Healthcare IT consulting sources continue to evolve as Internet usage grows and more health care IT professionals, healthcare consultants, doctors and medical administrators learn how to make the most of the new software and online applications. Online healthcare consulting services are growing rapidly with more search engine optimization tools and consultants available to help every medical business owner reach their maximum Internet potential.

Health care consultants remain viable as entrepreneurs and administrators still need help figuring out all the options. Follow the health care IT consulting news and trends through industry magazines, healthcare information system resources and trade associations. Stay in the loop with current information on health care IT consulting news and trends in a number of ways.

1. Follow trends in the IT services for the health care industry

2. Subscribe to the most popular medical IT consulting reports

3. Meet with industry experts to get the latest health care IT solutions consultant information

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find the online healthcare industry consultant trends

As health care consultants learn more about how consumers navigate the Web and use their Internet connections, they are becoming savvier about making their information more accessible. You need to stay on top of the trends to get your team on-board with emerging technology.

I recommend: Author and speaker Dr. James Canton runs the Institute for Global Futures, which serves as a source for predicting the future trends in medicine delivery, patient practices and research. Follow the healthcare IT consultancy arena through his books and papers. Stay in the loop by following all the latest news and trends in health care IT consulting with the in-depth reports put out by Plunkett Research.

Stay on top of healthcare technology consulting information

While you can't spend your whole day reading about what every other health care IT solutions consultant is doing or what latest scheme your competitor has come up with, you need to stay informed about the latest news affecting your industry. Find niche publications that can narrow your focus and regularly feed you with the important news that you need to have each day.

I recommend: While it may often be self-promoting, the PA Consulting Group does offer a wide array of industry news through publications and papers about research and healthcare consulting arenas that are making the news. Healthcare IT News is a great independent source of healthcare IT and its multitude of applications for consultants.

Get involved with health care consultants

You often can hear about the latest news affecting your industry before it even hits the press from a good gossip. Find ways to interact with your peers and be prepared to give and get important information on news and trends that you've picked up.

I recommend: As a member of the American Health Information Management Association you’ll have access to the reports that follow the emerging trends that influence the industry. The Medical Group Management Association can provide healthcare consulting services as well as information to its members to keep you up to date on the news and trends that affect the industry.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Give employees time each day, when you can, to read an industry publication and present regular reports on the healthcare information system news that they've found.

Healthcare IT consultants can help your practice take advantage of technology that’s quickly becoming the industry standard. The entire healthcare industry is in the process of transforming from a paper environment to an electronic one. All processes and information, including health records, prescriptions, lab results, medical transcriptions, imaging, staff and patient communications, paging systems and more are being converted to digital formats managed by a variety of technology solutions.

Healthcare IT consulting services have become critical as many practices are converting to EHR (electronic health records) software, which is usually integrated with a physician practice management (PPM) solution. Healthcare IT consultants can assure that the time and money you invest in technology solutions will result in a secure, efficient, integrated electronic healthcare environment.

When looking for healthcare technology consulting services, consider the following:

1. Government support and goals for health information technology (HIT) and how IT services for healthcare can help you implement software that will keep you abreast of national standards.
2. Think of strategy first in healthcare technology consulting.
3. Hiring a healthcare technology consultant to implement EHR.
4. Healthcare IT consulting services that can integrate EHR with PPM software.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Government support for health information technology (HIT)

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Information Technology (HIT) office is actively supporting the development of electronic management of health care information. EHR implementation is at the core of the overhaul. IT services for healthcare can help you achieve government standards in your own practice.

I recommend: EHR software must be certified by CCHIA (Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology). A knowledgeable healthcare IT consultant can help you find solutions that have been properly certified. The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Center for Health Information Technology assists office-based clinicians with EHR implementations. Biz Technology Solutions advises hospitals and medical practices that wish to implement an EHR solution on vendor selection and implementation.

Work with healthcare IT consultants to choose the best healthcare technology solutions

Choosing healthcare IT solutions is only one part of an overall strategic business plan. Find a healthcare IT consultant with healthcare industry expertise who will evaluate and advise you on your business strategy first and then offer IT solutions that align with your business goals.

I recommend: RCG Healthcare Consulting offers strategic planning and vendor selection. Stoltenberg Consulting is a healthcare IT consulting firm that addresses both clinical and financial technology needs with a process that moves from analyzing your business, assessing your needs and selection and implementation of technology solutions. First Consulting Group (FCG) offers clinical, financial and operational technology solutions to healthcare providers, including offshore outsourcing. bcc:Consulting is a strategy-based healthcare IT consulting firm that specializes in mobile healthcare, electronic medical records and e-prescribing.

Hiring a healthcare IT consultant to implement EHR

While a healthcare IT consultant should be capable of integrating all your IT systems, finding one that is up-to-date with EHR solutions is critical.

I recommend: ehrCentral offers a directory of EHR consulting firms. CureMD offers IT services for healthcare practices and offers a web-based, customizable CCHIT-certified electronic medical records solution. Maxwell IT offers complete EHR selection services.

Choose healthcare IT consultants who can integrate EHR with PPM software

When most medical practices decide to invest in an EHR solution, they are already using some kind of PPM software. It is critical to find a healthcare IT consultant who can advise you on either buying a solution that offers both EHR and PPM components or integrating new EHR software with your existing PPM system.

