Health Care Data Recovery

For those who are in the health care information technology field, the new year promises to be a year of big changes for IT due in part to two main events of last year. One of those events is the release of the iPad. The second is the new role of federal agencies when it comes to health care and the management of medical records, specifically those in the electronic healthcare records arena.Why Does the iPad Change Things?Physicians and nurses alike have literally bought iPads off the shelf, just as the mainstream consumer has done. Tablet systems which hit the shelf from other venues, specifically the Windows version simply haven’ t been as rapidly picked up and used. Nearly all of the health care providers of today are using the iPad and multiple health care providers are now making their electronic healthcare records for the iPad and others are making software as a service systems that will work outside of the typical systems.This means that not only do those companies need to find a way to shore up their security for the software as a service, but to assure the continuity in the case of a disaster of even small proportions. Backing up your data and assuring that it is not only recoverable, but secure is particularly important when dealing with health care records of any type. The new federal regulations mean that unless physicians and hospitals are using certified EHR types of systems to report, to collect, and to analyze that data which is taken from their patients and have a viable means of protection of that data, they are not eligible for the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act incentive funding which could account for a great deal of assistance in securing their records and other health care materials such as photos.Assuring continuity of data and the use of a data recovery system can help to assure the funding that the medical center and physicians office requires to help with updates and other kinds of information simply by bringing them into compliance with the new federal mandates for health care data systems that are secure and give them the proper means of recovery in the event of a disaster of any proportions.

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Ways to Prevent the High Cost of Health Care

The costs associated with current day health care systems have risen astronomically and continues to do so. Physicians, pharmacists, nurses, hospitals, hospices, clinics and intensive care facilities may be able to maximize their care if these costs are reduced. Electronic medical record implementations could also reduce costs. The overall cost reduction for health care requires an efficient integrated approach to help realize lower costs. Specifically, efficiencies, technology advancements, and patient care management are also needed in:Evidence based care
Duplicate testing prevention
Patient care coordination based on diagnosis
Service volume payment reform (Federal and State)
Electronic medical record care managementThe role of Information Technology (IT) is to integrate the electronic data applications transferring information between the providers needing patient information. The accuracy of a patient’s electronic data flow is an essential component to the success of reduced costs. Companies develop and design online forms containing patient information to maintain a level of quality and accuracy about a patient’s case. An electronic form with patient’s data is of no value unless it is implemented with improved patient care management and payment reforms.Establish Evidence Based CareHow often have you visited to the doctor for flu symptoms? Many of us receive medication but need repeat visits if it turns out not to be the flu. Physicians need better guidelines for identifying evidence of a condition to determine the best treatment for their patients. Without access to clinical research experience and conclusive diagnostic testing for a patient centered approach care based on scientific evidence is not always possible. But using the evidence available to create better methodologies for evidence based care could eliminate the costs associated with misdiagnosis. This could also increase the accuracy of electronic medical records used for patient care management.Avoid Duplicate TestingIf the health care system could provide and support self-management for ailments such as diabetes, needless hospital visits could be avoided with these patients. Educating the patient allows individuals to improve their quality of life and avoid the common mistakes leading to redundant hospital visits. These visits are costly and potentially represent millions or billions of dollars that should have never been spent. In many cases, the patient making redundant visits can receive better care by visiting their primary care physician instead. Redundant emergency room visits often cause duplicate testing or other redundancies that escalate the cost of health care. Improving communication between the emergency facilities and medical groups may also help ensure an efficient integrated approach to lowering cost.Reduce Software CostsConsiderable time, effort and monetary cost can be efficiently optimized by using “smart forms.” These are forms that limit and enforce the entering of data and prevent misspellings, erroneous entries and omissions. It also removes the need to unnecessarily re-submit the same form multiple times to fix errors. Re-submitting forms that could have been done correctly the first time contributes to higher costs and lowers productivity.Cost Reduction MethodsHow do we begin to reduce the high cost?Seek methodologies to augment evidence based care
Encourage Federal and State payments based on the quality of patient care
Help patients avoid the frequent mistakes related to common illnesses
Take advantage of interactive “smart forms”Design health care work flows based on these principles and watch the high cost of health care start to decline.

