Boca Raton, FL (PRWEB) August 22, 2012
Florida Atlantic University has announced the introduction of a joint initiative with PointClickCare, the long-term care industry?s most widely used Electronic Health Record (EHR) platform, to develop a fully integrated, electronic version of its INTERACT quality improvement program ? eINTERACT?. Interventions to Reduce Unnecessary Hospitalizations of Nursing Home Residents or INTERACT is a quality improvement program designed to facilitate the early identification, evaluation, documentation and communication about changes in the status of residents in skilled nursing facilities (SNF), and provide the necessary tools to manage conditions before they become serious enough to necessitate a hospital transfer. The primary goal of the initiative is to bring the significant quality improvements of the INTERACT program to EHR software platforms through an industry-standard certification program.
?We are extremely pleased to be working with PointClickCare to provide ease-of-use and electronic decision support tools based on our INTERACT program,? said Dr. Joseph Ouslander, M.D., senior associate dean of geriatric programs at FAU?s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. ?We knew this initiative required input and expertise from both the provider and EHR vendor perspectives. Given their market leadership position, along with the breadth and depth of experience in developing and delivering EHR solutions to the long-term care and post-acute care industry, collaborating with PointClickCare is the obvious choice for us for this initiative.?
The eINTERACT program will leverage the fundamentals of the INTERACT clinical tools and build those into an EHR. By embedding standard nomenclature and proven clinical protocols (including methods for identification, evaluation, documentation, and inter-provider communication) for specific health events directly within the electronic workflow framework of an EHR system, many acute care transfers can be avoided without the need for providers to manage these efforts through multiple applications.
?Re-hospitalization is one of the most pressing issues facing hospitals and skilled nursing facilities today and we are keen to play a key role in working toward an industry-standard solution in the form of eINTERACT,? said Mike Wessinger, CEO of PointClickCare. ?We are proud to have been selected by Dr. Ouslander and his team to participate in this initiative and look forward to the positive impact this program will have on helping to reduce the estimated $ 4.34 billion problem to Medicare for unnecessary re-hospitalizations in long-term care settings.?
Ouslander and Ruth Tappen, Ed.D., R.N., Christine E. Lynn Eminent Scholar, FAU?s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing are co-directors of INTERACT and are collaborating on this project to help address the national imperative for innovative strategies to improve care for Medicare beneficiaries and reduce healthcare costs.
Starting Monday, October 1, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and some Medicare Advantage plans will implement severe reimbursement penalties for a 30-day re-hospitalization, beginning with 1 percent of a hospital?s entire Medicare billings — climbing to 2 percent in 2013, and 3 percent by 2014.
Once the research and development of the program is complete, eINTERACT certification will be made available to EHR software vendors seeking to certify their platforms.
More Information:
Florida Atlantic University and PointClickCare will be hosting two educational webinars on the topics of INTERACT and eINTERACT. To register for one of these events, or for more information on eINTERACT, please visit http://www.einteract.info. For more information on the INTERACT quality improvement program, please visit http://www.interact2.net.
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About PointClickCare
PointClickCare is the most widely-used EHR platform for the long-term care industry. The combination of PointClickCare?s intuitive web-based software and value-driven implementation model enables long-term care providers of all sizes, from single independent homes to the largest multi-facility providers, to deliver a higher standard of health care while experiencing superior financial performance. Over 7,000 long-term care providers throughout North America, including 8 of the top 10 largest US chains, have chosen to trust their business to PointClickCare. For more information on PointClickCare, visit http://www.pointclickcare.com.
About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University, with an annual economic impact of $ 6.3 billion, serves more than 29,000 undergraduate and graduate students at sites throughout its six-county service region in southeast Florida. FAU?s world-class teaching and research faculty serves students through 10 colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the College of Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. FAU is ranked as a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University is placing special focus on the rapid development of three signature themes ? marine and coastal issues, biotechnology and contemporary societal challenges ? which provide opportunities for faculty and students to build upon FAU?s existing strengths in research and scholarship. For more information, visit http://www.fau.edu.
