Join us at the NAHC Conference in Tampa this October and visit us at booth #333. See firsthand how our eSignature solutions for home health can transform your operations, eliminate waste, and position your agency for success under the new 80/20 rule.
As we move further into the digital age, healthcare organizations are more connected than ever before. Electronic Health Records (EHR), telemedicine platforms, and cloud-based systems have transformed the industry, improving patient care and streamlining operations.
However, this digital transformation has also made healthcare a prime target for cyberattacks. Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2024 serves as a timely reminder of why cybersecurity is not just an IT issue but a critical priority for healthcare providers across the board, also stressing the need for the right downtime solutions to be in place.
Healthcare data is highly valuable on the dark web, making hospitals and clinics lucrative targets for cybercriminals. Personal health information (PHI) is more than just data—it’s a goldmine for fraudsters. In fact, PHI can be worth up to 10 times more than credit card information, according to industry studies.
Despite the clear risks, many healthcare organizations remain unprepared for the scale and sophistication of today’s cyber threats. The staggering statistics below highlight why cybersecurity is more important than ever for healthcare in 2024:
With threats growing in frequency and complexity, Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a critical opportunity for healthcare leaders to take action and ensure that every employee is equipped to play their part in keeping patient data safe.
When people think of cyberattacks, they often imagine sophisticated hackers breaking through firewalls or exploiting vulnerabilities in software. But in reality, the majority of breaches in healthcare result from human error. According to a 2024 Verizon Data Breach Report, 68% of breaches involved unintentional actions by well-meaning staff, such as clicking on phishing emails or using weak passwords.
Phishing is a particularly widespread problem. In fact, phishing attacks increased by 58.2% in 2023, with healthcare workers being prime targets. Attackers prey on busy staff, sending emails that mimic legitimate communications. All it takes is one click for an attacker to gain access to sensitive patient data or hospital systems.
Educating healthcare professionals on cybersecurity risks—especially phishing—must be a top priority. Cybersecurity Awareness Month is the perfect time to initiate training programs that help staff recognize and respond to threats in real-time.
The consequences of a cyberattack in healthcare go far beyond financial losses. When systems go down, the impact on patient care can be immediate and severe. Hospitals depend on EHR systems to track patient histories, medications, and lab results. When these systems are compromised, care teams are left scrambling, increasing the risk of medical errors and delayed treatments.
According to a 2023 Ponemon Institute report, the average downtime following a cyberattack costs healthcare organizations about $9,000 per minute. But the real cost is measured in the trust and safety of patients. Delays in critical care can lead to serious harm—or worse.
Ransomware attacks—where hackers encrypt critical data and demand payment for its release—are on the rise. Healthcare, with its sensitive data and life-saving systems, is an attractive target. In 2023, the healthcare sector saw a 35% increase in ransomware incidents, according to the IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report.
The stakes are clear: paying a ransom doesn’t just lead to financial losses, it can also cause long-term damage to a hospital’s reputation. Worse, paying a ransom doesn’t guarantee that data will be restored—nearly 20% of organizations that pay a ransom never get their data back.
The Solution: Cybersecurity is Everyone’s Responsibility
The good news is that many of these risks are preventable. While cybersecurity experts play a crucial role in maintaining defenses, every employee has a part to play in keeping patient data and healthcare systems secure.
Here are key steps that healthcare organizations should take to bolster their defenses:
As Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2024 unfolds, healthcare organizations have an opportunity to assess and strengthen their defenses. The statistics are clear: cyber threats are growing, and healthcare is in the crosshairs. By educating employees, implementing best practices, and staying vigilant, healthcare leaders can protect both their patients and their organizations from the devastating impact of a cyberattack.
Cybersecurity isn’t just about protecting data—it’s about safeguarding patient care, trust, and the future of healthcare. This October, make cybersecurity a priority across your entire organization.
You can’t control when an attack will come, but you can control how prepared you are when it does. Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2024 is your opportunity to strengthen your defenses, educate your team, and protect your patients. This is more than an IT issue—it’s about patient safety and trust. Are you willing to leave those critical factors to chance?