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Meet The Investor For Commercial Real Estate

Are you struggling to buy a property with a low financial back up? There comes a plausible solution to get rid of it. It is the commercial loan. A commercial loan is a type of loan which assists you to purchase properties with lesser effort that too at a competitive interest rate.A commercial investing business may include investment on shopping malls, agricultural lands, hotels, motels, apartments, companies and a lot more which we consider as commercial necessities. In short, we can say, we gain what we have. With the help of commercial loan we can buy or even sell the properties in a simpler and in the most possible way that could benefit the investors more. Through the commercial loan we can get reasonable amount of money by the properties we keep secure aside as collateral. We can also invest the money obtained through such types of loans in order to buy new properties we desire to purchase.One can benefit in various ways by being a part of this commercial real estate rather than investing on some other type of investment. These investors will get benefitted both economically and financially. They may get some longer duration period for their repayment whilst other loans may offer only limited span of time. As there is an elasticity of time they may settle the loan amount by starting a new business or by developing an already existing business in course of time. The interest rates are also very low in this commercial real estate loan so that larger amount of money can be saved in a short duration. The investor may also be benefitted by renting or leasing the property he has invested in the commercial real estate loan by being paid rather than keeping the property idle.We can obtain the benefits of the commercial real estate loan through various sources. Organizations like financial institutions, banking facilities, large scale building societies provide such facilities in a wide range. We can also update the details through internet, magazines, news media and a lot more.Real estate investors find the properties which are to be sold. The investors also remodel the properties if they are in the bad condition and even if they could produce a higher market value when they do so. They could also advertise about the properties yet to be sold. The investors even may sell the properties to other real estate investors to attain more profit instead selling them at their own risk. The properties can also be sold to other investors in an agreement on the basis of lending, renting, leasing and a lot more.

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Commercial Mortgage Loans – What Are They?

Commercial mortgage loans are executed using real estate to collateralize the loan. Commercial mortgages are similar to residential mortgages, except that the collateral used to secure the loan is a commercial (business) building rather than a personal residential home. If the borrower defaults on the loan, the lender can seize the collateral (building) to recover the loan proceeds.Commercial mortgage loans are not available to persons, but rather to businesses, which include partnerships, incorporated businesses, limited companies, etc. The business must be sound financially and the process to verify the business income can be more complicated than verifying the credit worthiness of a specific individual. That is why traditional commercial mortgages can take six to nine months to underwrite.Commercial loans are procured for a variety of reasons: to buy the premises of an existing business, to make improvements or enlarge existing premises, to make commercial and residential investments or to develop the existing property in other ways. An example would be to buy already constructed business premises, like offices, shops, restaurants, or pubs. Additionally, they can also be used to buy business assets such as plant equipment and specialized machinery.The Interest rates for commercial mortgages are generally higher than those for residential mortgages but lower than interest rates on unsecured business loans. A fixed-rate loan is the most common commercial mortgage. It is similar to the fixed rate home mortgage loan in that the interest rate remains constant throughout the term. However, the term for most commercial mortgage loans is between 3 and 10 years but they can be extended for as long as 25 years.The commercial mortgage loan amount and interest rate that you can receive is a direct correlation of the credit worthiness assessed by the lender with respect to your ability to repay the loan. If you have an excellent business record with a verifiable profit and loss business statement then you will have little trouble getting a commercial mortgage at an attractive interest rate.Commercial loans are not provided without extensive scrutiny regarding your business stability and profitability. The Lender usually wants to see your last three years of audited financial statements including a Profit and Loss statement, balance sheet and a cash flow forecast. Favorable business information is critical to the lender and to you because, as stated earlier, if you default on the loan the lender can repossess your property and sell it to repay the outstanding mortgage balance.The best place to find commercial mortgage loans is on the Internet. There are enormous numbers of commercial lenders vying for your business and they all advertise on the Internet. It is possible to compare many loan quotes side by side and determine which is best for your financial situation.

