August 27, 2001 - The goal of VISION, Vital Information System to Improve Outcomes in Nephrology, is for dialysis facilities to be able to enter and send information (e.g. 2728 Medical Evidence Forms, 2746 Death Forms, 2744 Facility Survey forms) electronically to the Networks and to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS - formerly HCFA).

This new reporting system will ultimately replace SIMS (Standard Information Management Systems). If all goes well, the VISION project hopes to have a product ready for testing in pilot facilities by the end of 2001. Here is an update on the VISION project from the NRAA (National Renal Administrators Association) web site.

One of the companies that is working on this project, Meta Integration, Inc., has placed several informational resources on its web site about the VISION project. (Scroll down on the linked page for the listing.)

If you have PowerPoint� on your computer, you can scroll through an overview presentation on the VISION project by clicking here (registration is free).

Here are some other related links:

SIMS Project Information Exchange web site.

Health Level 7 (HL-7) web site.

ESRD Forms Review from the CMS/HCFA web site.

Forum of End-stage Renal Disease Networks web site.

[This message has been edited by Gary Peterson (edited 08-27-2001).]