About the Author:
Lauren Ziegler is the Director of Marketing Communications at Interlace Health. She oversees Interlace Health’s corporate communications, content, branding, events, and digital marketing efforts. She brings over fifteen years of experience in helping support technology firm’s marketing and PR efforts. Lauren is passionate about helping the healthcare community understand Interlace’s Health’s value, vision, and commitment to improving experiences for providers, patients, and staff. Find Lauren on LinkedIn.
Interlace Health attended the Future 2024 event in Nashville, a highly anticipated gathering of home care and healthcare leaders. This conference, organized by Home Health Care News, brought together industry CEOs, clinicians, and tech innovators to discuss the evolving landscape of home-based care. From payment models to AI-driven efficiencies, the sessions offered a glimpse into the future of healthcare delivery in the home setting. Here are some key takeaways from the event.
State regulated consent forms in Texas can be complicated and time consuming. Limited staff resources and increasing compliance demands make the challenge even bigger. These challenges also increase the risk of delayed procedures for the patients who need them.
The case for moving away from paper is strong; The Joint Commission cites over 500 organizations each year for failing to have proof of completed, compliant consents prior to the procedures performed. But the move from paper to digital is a complex and time-consuming process. And the additional requirements in Texas only add to the complexity.
In Texas, health systems need an integrated solution that will enable them to stay current with state regulations. Solutions must deliver an effective, scalable and flexible workflow for electronically consenting patients.
In Texas, state-mandated changes are rolled out quarterly. Ideally, you also want a consent form solution to monitor those on an ongoing basis and notify you when changes occur.
For example, Interlace Health’s eConsent platform will notify you about changes to Texas consent form requirements via email. You’ll be prompted to review changes so that you understand them before Interlace Health updates your system with those changes.
Interlace Health has expanded our Managed Form Service Offering to include a managed database of Texas-approved consent forms (List A & List B procedures). We offer seamless integration with our eConsent platform to ensure that any consent form used for care conforms to state requirements.
Our solution delivers a seamless experience to gain consent in a compliant manner. Providers can save time and cut costs while improving care quality. Interlace Health strengthens data collection, enhances EHR integrations, and offers full cloud-hosted options.
We understand that clinicians may be hesitant to veer away from their typical consenting workflow. In our eConsent platform, consents will launch with patient information as well as Texas-approved procedure details. This not only streamlines completion, but also improves compliance with the state of Texas.
Everything can be done on a laptop or tablet at the patient’s bedside. The nurse can scan the patient’s wristband to access the appropriate consent forms in the patient’s chart. The information specific to the procedure, based on the Texas medical disclosure panel, will default into the informed consent form. Once the patient has reviewed and signed, and the nurse has signed as a witness, the form can be assigned to the surgeon to review and sign. All signatures are automatically dated and time stamped.
When the surgeon logs into the EMR, any forms she needs to sign will appear under her sign queue. Once the surgeon has signed, the consent updates to a completed status, archives to the patient’s chart, and the patient is set to go for their procedure.
To learn more about Interlace Health’s Texas Consent Form Management solution, including a brief demonstration, check out our recent webinar The Move to Digital Informed Consent: Ensuring Compliance with Texas Regulations.
Author:
Clayton Homme
Regional Sales Director of the Pacific Northwest, Interlace Health
Connect with Clayton on LinkedIn
Recently, 90% of healthcare executives reported that taking on a digital transformation is a top priority for them. Which makes sense, patients have been asking for a more digital experience for years and cyberattacks are on the rise. Hospitals need to have secure technology to optimize their patient care and workflows. However, only 13.5% of execs have recently started or completed a project aligning with this priority.
What is getting in the way of creating this digital transformation? Hospitals face the challenge of clinical workforce shortage; and at the same time, they are working with an aging population needing advanced care. To top it off the cost of running a hospital is rising faster than the revenue coming in. No wonder 75% of executives report having insufficient funds and resources to bring top-notch tech to their organization.
In the face of these many challenges, there is a resource available to help health care organizations achieve their technological goals, a way for you to get free money to eliminate the funding gap: grants! Each year, the federal and state governments offer millions of dollars in funding to enable hospitals to realize the next generation of health IT.
