Health Monitoring Systems

05/12/2023

We're adding to our team! Check out the open position for a customer relations specialist on our website!

Customer Relations SpecialistMay 12, 2023/0 Comments/in Jobs/by Kevin Hutchison Title: Customer Relations Specialist Career Level and Role Type: Entry to Mid; Full-Time Position Tools Ticket tracking with Jira; Confluence Wiki; Microsoft Office Education College Degree or Technical Degree Required R...

05/12/2023

We're adding to our team! Check out the open position for a healthcare facility coordinator on our website!

08/06/2020

Thank you, my friends and colleagues working in public health. Thank you for your dedication and your hard work.

Over the weekend Speaker Pelosi criticized Dr. Deborah Birx as an "enabler" and shared a lack of confidence in the Coronavirus Response Coordinator. The President then tweeted "Pathetic." when Dr. Birx continued her apolitical message. (Dr. Birx was appointed to her position by former President Obama.)

These days, those are the rewards of trying to do a good job.

The excellent health director in Ohio, Dr. Amy Acton, resigned after armed protesters arrived at her house. The NYC health commissioner resigned this week as well.

The conspiracy theories attacking Dr. Fauci barely need to be mentioned. Pennsylvania's Dr. Levine has received death threats. Kathleen E. Toomey, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health, requires personal security.

The list goes on. Dozens of public health officials are leaving their positions in the face of politically-motivated attacks and threats to their families and their safety.

Whatever your politics, I think we all realize that this is not acceptable.

Presumptive Democratic presidential-nominee Biden and President Trump should, jointly or separately, demand that these threats and actions be stopped. Both parties need to stop attempting to take political shots through honorable public servants.

That doesn't mean that honorable public servants can't be questioned, criticized for their mistakes, contested, debated, held accountable, or called out for errors.

It does mean that a nation divided like this must hold itself to higher standards. We cannot politicize every single issue and every single statement. We are, or should be, better than that.

10/04/2017

Congrats to finalist, Health-Monitoring, Innovator of the Year, Health IT. https://buff.ly/2xD1Vm9

03/10/2017

Health-Monitoring is working closely with state and Federal officials on the opioid overdose crisis. In addition to the work for the CDC we've begun, we are taking a deep look at how fatal and non-fatal overdoses can be forecast using available data.

State lawmakers have considered about 1,000 measures in the past year aimed at confronting the mounting opioid epidemic, as he**in use spikes and overdoses claim thousands of lives across the country.

01/20/2017

Health Monitoring is in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review today for our work to track opioid-related ER visits. Check it out!

A Pittsburgh-based company will help officials in Pennsylvania and Ohio track the number of people who visit hospitals for opioid-related reasons. Health Monitoring will provide ...

01/19/2017

Health Monitoring made the news last night for our work in PA and OH to track opioid-related emergency room visits.

01/19/2017

Health Monitoring Receives CDC Grant Funding to Track Opioid-Related Emergency Room Visits in Ohio, Pennsylvania

Project will provide real-time data on number of he**in-related overdoses

[Pittsburgh, PA, January 18, 2017] - Pittsburgh-based Health Monitoring has received contracts from the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania to provide real-time surveillance of opioid-involved morbidity. The contracts are funded by a grant from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. According to the latest data from the CDC, more people now die from overdoses than from motor vehicle accidents—and Ohio and Pennsylvania are at the center of epidemic.

This project will provide real-time detection of he**in-related overdose numbers and builds upon work begun in November 2015, when Health Monitoring began working with the Ohio Department of Health to improve detection of drug overdoses—specifically those related to opioids, he**in, and fentanyl.

The data will be collected through Health Monitoring’s EpiCenter surveillance system, already being utilized in hospitals and ambulatory care facilities throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania. The system tracks anonymized emergency room/facility admissions data to look for potential public health emergencies. For this project, EpiCenter will identify all he**in-related emergency room visits.

“The project demonstrates the future of population health monitoring,” according to Health Monitoring CEO Kevin Hutchison. “We’re seeing lives lost every day. This project shows the value of looking at specific problems and crises, and tracing their progress through concrete data. The goal is to save lives.”

Health Monitoring has collected and analyzed opioid-related emergency department data since 2006, when it worked to assist public health professionals in Philadelphia, PA during a tainted he**in case. In 2009, Health Monitoring improved opioid-related surveillance with EpiCenter to specifically identify drug-related emergency room visits.

The full name of the funded project is: "Enhanced State Surveillance of Opioid-Involved Morbidity and Mortality CDC-RFA-CE16-1608"

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Health Monitoring Systems, http://hmsinc.com, is the country’s largest provider of population health monitoring, collecting real time information from nearly 3,600 ambulatory care facilities, nearly 700 hospitals and urgent care facilities, and The National Poison Data System. Health Monitoring serves state health departments in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Connecticut, and Wyoming. It has service agreements to collect data in California, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, and Nevada. Health Monitoring’s total coverage area includes 40 million Americans.

01/19/2016

Health Monitoring has been working hard on the drug overdose problem in Ohio. The Ohio Department was asked what they are doing and their answer (in part): EpiCenter.

Take a look at what Ohio is doing to monitor drug overdoses in the state.

Ohio has begun tracking drug overdoses in real time in the same way it tracks other illnesses like the flu.

08/13/2015

To Carly Fiorina,

PolitiFact rated the assertion that emergency department visits were up 50% under the ACA as "mostly false". And, frankly, we did too. It honestly looks like a simple misunderstanding of an ACEP study reporting that 56% of emergency doctors believe they are busier than they were before.

But who has the actual numbers? Mike Baldyga, ACEP spokesperson, spoke with FactCheck.org on this important topic, and indicated that the CDC is 3 years behind in tabulating statistics on emergency department visits.

The data does exist—in the private sector. Our company covers 12.5% of the U.S. population, receiving data from nearly 600 emergency departments in real-time.

With the seismic changes affecting healthcare, we don't have three years to wait for answers. The policy implications of the ACA and CMS changes need to be understood now.

We need greater insight into policy outcomes and political leaders who understand technology and focus on data-driven results more than on ideology.

Kevin Hutchison, CEO

08/11/2015

Politifact rated Carly Fiorina's claim that emergency department visits are up 50% under the ACA as "Mostly False". Good work, Politifact but we'd rate the claim plain ol' "false".

Health Monitoring Systems has access to over 500 hospitals and routinely tracks emergency department visits providing one of the best resources for evaluation of the ACA's impact on emergency department utilization and readmissions.

For the original Politifact rating, see here: http://goo.gl/RDEUlA

Health Monitoring Systems is discovering that syndromic surveillance can also provide a rich source of information for public policy. Recently an American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) stu...