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Improving Access Database Systems

Improving Access Database SystemsAn existing Access database software system may not be able to cope with the growing administrative requirements of a company. The inadequacies may relate to increased volumes handled, additional functional requirements or new company directions.A decision then needs to be made on how to improve the software to achieve the required quality and functionality. The choice is between two development options – Evolutionary development or Revolutionary development.Here is a brief summary of the differences between the two options:Development by EvolutionThis is the low risk choice – but not a glamorous choice. It involves adding small and frequent improvements to an existing system. It is a reliable and systematic means to improve an existing system. It could be thought of as an extension of the maintenance mode, but goes further than just fixing critical bugs.The Benefits are:

It is a low risk strategy
The cost of the strategy can be tightly controlled
It is always of value to build on proven work of the past
The downside is:

The system may be slow in showing results
The enhancements may be hard to implement due to the existing code
There may be technical limitations in the software that a step-by-step approach cannot resolve
Development by RevolutionThis is a high risk strategy – the failure rate of new projects is very high. So there should be sufficient incentive to go down this path. It involves completely rewriting the system using new and promising, but usually unproven technology.The benefits are:Improving on antiquated coding techniques
Greater awareness of user requirements due to the known inadequacies of the existing system
New administration and management functionality
Incorporating the latest techniques and software technologyThe downside is:The old system and the new system must run in parallel until the new system is proven to be at least equal to the old system
There needs to be multiple attempts when converting the old system to the new. This is needed to allow the users to check the consistency between the two systems at each new release
Extracting the business rules from the code and the user interface may be near impossible
The new system may be unstable for a lengthy period of time
There may be resistance from the users
Success depends upon the quality of the new development team. If they are lacking in experience or foresight or competence, the project is doomed from the start
Despite all the advances in system design and development tools, the complexity of new systems remains. The success rate for new projects is low
An unsuccessful project could have a negative impact on administration processes
An unsuccessful project could affect the viability of the company
If development is started from scratch, a valuable and costly asset will be thrown awayGathering Application RequirementsIn most cases the original specifications are nonexistent, as are their authors. Where the original specifications are available, they will almost always be out of date, with the successive changes over the years. If the analyst is unable to extract information from the old system code (and this is usually the case), there is nothing left but to try understand the business processes from esoteric code, low-level users and ill-informed managers.To develop a software package, the analyst must identify the needs of the company. This is difficult as the analyst is unlikely to understand fully the company’s work practices, or the terminology of the company. There is also the likelihood that management and the users do not know exactly what is required.Extending the life of the systemMany books have been written about the development of new computer projects, so I will stick to ideas to improve existing software.The Evolutionary improvements should:

Improve the quality of the system, by adding error handling routines to each and every procedure. When an error is trapped, all possible clues should be extracted to help identify and solve the problem
Make the system more user-friendly
Create reusable modules for repeatedly duplicated code
Simplify convoluted and spaghetti code
Gradually replace system functionality with newer technology
Use refactoring of the code to extend the system life span. This will improve the readability of the code, remove dead code, make the code easier to comprehend and maintain.
If the decision is made to try this option, and it turns out to be not feasible – little will have been lost.Professional AdviceA word of caution. Many programmers and consultants will go for the system rewrite option with new software and new technology. It is more fulfilling and improves their future prospects – it is in their vested interests to go for this option.Upgrading Microsoft Access softwareNewly released Microsoft Access software versions soon become dominant. It is then virtually impossible to purchase the previous version – and a database system could soon be using obsolete software.There is always good reason to use the latest Microsoft software, not only because of the additional functionality, but also to avoid security issues and problems with procedures that no longer work on newer Windows operating systems. There is equally good reason not to use the latest software too soon. The best option is to wait until a few service packs have been released to ensure the best chance of a problem free upgrade.Ignoring successive new Microsoft Access Database version updates is false economy. Sooner or later your Microsoft Access application will have to be replaced or the Microsoft software upgraded by multiple versions. Either way, this will be costly. The skills required for upgrades are soon forgotten.

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