Last year, just one grant in Wisconsin from the Department of Administration distributed over $100 million to over 26 hospitals, cities, and counties to invest in enhancing their IT infrastructure (Source: https://doa.wi.gov/Pages/HealthcareInfrastructure.aspx). The Office of National Coordination for Health IT has an annual grant that awards up to $1 million each year, until 2027, for hospitals to scale advanced technology and optimize patient care. (*Source: https://grants.gov/search-results-detail/341131)
Grant funding is a time tested resource, and Interlace Health has been fortunate to work with hospitals who used grants to implement our eForms and workflow automation software. During the pandemic, Ste. Genevieve in MO used the HRSA Funding: Delta Health Systems Implementation Program to digitize manual processes making their workflows safer and easier for patients and staff.
In 2021, Ste. Genevieve implemented Interlace Health’s Remote Patient Intake solution which allowed them to automatically send digital COVID screening questionnaires to patients regularly, rather than having nurses call patients ahead of scheduled visits. This substantially reduced staff workload, satisfied patients, increased accuracy of the data they collected, and aligned with their executive initiative to support telehealth and remote care.
Before you can experience a grant-related success like Ste. Genevieve, you have to apply for the grant. And before you apply for the grant, you must determine what you can use it for and if you are eligible. And before that, you have to find a grant in the first place. There are a lot of steps that go into using a grant, which can incur some costs. Grants to the rescue once again, there are planning grants available to help you while you prepare to use the main grant.
Grants and Getting Started
By now you are probably feeling pretty inspired to get in on this free funding and get your hospital started on a digital transformation. But where can you look to see what grants are available?
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is a good place to start, it’s the largest grant-making agency in the U.S. You can also look at your state level health department. Additionally, there are several paid portals where you can set up alerts to notify you when relevant grants open. Since government grants are tied to the September federal budget, you can expect to see an uptick in open grants around October. But you can search these sources now to get an idea of the types of grants that will be available this year. To focus your search on Health IT, you can use terms like, telemedicine and telehealth, cyber security, and healthcare technology.
While this process to find and use a grant may seem a bit daunting, incorporating technology has a proven ROI on the monetary side and leads to better outcomes for patients. That grant may end up being the difference between achieving your prioritized digital transformation and falling behind. So, start your search, apply for a planning grant, and then go after that free funding to elevate the technology in your organization.
Ready for digital transformation? Looking to learn more about grant’s for Health IT projects to achieve this?
About the Author:
Ellie Silver is a Solution Architect at Interlace Health and has been helping hospitals optimize workflows & prioritize people over paperwork with forms automation for over 5 years. Her degree in Health Science, combined with her experience working at Epic enhances her abilities as an advisor in the healthcare IT industry. Ellie is enthusiastic about developing and bringing her community together. This Spring, she volunteered as the M.C. for the WI HIMSS Spring Leadership Conference and hosted a webinar for the chapter, as well. She loves helping people flourish and wishes you success exploring the world of grants. Connect with Ellie on LinkedIn.
In May 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed rule changes to enhance home- and community-based services (HCBS) for Medicaid beneficiaries. The 80/20 Rule, which goes into effect in 2025, requires HCBS agencies to allocate at least 80% of the Medicaid payments they receive for homemaker, home health aide and personal care services to direct care worker compensation.
When the 80/20 rule goes into effect, it will force direct care providers to generate additional revenue to cover administrative costs and owner compensation. To achieve this, they will need to increase efficiency and see more patients. They will also need to reduce the administrative costs per patient, since the rule reduces the amount of funds available to cover those expenses.
The first step in this process will be for home healthcare agencies to identify ways to increase efficiency and/or reduce administrative costs. Are patient onboarding and consenting processes paper based? If so, how many hours are direct care providers spending on paperwork preparation?
For example, it may be that home health nurses are spending 1-2 hours each day completing patient forms and returning them to the office for processing. In addition, new patient onboarding can add up to three hours on its own if all forms are completed by hand.
Paper-based processes can also increase travel-related costs. In fact, some home health nurses report spending an hour daily driving to the office to pick up new forms and return completed ones from the previous day.
Shifting from paper-based processes to digital forms and e-signatures, can potentially save home healthcare agencies up to six hours a day per healthcare worker in administrative costs. Going digital will allow home-based care providers to access patient information and appointment details in real time. This transition enhances operational efficiency, streamlines processes and improves the quality of care provided.
“Agencies lose at least one, if not multiple, days waiting for paperwork to be fully entered into the system,” says Art Nicholas, CCO at Interlace Health. “This also reduces the number of patients a nurse can see because they spend an hour a day picking up and delivering paper.”