I recommend: Sage Software Healthcare offers IT services for healthcare in both EHR and PPM applications, guaranteeing seamless integration. Cimage is a healthcare IT consultancy that handles both EHR and PPM implementations.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Healthcare IT consulting firms suggest giving special consideration to web-based applications since the industry is trending in this direction.
• •  Smaller practices can save money by using hosted IT services for healthcare practices. This way, the software resides and is managed off-site so your team isn't responsible for software installation or updates.
• •  Have healthcare IT consultants include ROI as part of their bid.

Health care consultants can help you navigate the evolving healthcare information system landscape so that you can maximize your efforts. A health care IT solutions consultant can serve as a third-party sounding board when you want to incorporate new plans. You can take advantage of the expertise developed by IT services for the health care industry in a number of ways. Healthcare consultants can expose you to new business practices that can prove to be more profitable for your company.

A healthcare industry consultant can provide information about marketing opportunities in areas that you may not have considered as well as help you break into new markets overseas. Many health care IT professionals are breaking ground with fresh ideas and new forms of dong business that includes outsourcing, practice management, research and billing. Find a number of ways to begin working with health care IT consulting.

1. Find a full service health care IT consulting firm

2. Go for specialty health care IT consultants

3. Look for the best health care consultants

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Use a full-service medical IT consulting company

Building relationships with your healthcare consultants can take time and resources, making it beneficial at times to stick with one agency for all your marketing, sales and production needs. Full-service health care IT professionals will know your company well and should be proficient in all areas of your business.

I recommend: Dragon can provide the software systems you need to manage everything from billing to patient record keeping. Compass Billing can help you integrate the billing software with other IT needs in your practice to show you overall savings in your IT budget.

Choose specialty healthcare consulting services

While your may have experience in all facets of your operation, the niche agencies put all of their efforts in one pot and can often bring more experience to the table that can help you get more from your marketing or production efforts. Consider hiring a specialist for a focused approach to your business.

I recommend: DAB puts all their focus with their IT healthcare software products to helping ambulance companies refine their collections processes. Medical Billing Systems provides IT solutions strictly for radiation oncology practitioners.

Get the most from healthcare technology consulting

You should consider working with health care IT consulting companies that bring a vast knowledge of technological advancements that you need to remain competitive. There are so many advancements in medical research and IT business programs that you need to investigate all the alternatives to remain competitive.

I recommend: The Outsource Management Group stay on top of the medical IT arena and can customize software to meet all your coding and billing requirements. Cogency has formed a number of strategic alliances with other healthcare IT providers to offer you a wide variety of reliable and cutting edge IT solutions.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  When you are working with healthcare IT consulting, make sure the consultants have a way to offer measurable results on a regular basis.

The health care landscape is ever-changing, and as more information technology consultants venture into the industry, it's important to learn some health care IT consulting key terms to get started on the right foot. Health information technology is quickly becoming the fastest-growing sector in modern medicine. As doctors and hospitals move to electronic health records, mobile diagnostics, data-managed practices and real-time information sharing, a good IT consultant would do well to get familiar with the new lingo.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Bidirectional Health Information Exchange (BHIE)

If your consulting work will take you into government health services IT, you should know that the Bidirectional Health Information Exchange, or BHIE, connects electronic Department of Defense patient records with those maintained by the Department of Veterans' Affairs. As military service members receive care at either VA or DoD medical centers, their electronic health record (EHR) is maintained in both government systems simultaneously using BHIE real-time technology.

I recommend: Learn more about what specific information is shared in the BHIE from the architects of the technology, the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Biosurveillance (BSV)

Biosurveillance, or BSV, uses health care information technology to track symptoms, medical diagnoses and sales of non-prescription drugs. Theoretically, those who track syndromic reporting data would be able to pinpoint the source of an outbreak or biological weapons attack by backtracking through BSV data to confirm and even determine the origins of an outbreak.

I recommend: Learn more about the multijurisdictional approach to biosurveillance from the Centers for Disease Control.

Clinical Decision Support (CDS)

Health care managers are taking advantage of data-rich resources throughout the industry by instituting clinical decision support (CDS). Doctors use CDS to determine best practices based on past outcomes tracked in the data, and then institute those practices and the latest evidence-based research data to treat patients.

I recommend: Find clinical decision support resources from the Health Information and Management Systems Society.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 mandates that health care providers take significant measures to safeguard protected health information, or PHI. Any IT tool that handles patient information must comply with HIPAA privacy standards, while still facilitating an appropriately timely flow of information.

I recommend: The Department of Health and Human Services has detailed information on how HIPAA affects both patients and care providers.

Health Information Management (HIM)

Professionals in the field of health information management (HIM) develop and maintain data collection and reporting programs, primarily for quality and patient safety initiatives and clinical decision support. HIM brings together -- and requires an expertise in -- medical informatics, clinical diagnostics and treatments, electronic health records, medical coding and billing, quality and human resources management.

I recommend: Learn more about what HIM professionals need to know from the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Scroll down to the Health Information Management blurb under News Articles, and click "read more."

Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI)

The Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) is a program run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to encourage physician self-reporting through pay-for-performance measures. CMS requires that physicians report their outcomes data each year for at least three services covered by Medicare; in return, the physicians are paid an incentive payment of 2% of their total allowed Medicare charges that year.

I recommend: Read more about PQRI history and recent legislation that has changed the face of physician quality reporting at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website.