Bernie Monegain
The Marshfield Clinic is among 10 large physician groups participating in a Medicare demonstration project that have shown they can provide top quality of patient care while saving Medicare millions of dollars. Central to its performance, say Marshfield executives, is its electronic health record system.
Two new publications from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are aimed at helping developers of software and computer systems for doctors' offices, clinics and hospitals make electronic health record systems easier to use.
The implementation of a telepharmacy model in a multi-hospital health system increased access to pharmacy services, allowing for round-the-clock medication order review by pharmacists, which is critical to reducing errors, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy.
The real barrier to adoption of personal health records is not privacy and security, but rather the unwillingness of healthcare data sources to give consumers control over their health information, Dossia CEO Colin Evans told a government panel recently.
Healthcare organizations are moving closer to the adoption of global supply chain standards, according to an independent survey of healthcare providers, group purchasing organizations, device manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors.
The emergency department information system market - worth $110 million in 2010 - will grow by more than 30 percent in 2011 due to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), according to Millennium Research Group.
The American Hospital Association is urging the Office of the National Coordinator to relax its rules on meaningful use so EHRs do not have to be certified against all 24 criteria, arguing that the requirement is inconsistent since hospitals are required to report on 19 measures.
To best meet the goals of optimized, coordinated patient care and also help curb costs, physicians should be at the center of accountable care organizations (ACOs), the American Medical Association told the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in a Dec. 2 letter.
In West Texas, where unemployment is at 2 percent, the popular chain Chili's had to close some of its restaurants because there were not enough employees to fill the jobs. Imagine what it's like for a healthcare system in that part of the country to recruit IT staff, says Gary L. Barnes, CIO of Medical Center Health System in Odessa, Tex.
To make sure patients are safe, hospitals have to put their CPOE systems to the test, warned healthcare industry watchdog The Leapfrog Group in a report released in July. Leapfrog, one of the strongest advocates in healthcare for the use of CPOE – computerized provider order entry – called on the federal government to make testing mandatory.