In This Issue:
 President's Message
NYS Chapter Board - Welcome Our New Board Members
HIMSS Scholarship Applications & Award Nominations
NYC REACH Hosts Open House on August 10th
Electronic Health Record Subsidies Ending
NYeC Regional Extension Center Rapidly Approaching Capacity
SAVE THE DATE: 2011 NYeC Digital Health Conference
President's Message
Serving as President of the NYS Chapter has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional career. Trust me, the two years came and went in almost a blur. Fortunately I had the benefit of working with a dedicated crew of volunteers, many of whom will continue to serve.
While we are the oldest chapter, we have invigorated the organization many ways.- By bringing in new “blood”. Not just new members, but also new categories of members. With the support of board, HIMSS NYS has encouraged the growth in membership by attorneys, nurses, pharmacists and students in addition to physicians and technology oriented professions. Our Annual Student event has been recognized by HIMSS National as model which other chapters should replicate.
- By encouraging greater dialogue with our neighbor chapters to share best practices and events of interest.
- By actively working with our two Regional Extension Centers, NYeC and NYCREACH to improve the health of New Yorkers through Health Information Technology.
- By aligning our objectives with HIMSS National to benefit from the synergies created.
- By continuing our Advocacy activities. Sixth, by expanding our communications and forums through Linkedin and Facebook.
- By providing webinar presentations in addition to our traditional onsite meetings.
I want to express my sincere appreciation for the past presidents and board members who laid down the foundation and created the momentum that has kept our chapter successful. Your chapter has many great events planned for 2011 and 2012. This chapter needs the sweat equity of volunteers to continue in its mission. Please feel free to contact me and the other members of the board if you have any particular interest that you would like to pursue. Spread the word to your co-workers, health care, and IT acquaintances.
Let’s give a virtual round of applause for our new elected officials:- Joseph Wagner: President
- Kris Kusche: President-elect, Treasurer (temporary)
- Zabrina Pirbhai: Co-secretary
- Jessica Klarl: Co-secretary
Since Thomas Kemp retired as Treasurer, the position remains open. Tom was a great pillar for the organization and left big shoes to fill. That not withstanding, between HIMSS National training and our transition team, we can help a new volunteer get up to speed.
Best Regards,
Sal
Sal Volpe, MD
NYS Chapter Board - Welcome Our New Board Members
Please welcome our new officers:- President-Elect: Kristopher P. Kusche, CISSP, CPHIMS, FHIMSS
- Co-Secretary: Jessica C. Klarl
- Co-Secretary: Zabrina Pirbhai
Kris will also be serving as the chapter's interim treasurer.
President-Elect: Kristopher P. Kusche, CISSP, CPHIMS, FHIMSS
Kristopher Kusche is the Vice President of Information Services – Technology Management for Albany Medical Center in New York’s Capital Region. Mr. Kusche joined the Albany Medical Center in 1993 and is responsible for overseeing the medical equipment management program, data center operations, client server, midrange and mainframe operations, network engineering, systems testing and assurance team, and computer end use support groups. Past leadership roles include serving for six years as Albany Med’s first Information Services Security Officer as well as responsibility for the clinical systems and system integration teams. Kristopher is a Fellow of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), currently serves as the Secretary for HIMSS New York State, is a member of the CPHIMS technical certification committee, and has served on multiple HIMSS task forces related to IT Security, Medical Devices and Health Information Exchange. In addition to his HIMSS service, he is an advisory board member for the ECRI Institute Health Devices program, served for seven years as the National Vice Chair of the Technology and Facilities Management Council of the University Healthsystem Consortium (UHC), and was as a faculty member for the University of Phoenix’s Online Campus College of Information Services & Technology. Mr. Kusche earned his BS and MS degrees, both in Biomedical Engineering, from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York and currently holds certifications as a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) from the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC2) and as a Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS) from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.