Digital solutions, such as those offered by Interlace Health, enable home healthcare agencies to pre-populate forms with patient data from the EHR, delivering them electronically to nurses based on their schedules. Completed forms are sent back and stored automatically, eliminating the need for paper-based signatures and reducing time spent on printing, scanning, and archiving forms.
Once submitted digitally, Interlace Health’s platform manages the transportation of the documents. For example, an agency might require a form to be reviewed or counter-signed before it goes to billing. Digitized consent triggers each subsequent step once the patient signs the form, ensuring a smooth workflow from the manager’s review to the billing process.
“Once a patient is scheduled, our system automatically generates the necessary forms by pulling patient demographics from their chart and auto-populating them onto the form,” explains Nicholas. “This means patients don’t have to handwrite their forms. We’re creating a digital experience that patients and clinicians can navigate on any device — computer, tablet, or cell phone.”
By integrating digital consent forms with an agency’s EHR, the onboarding process becomes seamless. Patients and their family members don’t have to repeatedly fill out the same forms, and digital workflows reduce the chance of errors associated with manual data entry.
A digital-first approach in home health is a small change that makes a big difference. Making this shift can make the difference when it comes to preparing your home healthcare agency for the 80/20 rule. By improving your workflows and digitizing your forms, you can enhance efficiency, compliance, and job satisfaction while reducing costs and environmental impact.
To learn more about how Interlace Health can help your home health practice prepare for the 80/20 rule, download the white paper: People Over Paperwork – Cutting Administrative Cost and Burden in Home Health.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
About the Author:
Lauren Ziegler is the Director of Marketing Communications at Interlace Health. She oversees Interlace Health’s corporate communications, content, branding, events, and digital marketing efforts. She brings over fifteen years of experience in helping support technology firm’s marketing and PR efforts. Lauren is passionate about helping the healthcare community understand Interlace’s Health’s value, vision, and commitment to improving experiences for providers, patients, and staff. Find Lauren on LinkedIn.
Spanish Translation by: Nena Franco Baptiste
Interlace Health lleva más de 30 años proporcionando flujos de trabajo digital y automatización de formularios en el sector sanitario. Queremos seguir apoyando a los médicos para que pongan a las personas por encima del papeleo, incluso cuando vemos que la atención médica se traslada fuera de las paredes de un hospital y dentro del hogar. Nuestra solución de firma electrónica para la atención médica en el hogar se creó para ayudar a que los flujos de trabajo administrativo sean menos molestos para los médicos de atención en el hogar. Le pedimos a nuestra experta en salud domiciliaria y cuidados paliativos para residentes, Nena Franco Baptiste, que compartiera su visión sobre estos desafíos. Llegó a nosotros con 17 años de experiencia en atención médica domiciliaria y cuidados y ahora trabaja como gerente de proyectos aquí en Interlace Health, donde trabaja para garantizar que las soluciones se apliquen y administren con éxito para nuestros clientes.
Dicen que nunca sabes realmente las luchas de otra persona hasta que caminas una milla en sus zapatos. Y así es como descubrí las luchas que enfrentan los médicos en la salud en el hogar y los cuidados paliativos, incluso después de haber estado trabajando en la industria durante muchos años. Esa experiencia llegó para mí cuando mi padre fue dado de alta después de una cirugía crítica, y tuvimos que recibir atención domiciliaria en nuestro espacio personal y en la vida de nuestra familia para ayudar a cuidarlo. Fue entonces cuando realmente me di cuenta de que el personal de campo es una parte crucial del proceso de atención médica para los pacientes y sus familias. Lidian con mucho en un solo día, y lo vi bajo una nueva luz. Estos son solo algunos de sus desafíos diarios:
-Hacer malabarismos con su carga diaria de casos.
-Gestión de todos los trámites.
-Ir de un paciente a otro y, a menudo, de regreso a la oficina.
-Responder a las preguntas de los miembros de la familia.
-Servir como voz entre el médico y el paciente o la familia.
-Documentar la atención clínica para que la experiencia en el hogar sea tan fluida como la del hospital.
-Asegurarse de que los registros médicos tengan lo que necesitan para enviar la facturación.
