News from your West Texas Health IT Regional Extension Center

Enjoy your Quarterly News from your West Texas Health IT Regional Extension Center (WTxHITREC) and please feel free to forward this email to any of your colleagues or interested parties.

Three West Texas Hospitals Receive 5-Star HCAHPS Rating

In April of this year, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the results of the HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) survey conducted from July, 2013 thru June, 2014. There were 3,553 hospitals that were surveyed and we are proud to announce that three West Texas hospitals were part of only 251 hospitals that received a 5-Star Rating. They are:

Mitchell County Hospital District (MCHD) - Colorado City

Eastland Memorial Hospital - Eastland

Childress Regional Medical Center (CRMC) - Childress

Read more here...

Submitted by:

Terry Alexander

Director of Critical Access and Rural Hospitals

Welcome the Lubbock Chapter of HIMSS!

The Lubbock Chapter of Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is a professional organization who provides area professionals with exceptional educational conferences, networking opportunities, and leadership in the West Texas and Panhandle region. HIMSS is a not-for-profit organization focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of information technology and management systems for the advancement of health care.

The Lubbock HIMSS membership consists of IT professionals, consultants, administrators, physicians, nurses, professors and students actively working together to raise awareness of upcoming changes in health IT, as well as create learning opportunities for members. Lubbock HIMSS looks forward to meeting and discussing the needs in our communities, as well as challenges many currently face. All healthcare professionals are encouraged to become members to take advantage of valuable resources dedicated to healthcare technology.

To become a member visit: http://lubbock.himsschapter.org/.

Submitted by:

Bruce Carlos Edmunds, M.Ed., PMP, CHTS- IM, IS, PW

Director of Programmatic Activity & Development

Register NOW! 2015 Rural Health at the Crossroads: Telehealth Meets Practice Transformation

With the success of the 2014 TexLa Telehealth Summit and the progress of telehealth in Texas and Louisiana, the second annual event looks to be widely attended and offers a robust group of sessions. If you or your organization may benefit from learning the current and future state of telehealth and how to plan for practice transformation, please plan ahead and look to attend this event taking place June 24th-26th at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on the River Walk in San Antonio, TX.

To learn more about this event, sponsorship opportunities, conference registration, or if you have questions or technical service needs in regards to telehealth, please contact the TexLa Telehealth Resource Center at 877-391-0487, texlatrc@ttuhsc.edu or visit www.texlatrc.org.

Update on Changes to Meaningful Use

CMS has proposed several changes to Meaningful Use; but, as of the date of this publication, NONE of the proposals are final rules. The proposed rules would include:

Changing the reporting period in 2015 to 90 days,
Streamlining the program by decreasing the number of measures,
Modifying the measures that require action by the patient, and
Requiring a full reporting year from 2016 going forward for all but first time participants.

If the proposed 2015 reporting period is approved, it can be any continuous 90-day period rather than requiring reporting periods to be on the quarter. This is an attempt to allow a "catch-up" period to adjust to changes in the measures. Likewise, anyone attesting for the first time in 2016 would report on any continuous 90-day period. All others would report for a full year from 2016 on regardless of stage or reporting year. The following table summarizes pending modifications to current reporting.