means. The draft plan is open for public comment through Feb. 6 at 5 p.m. EST. Based on feedback, a final plan will be released sometime next year.
I urge you to read our article about the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan and submit comments supporting its goals to expand adoption of EHRs, telehealth and mobile health technologies among long-term and post-acute care providers.
Of course, CAST is planning to submit supportive comments guided by our technology-policy priorities. We welcome your support and additional suggestions. The only way to affect real change is to make your voices heard!
CAST Commission Report
The CAST Commissioners had a very fruitful and thought-provoking discussion at their fall meeting in Nashville. We spent the day exploring how organizations can transform their thinking, solve problems, and spur innovations.
Be sure to read Collaborating on Change: How Payer, Health Care and Academic Partnerships Can Advance the Missions of Aging Services Organizations. The report summarizes the major presentations and discussions that took place at the CAST Commission meeting. We’ve included an article about the Commission Report in this issue of Tech Time.
Members in the News
This issue of Tech Time also highlights many of the innovative activities that CAST members are carrying out across the nation.
First, I want to congratulate CAST Supporter Independa, which earned a 2015 CES Innovation Award from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). Independa took top honors in the “Tech for a Better World” category for its senior care and engagement technologies.
We also are happy to share news about LeadingAge Silver Premier Sponsor and CAST Business Associate Optimus EMR Inc., which will be adding new functionality to its EMR system in 2015.
In addition, a number of CAST Business Associates made headlines in December for their corporate accomplishments, new products and partnerships, and research.
Check out our Members in the News article, which shares the latest accomplishments of MDI Achieve, Telemedicine Solutions, Touchtown, GE-Care Innovations, and PointClickCare.
Your Feedback Is Needed
As you know, CAST is planning to update and expand its Technology Selection Tools and we need your feedback.
At this point, we are planning to do a minor update of our EHR and Telehealth Portfolios in 2015. This will entail reaching out to vendors to update their responses from last year and confirm their participation. In addition, we will reach out to new vendors to participate. We will also invite all participating vendors to nominate providers to submit new case studies.
We believe that the respective white papers, selection matrices and online selection tools in the EHR and Telehealth portfolios will not require any significant changes.
But please email me if you see any need for changes or have any suggestions to consider as we update these portfolios. We will share your comments with the respective workgroups.
We are also planning to do a full update of the Medication Management portfolio. At your earliest convenience, please review the whitepaper, selection matrix, online selection tool and case studies that make up this portfolio and let us know your thoughts.
Finally, I hope you will take a moment to complete a brief (3-minute) feedback survey we developed to help guide future updates to the Medication Management portfolio.
The survey also asks for your suggestions regarding the next tool that CAST should consider developing. We are proposing a tool on Functional Assessment and Monitoring Technology for 2015, but look forward to hearing your comments and ideas. Please complete the survey by Jan. 9. We will announce the results in the January issue of Tech Time.
Happy Holidays!
Finally, on behalf of all of us at LeadingAge and CAST, I want to wish you a very happy holiday season and a prosperous New Year.
CAST has benefitted greatly from your support over the past year and we look forward to working closely with all of you in 2015!