-Proporcionar a los pacientes la atención clínica que necesitan.
Hay 5 desafíos principales que vi relacionados con los procesos de formularios en papel durante mi tiempo en el cuidado de la salud en el hogar:
La retención del personal es un problema constante en la atención médica en el hogar, y los cambios abruptos que ocurren cuando se tiene personal con papeleo físico y equipo médico en la mano cuando renuncian, pueden afectar a varias personas y ralentizar todo el proceso.
El personal podría tener dos visitas de admisión, un registro de 60 días y una visita de hospitalización, todas en el mismo día. Tratar a los pacientes, calmar y enseñar a los miembros de la familia, asegurarse de que se complete todo el papeleo y documentar la atención son solo algunas de las tareas pendientes. Tener que conducir de regreso a la oficina para escanear todo el papeleo después de un día como ese es una causa segura de agotamiento.
Tal vez el POA no pudo salir del trabajo, la visita fue reprogramada o están viajando fuera del estado el día de la visita. Ahora el personal y la familia están coordinando cómo comunicarse sobre la cita, cómo obtener los formularios firmados y enviados de vuelta en un período de tiempo razonable.
Es posible que el personal no haya sido informado con anticipación de que el paciente o los miembros de la familia no hablan inglés, y es posible que no tengan acceso a servicios de traducción en el acto. Limitarse solo a los formularios impresos que tienen a la mano causa frustración al paciente, en el personal y retrasos en la atención y la facturación.
El personal de registros médicos es el destinatario de estas pilas de formularios en papel que deben revisarse y archivarse. Esto toma una cantidad considerable de su tiempo y hay posibilidad de un margen de error humano.
Prepararse para una encuesta de JCAHO, una encuesta de CHAP o una encuesta de seguro médico (medicar) es una tarea que requiere mucho tiempo. Todo debe estar perfecto y el personal que se esfuerza por garantizar que este sea el caso cuando se trata de papeleo se enfrenta a una batalla cuesta arriba. Siempre habrá un formulario de papel que se pierda o tenga una mancha de café y sea difícil de leer, o que no haya pasado por la máquina de fax. Puede ser frustrante experimentar retrasos en el envío de sus RAP a Medicare porque no tiene toda su documentación junta. Recuerdo que una vez me preparé para nuestra encuesta CHAP y uno de los médicos literalmente entró y tiró una gran pila de papeleo de su bolso, con poco tiempo de sobra. Era un gran lío de papeleo, y a algunos de nosotros nos tomó media hora clasificarlo todo y organizarnos. Esa vez fue una carrera hasta la línea de meta, sin duda.
La agencia para la que trabajaba servía a seis condados diferentes, por lo que el personal a menudo podía conducir más de 40 millas para ver a un paciente, y su carga diaria de casos era muy pesada. Nuestro objetivo principal era mantener la continuidad de la atención desde el hospital o el consultorio médico hacía el hogar y alentamos a nuestro personal a construir una relación de confianza con los pacientes y sus familias. Sin embargo, con lo mucho que gestionan en un día, hubo muchas dificultades, como el papeleo tardío que volvía a la oficina o que el personal se quedaba sin suministros médicos. La agencia trató de facilitar las cosas para el personal mediante la creación de oficinas satélite donde los médicos de campo tendrían un lugar para conectarse en línea, recoger el papeleo y los suministros médicos y realizar la documentación clínica. Sin embargo, su mantenimiento era costoso y tuvo que cerrar debido a los recortes presupuestarios.
La siguiente iniciativa que implementamos para ayudar a los médicos a gestionar sus días y mejorar la satisfacción de los empleados fue un canal de comunicación interna. Este sistema permitía al personal enviar solicitudes de formularios en blanco que podíamos enviar a sus hogares, o suministros médicos que enviábamos directamente al hogar del paciente. El objetivo era ahorrarles un viaje a la oficina y reducir su tiempo manejando. Esperábamos que el personal sintiera que estábamos allí “cuidándolos” mientras ellos cuidaban a los pacientes. Estos pueden parecer cambios muy pequeños, pero cuando el personal se ve abrumado, pueden tener un impacto notable en la atención al paciente, el agotamiento del personal y la calidad de la atención. Nuestro personal tuvo un poco más de tiempo en su día para concentrarse en la atención al paciente y eso marcó una gran diferencia.
