Travis Leonardi .com

As the President of Sentry Data Systems I am focused on creating products with Hard Dollar return which require no Consulting to implement.

Matching actual procurement activity to billing activity is critical for establishing visibility into the financial operations of any hospital.   The new module available in Sentinel RCM Claims Guardian(TM) leverages our core business intelligence platform that enables end-to-end data capture which is essential to managing the revenue cycle and illuminate important components of claims activity.   Providing our hospitals key contract performance indicators will provide an invaluable tool to serve as a basis for renegotiation of payor contracts.

Sentry’s products are designed to put hospital management in control of their environment by giving them the tools they need to act immediately.

Management’s time is valuable, and I believe that automation is the answer.

 (6/21, Gaouette, Johnston) reported that the arrangement “shrinks the so-called doughnut hole in Medicare’s prescription-drug program. The companies will discount as much as 50 percent of the cost of brand-name medicines, according to PhRMA, the Washington- based industry trade group that represents such drugmakers.” Click here

 ”The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions [HELP] Committee” started work on its healthcare overhaul bill Thursday.  They’ve approved 17 amendments among the 300 plus proposed.

AP (6/19, Espo, Werner) reports that “key Senate Democrats, bidding for bipartisan support on healthcare, pared back subsidies designed to make insurance more affordable on Thursday.” The current Senate Finance Committee proposal “requires most individuals to purchase coverage and forbids insurance companies from denying it on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions.” Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) “has said he intends to hold the cost of the legislation to about $1 trillion. Click here for full story

The  (6/12, A5, Esterl, subscription required) reports, “The World Health Organization declared the first flu pandemic in 41 years, even as it stressed there are no signs the H1N1 virus has turned more lethal as it spreads across the globe.” The declaration “requires countries not yet exposed to the new influenza strain to roll out pandemic-prevention plans and step up monitoring efforts. It also will likely accelerate efforts to develop a vaccine, expected to take several months.” Although Dr. Margaret Chan, the director-general of the WHO, said the “overwhelming majority” of those diagnosed with H1N1 have “experienced mild symptoms and recovered quickly without medical treatment,” she also “warned that the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, is likely to continue to spread and that it could turn more virulent or affect populations differently.”

click here for full story

Obama: IT is still a critical part of healthcare reform June 04, 2009 | Bernie Monegain, Editor

In a letter sent Tuesday to Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.), President Barack Obama reiterated his commitment to promoting the use of information technology as a means of reducing healthcare costs.  Obama said the White House is also determined to go after “the key drivers of skyrocketing healthcare costs, including unmanaged chronic diseases, duplicated tests and unnecessary hospital readmissions.”  click here for full article

As I lead Sentry through this new ERA of Healthcare Technology requirements, speed, efficiency, robust feature functionality and constant evolution of the solutions through innovation are essential.  Please see the case study article featured on IBM’s website 

Drug CEOs Switch Tactics on Reform  

Pharmaceutical Companies Join Health-Care Overhaul, Hoping to Influence Where Costs Are Cut

By JONATHAN D. ROCKOFF

Drug-company executives are aiming to prevent steep cuts in prescription prices by joining the effort to overhaul the U.S. health-care system.

Their approach contrasts sharply with their behavior 15 years ago, when they helped defeat President Bill Clinton’s reform efforts from the outside. “This is not the 1990s, when the industry was playing defense,” says John Lechleiter, Eli Lilly & Co.’s chief executive. “We’re playing offense. We’re at the table.”  click here for more

The AP (5/22, Neergaard) reported, “Inching closer to a swine flu vaccine, the government is beginning to analyze two candidates for the key ingredient to brew one. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hopes to deliver one or both to vaccine manufacturers by the end of next week so scientists can begin the months-long process of producing shots.” The US “set aside $1 billion for crucial testing of the first pilot doses and stockpiling of key vaccine ingredients” on Friday. CDC scientists also “unveiled the most detailed genetic examination yet of the novel virus, finding that the new swine flu may have been circulating undetected in pigs for years.”
According to the Los Angeles Times (5/23, Kaplan), “an analysis of more than 50 strains of the H1N1 influenza virus at the center of the global outbreak has concluded that they are closely related and can be fought with a single vaccine.” The findings “could boost the likelihood that the US will move forward with an H1N1 vaccine that would be offered separately from the seasonal flu vaccine.” Sanofi Pasteur announces $190 million swine flu vaccine contract with US. For more click here.

What’s a Shared nothing database??? That’s the first question I asked myself when I heard about it.

My CIO came into my office one day and said,”in order to meet your product expectations we need to build a massively scalable distributed database with a shared-nothing architecture”.  

I said to myself, Ha! Tech-guys, he’s looking for money for his department again… You know, everything with them needs to sound so dramatic!  It turns out, it was the most insightful look into the future I’ve ever seen.

Check this link out if you want to learn more about what I am talking about.

http://www.sentryds.com/Products/Datanex/Components/QDC/