Co-Secretary: Jessica C. Klarl
Jessica is a health informatics professional with international healthcare experience in academic, municipal, and hospital settings. She began her career at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City where she worked closely with patients and clinical research teams in hematology and developed, first hand, an appreciation for the integral role of information technology in the clinical realm. In her consulting role with the Canadian government, Jessica supported the planning and test phase operations of an eHealth diabetes management initiative aimed at supporting community physicians in providing care to the 900,000 individuals living with diabetes in Ontario. Most recently, Jessica has provided EMR training and support to clinicians at an inpatient behavioral health facility; engaged in strategic IT planning during the development of an in-house pharmacy at a long-term pediatric care facility in New York City; and has provided project management support during EHR server migrations for the largest municipal healthcare system in the country. Jessica joined HIMSS in 2009, supporting membership outreach efforts and event planning at the national and chapter levels. Currently, she is co-chair of the Program Committee. Jessica earned a B.S. in the health sciences from Boston University.
Co-Secretary: Zabrina Pirbhai, Hons. BHSc, PMP
Zabrina is a Strategy & Operations Senior at Deloitte Consulting with experience implementing solutions to improve operational performance, improve and analyze clinical performance and design the business requirements for enterprise-scale clinical initiatives. Specific areas of expertise include: multi-stakeholder collaboration and consensus building, innovation and solution creation, clinical business process development, workflow process optimization and organizational change. She has deep project and program management, process redesign and workshop facilitation skills. Zabrina has a broad knowledge of clinical environments and workflows across the care continuum. For the past two years, Zabrina’s Board Member activities have included chairing the Membership Committee and assisting on the Program Committee. Zabrina has been integral in increasing membership, Chapter activity and awareness through LinkedIn and Facebook, encouraging active Chapter participation at the Local and National levels and has helped draw a more diversified crowd representing the Tri-State area. Zabrina has also played a key role in planning and structuring the NYS Local HIMSS Conferences. Zabrina looks forward to continue serving the New York State HIMSS Chapter.
Best regards,
Sal
Salvatore Volpe, MD
President, HIMSS NY
Joe
Joseph Wagner, MPA, FHIMSS
President-elect, HIMSS NY
Ken
Ken Ong, MD, MPH
Past president, HIMSS NY
HIMSS Scholarship Applications & Award Nominations
HIMSS is now accepting scholarship applications and award nominations.
The links are below:
NYC REACH Hosts Open House to Educate Physicians about the Electronic Health Record
The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is hosting a free Open House to educate physicians about electronic health records. Learn how NYC REACH can help doctors adopt electronic health records, receive discounted EHR programs, and meet the requirements for Meaningful Use incentives. As the second NYC REACH doctor to successfully attest for Medicare Meaningful Use, Dr. Sal Volpe will share his experience on EHR adoption and implementation. He will be receiving his first payment of $18,000.
You will hear about Meaningful Use and the EHR adoption process, ask Dr. Volpe questions on his experience, and view demos from our three preferred EHR vendors- eClinicalWorks, MDLand, and Greenway.
Date: Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Time: 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: 42-09 28th Street, 12th Floor, Room 12-22, Long Island City (Queens), New York
To attend, please register: http://www.nycreachopenhouse.eventbrite.com
NYC REACH is a part of the Primary Care Information Project at the New York City Department of Health. To learn more, please go to www.nycreach.org.
Electronic Health Record Subsidies Ending
We are writing with an important message for physicians considering adopting electronic health records (EHR). There are less than 20 subsidized eClinicalWorks software licenses remaining from the NYC Health Department’s Primary Care Information Project, and the deadline for securing a license is August 15, 2011.
Because we expect that many practices will apply for the remaining subsidies, the software licenses will be distributed on a first come, first serve basis.
Please read the instructions below for details on how to participate. Email pcip@health.nyc.gov or call (347) 396-4888 if you have any additional questions.