Pero una de las mayores mejoras que vi provino de la digitalización de la mayor cantidad posible del proceso en papel. Tener un proceso de consentimiento totalmente electrónico eliminó la posibilidad de errores y formularios faltantes. Esto redujo el tiempo del personal, la frustración de los pacientes, los retrasos en la facturación, las preocupaciones sobre las encuestas y los gastos. Es un cambio pequeño, pero marca una gran diferencia.
Un pequeño cambio que marca una gran diferencia. Ese es un pilar de lo que People Over Paperwork significa para nosotros aquí en Interlace Health y el por qué nos dedicamos a garantizar que nuestras soluciones marquen la diferencia para todos nuestros clientes. Reserve una demostración personalizada para su agencia.
Vea cómo Interlace y otros están utilizando innovaciones tecnológicas para mejorar la atención domiciliaria.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dessiree Paoli, Director of Product Marketing & Strategy at Interlace Health
Dessiree Paoli is the Director of Product Marketing & Strategy at Interlace Health, a company that transforms workflows by providing clinicians and patients with digital healthcare solutions. She has more than 20 years of experience in driving strategic marketing initiatives, leading teams, and developing integrated campaigns, and she has worked in healthcare for more than 14 years. Connect with Dessiree on LinkedIn.
Home health, hospice and private duty agencies face numerous challenges in their quest to eliminate paper processes. These barriers include resource constraints & cost, customization needs, resistance to change, EHR integration challenges, regulatory compliance concerns, and constant changes in the forms and the staff who are managing them. Interlace Health’s eSignature for Home Health solution offers a powerful tool to address these issues, streamlining operations and enhancing efficiency. Let’s explore how this innovative solution can help home health agencies overcome these common obstacles.
Home health agencies often operate with limited resources, including time, staff, and budget. Implementing and maintaining paper-based systems can be resource-intensive, consuming valuable time that could be better spent on patient care.
Each home health, hospice or private duty agency has unique requirements and workflows related to their admissions process and the forms collected that necessitate customized solutions. We have been in the healthcare business for over 30 years, and we understand that generic, one-size-fits-all systems often fall short of meeting these specific needs.
Adopting new technology can be challenging, especially when staff members are accustomed to traditional paper processes. Resistance to change can hinder the implementation of digital solutions.
Integrating electronic health records (EHR) with new digital solutions can be complex and fraught with technical difficulties.
Home health agencies must adhere to strict regulatory standards to ensure patient privacy and data security and every state has different requirements related to patient forms. Non-compliance can result in severe penalties and damage to reputation.
The home healthcare industry is continually evolving, with new regulations, technologies, and best practices emerging regularly. Keeping up with these changes can be daunting for home health agencies.
Interlace Health’s eSignature solution is a game-changer for home health agencies looking to eliminate paper processes and overcome common barriers. By addressing resource constraints, customization needs, resistance to change, EHR integration challenges, regulatory compliance concerns, and the constant changes in the home healthcare industry, this solution empowers agencies to operate more efficiently and focus on what matters most—providing exceptional patient care. Embrace the future of home health with Interlace Health’s eSignature solution and put People Over Paperwork at your agency.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dessiree Paoli, Director of Product Marketing & Strategy at Interlace Health
Dessiree Paoli is the Director of Product Marketing & Strategy at Interlace Health, a company that transforms workflows by providing clinicians and patients with digital healthcare solutions. She has more than 20 years of experience in driving strategic marketing initiatives, leading teams, and developing integrated campaigns, and she has worked in healthcare for more than 14 years. Connect with Dessiree on LinkedIn.
Attending industry conferences is crucial for professional development and business growth, and the 2024 MUSE Conference in Denver upheld this reputation. This annual event is a cornerstone in the calendar of MEDITECH professionals, offering a unique blend of learning, networking, and inspiration.
Patricia Clarkson, Director of Customer Success at Interlace Health, shares her experience:
“One of the highlights of the conference for me was the opportunity to meet our existing customers face-to-face. In a post-Covid world where digital communication is the norm, these in-person interactions have become incredibly valuable. Building trust and rapport is much easier in person, allowing us to establish deeper connections. During the conference, we hosted a memorable dinner for our customers, providing a relaxed setting where meaningful conversations flowed naturally. It was a fantastic opportunity to express our gratitude for their partnership and discuss their evolving needs and challenges in depth.
