About Ocius Medical Informatics

About Our Name

Ocius (OH-see-us) is the Latin word meaning "faster, more swiftly." We chose this name in recognition of the fact that technology is changing the world of healthcare at an extremely rapid pace. Our mission is to assist our clients in adopting tools and techniques that allow them to stay ahead of the curve.

What We Offer

Ocius Medical Informatics (OMI) provides healthcare organizations and vendors with business and technical consulting services that focus on medical informatics, a fast-evolving specialty that can be daunting even to those in the field.

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Current Events

Speaking Engagements

Todd Frech, Senior Partner at OMI, spends time on the road speaking about health information systems design, system selection, implementation strategies, HIPAA, and Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs). The impact of RHIOs on healthcare organizations and the communities they serve has been an area of particular focus in recent speaking engagements.

Laboratory Institute

29 September 2006, Arlington, VA

Transmitting Lab Test Results to EHRs: What's the Right Direction for Labs?

HFMA Spring Institute

18 May 2006, Irving, TX

Benefits of Regional Health Information Organizations: How to Create a Sustainable RHIO - Our presentation used the Waterbury Health Access Program as a case study to demonstrate the ways in which RHIOs can improve a community's healthcare services, provide information to plan a community's future healthcare needs, and use input from participating providers to remain sustainable.

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Quotes

Todd has also recently been quoted on a number of topics in Health Data Management and other publications.

Suit Alleges 'Scary Doctor' Had Unfettered Access to Medical Records of Paramours

April 2007

EKG + E-Records Equals Efficiencies

February 2006

Melding PACS and Electronic Records

November 2005

Solving the Staffing Puzzle

September 2002

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New Community Strategies: Regional Health Information Organizations

March 2007

Last year, OMI Senior Partner Todd Frech participated in the HIMSS RHIO Guidebook Task Force. HIMSS has just released the Task Force's Guide to Establishing a Regional Health Information Organization, "a comprehensive resource to support and guide those who are exploring, or actively involved in, community initiatives to establish a RHIO to support the interoperable exchange of health information."

January 2006

A Regional Health Information Organization, or RHIO, is a consortium of organizations in a defined geographic area that wish to share health information to increase the efficiency of the community’s healthcare delivery system and thereby improve the health of individuals and of the community in general.

A RHIO may have a wide variety of member organizations: healthcare providers, hospital and health systems, insurance companies, health departments, and in some cases community employers. The benefits of participation for each member vary widely, but one overarching requirement for a successful RHIO is financial sustainability. This means that most basic benefits to the members of the RHIO are economic. Once sustainability has been achieved other benefits for members can be realized.

A RHIO is set up to develop a method of sharing information among its members. The methods developed by a RHIO for sharing information can take on several forms.

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