Who Qualifies:
- Primary Care Providers who
- See at least 10% Medicaid Patients and
- Practice in New York City
Subsidy Overview
Approved practices will contribute $5,200 per provider and will receive:
- eClinicalWorks EHR (including clinical, practice management, and billing software), worth $10,000
- Implementation, software training, and data migration, worth $9,000
- Two years of eClinicalWorks technical support, worth $1,500 per year
- On-site implementation assistance and Meaningful Use education from NYC REACH, worth $5,000
How to Participate
- Join NYC REACH, the federally funded extension center created to help physicians with EHR adoption and Meaningful Use. To join, complete and return a NYC REACH membership agreement, available online. Click Here for the agreement.
- Complete an application (if you have not already been approved) for the eClinicalWorks subsidy here: http://www.tfaforms.com/178859. We can only review new applications for practices that have completed an NYC REACH agreement.
- Speak with an NYC REACH staff member. Once you submit an application, you will hear from an Outreach Specialist to discuss details of the program
- View a demo of eClinicalWorks if you have not seen one yet. Online demos are available Mondays from 3 – 5 PM, register with Stephanie Looney by emailing stephanie.l@eclinicalworks.com
- Complete all paperwork and payments. Only practices with complete agreements and checks submitted will be considered for the subsidy program.
What if I miss this deadline?
NYC REACH has negotiated group discounts for eClinicalWorks, MDLand, and Greenway EHR software. Practices who miss the deadline or do not qualify for the subsidy can take advantage of these rates and additional Meaningful Use training by joining. Visit www.nycreach.org for more details.
NYeC Regional Extension Center Rapidly Approaching Capacity
In just a short period of time, the NYeC Regional Extension Center (REC) has helped 2857 primary care providers progress toward Meaningful Use—more than half the total number it is subsidized to assist through its federal grant.
As the federally designated REC for New York State, NYeC has a grant to provide subsidized services to 5107 primary care providers. As of today, there are only 2250 slots left to receive federal assistance, and providers continue to sign up at a rapid pace—as many as 200 per week.
For providers who are already live on an EHR, REC service is free if they sign up before August 31, 2011. For those practices still using paper records, the price is $750 per provider, with the remainder covered by the federal subsidy. After the remaining subsidized spots are filled, NYeC’s EHR-adoption programs and service price return to the regular price of $4000 - $5750 per provider.
The REC has done an extraordinary job so far of assisting providers, with 1500 of the roughly 2800 being live on EHRs, and over 60 individuals having attested to Meaningful Use. To put that into context: approximately 300 providers have received EHR Incentive checks from Medicaid throughout the entire country, which demonstrates the high rate of success at NYeC and in New York State.
Since federally subsidized spots are going so fast, NYeC encourages providers to contact them as soon as possible. The REC will assist any primary care provider, regardless of their progress in the transition to EHRs. For more information, email recinfo@nyehealth.org.
SAVE THE DATE: 2011 NYeC Digital Health Conference
The New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) will hold its first annual NYeC Digital Health Conference December 1st and 2nd, 2011 in New York City at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers. The conference will bring together health information technology (HIT) stakeholders from the public and private sectors—including providers, hospital administrators, insurers, IT vendors, other members of private industry, and government representatives. The conference will create a forum for healthcare stakeholders to collaborate and network with attendees in the business, technology, healthcare and policy realms.
The two-day educational conference will include numerous panel discussions with experts and an exhibit area that will showcase the latest technologies available to improve healthcare. A separate awards ceremony and gala will be held the evening of the first day to recognize key individuals who have made special contributions to HIT.
The conference is being supported by numerous regional HIT advocacy groups, including the New York, New Jersey and New England chapters of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and the Medical Society of the State of New York.
NYeC is seeking speakers and special session proposals that showcase HIT innovations, use case studies, explore new information technology tools and perspectives, suggest practical applications of existing technologies, and/or highlight the effects of HIT in healthcare advances. The deadline for speaker submissions is August 15th, 2011 at 11pm EST. Visit digitalhealthconference.com for an application
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