“In addition to the dinner, our booth at the conference was bustling with activity. We had the chance to connect with many of our customers and prospects, showcasing our latest innovations and solutions. These interactions were invaluable, providing direct feedback on our products and services and fostering new opportunities for collaboration.
“Direct feedback from customers during these engagements was candid and insightful, helping us identify areas for improvement and innovation. This face-to-face interaction not only strengthened our relationships but also informed our future strategies, ensuring we continue to meet and exceed our customers’ expectations.”
John Wilcox, CIO of Morris Hospital and one of our valued customers, highlights the networking opportunities found at MUSE:
“For me, the highlight was all of the great networking accomplished at the conference. The collegial nature of the conference is what I enjoyed most. This was especially noted during your dinner where I was introduced to representatives from Meadville, PA, Magnolia, MS, and from Texas. It was a nice way to relax and share.”
Maggie Peña, Chief Experience Officer at Interlace Health, reflects on the learning opportunities:
“The MUSE Conference is renowned for its comprehensive and cutting-edge learning sessions. Expert-led workshops and seminars provided the latest insights, trends, and best practices that we can directly apply to our work. Staying ahead in the rapidly evolving healthcare technology landscape is crucial, and these workshops are invaluable in helping us do just that. Practical sessions enabled attendees to gain hands-on experience with new tools, technologies, and methodologies, which is essential for implementing innovative solutions in our daily operations.”
The MUSE Conference in Denver was more than just an event; it was an opportunity to grow, connect, and thrive. Whether meeting with existing customers, attending learning sessions, or simply soaking in the atmosphere, the benefits were plentiful and multifaceted. MUSE 25 is a must-attend event for all MEDITECH organizations looking to advance their careers, expand their knowledge, and build meaningful professional relationships.
Patricia concludes:
“Mark your calendar now and prepare to be inspired at MUSE 25 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas!”
About the Authors:
Maggie Peña is the chief experience officer at Interlace Health (the next generation of FormFast), a 30-year-old privately held healthcare IT firm that helps healthcare organizations put people over paperwork with forms automation solutions that enable electronic signature capture and create workflows that save time and cut costs. She brings 22 years of experience in IT to her role and leads one-third of Interlace Health’s employees.
With a fierce focus on customer satisfaction and retention, Maggie created and built Interlace Health’s customer support team and its customer implementation strategy, she built out the company’s fully Spanish-speaking team for project implementation and ongoing customer support, and she has managed the company’s managed services program to create efficiencies for customers. She believes in a proactive approach to customer service, and it shows, with happy and successful customers. Interlace Health provides workflow solutions to 1500+ healthcare organizations and under Maggie’s leadership, Interlace Health currently has a 97.4% customer retention rate. Maggie serves as co-leader for the HIMSS Clinician Burden Reduction Task Force and was recently named to Becker’s 2023 Women in Health IT to Know list. Connect with Maggie on LinkedIn.
Patricia Clarkson is the Director of Customer Success Management at Interlace Health. With over 20 years of technology experience as a customer advocate, she has a propensity for building long-term relationships. Her team regularly interacts with customers, guiding adoption and expansion while expediting their time-to-value. Patricia delights in increasing her customers’ success and thrives on helping them achieve their desired results with their Interlace Health solutions. With a 97.4% customer retention rate, there are loads of successful customers to celebrate! Connect with Patricia on LinkedIn.
Electronic health records (EHRs) are used at most hospitals around the world, and downtime events, whether planned or unplanned, are unfortunately inevitable and common. These events can directly impact patient safety, revenue, staff productivity, and the patient experience.
Unplanned downtime can also have a devasting impact on finances. With each added minute, an idle EHR can dramatically impair the functionality of your hospital and, on average, cost an incredible $8,662 per minute.
According to the HIPAA Security Rule, hospitals must prepare a contingency plan for each type of foreseeable disaster, including natural disasters, fires, vandalism, system failures, ransomware incidents, and as we’ve seen sweeping headlines this year: cyberattacks.
Lurie Children’s Hospital and Ascension Healthcare are among many healthcare organizations recently targeted by increasingly sophisticated cybercriminals. Cyberattacks can dramatically impact hospital operations, leading to postponed appointments, surgeries, and complicated patient care. In 2022, a record 725 large healthcare security breaches were reported, up 93% since 2018. Healthcare systems are prime targets due to their size, reliance on technology, and vast amounts of sensitive data.
HIPAA’s primary concern is that hospitals return to normal operations as quickly as possible and that the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of private health information (PHI) is safeguarded.
Downtime events are a particularly risky time for patients as patient information and critical EHR functionality are unavailable. These downtime dysfunctions can often result in delayed or suboptimal care. In fact, a JAMIA report reported that 49% of downtime errors were due to inappropriate labeling by the lab or positive patient identification (PPID), which led to unnecessary redraws. Another 13% of errors were related to a general delay in care, which can impact patient and staff satisfaction.
Healthcare organizations averaged a whopping 18.7 days of downtime in 2023 (*Infosecurity Magazine). If your hospital has been using EHR for years, staff members are less likely to be familiar or comfortable with paper-based care processes during this time. Hospital staff may not know how to complete paper orders for pathology, fluid management, patient observations, and medication charts. This can make downtime events a stressful and error-prone time for healthcare workers.
Since downtime events are inevitable, what can you do to prepare your hospital to prepare staff members and protect patients when they occur?
First, understand that your hospital’s existing processes for both registration and clinical documentation during a downtime situation. Next, you’ll want to look at the challenges that your staff faced during your most recent downtime. Were there PPID issues or inefficiencies related to time or costs that you can easily address in your downtime plan?
During downtime events hospital staff must be able to admit and register patients just as quickly as they would in their EHR. You want to maintain continuity of care and to be able to document clinical information. Your staff must be able to access the most up-to-date forms quickly and easily. You also want to minimize the overall impacts of downtime. To get back online quickly and upload those forms easily into your EHR.
It’s vitally important for hospitals to maintain continuity of care during a downtime situation. Having access to the most up-to-date clinical forms during this time is critical. You’ll need the ability to auto print registration forms, armbands and labels with barcodes for positive patient identification and accurate scanning back into the hospitals EHR. You’ll also want staff to feel confident that they’re pulling the right forms and won’t have to repeat the process after the downtime has ended.
Preparing for downtime events can be complicated and time-consuming, but there’s no need to go it alone. Interlace Health can build a downtime process to suit your workflow needs. Our custom solutions are designed to provide seamless integration within your existing systems.
A comprehensive business continuity plan during downtime must prioritize patient admission and care. Interlace Health ensures this through our robust digital forms library, accessible both online and offline. This guarantees the availability of patient forms, facilitating uninterrupted care and smooth integration of documents into the legal health record once normal operations resume.
With Downtime Solutions by Interlace Health, you can easily print forms for manual reentry into your EHR or use HL7 messaging to send forms back into the EHR automatically. Interlace Health provides a pathway for hospital staff to access the forms library, populate patient information automatically, and have quick access to on-demand printing.
How Interlace Health can support you during downtime:
Our solutions enable hospital staff to access physician order sets on the hospital web browser. For planned downtime, they can print packets of essential forms ahead of time. All forms generated can be easily archived back into the system when it’s up again. You won’t lose information or communication, and you’ll never need to disrupt patient care.
A few benefits of leveraging Interlace Health during downtime include:
When it comes to downtime in healthcare, well there just isn’t room for it. Interlace Health has been around for over 30 years and our customized solutions are at work in over 1,100 healthcare organizations. We’d love the opportunity to help share more details on how we can promote business continuity during your organization’s unfortunate, yet inevitable downtime events. Contact us to schedule your personalized demo.
About the Author:
Art Nicholas, Chief Commercial Officer at Interlace Health, has over 20 years of experience in launching and expanding technologies in the healthcare field. He was a pioneer in getting speech recognition used by both doctors and nurses in inpatient and outpatient settings. In every role, his teams have successfully implemented automated workflows which benefit patients, providers and the healthcare ecosystem. A strong believer in the healthcare IT community, he has been an active member of CHIME, HIMSS, and MUSE, sitting on a number of their committees. He is committed to improving the quality of patient care and lowering the cost of care delivery through well-designed and well-supported technology workflow solutions. Follow Art on LinkedIn.
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