News
The Joint Commission has announced changes to its standards for diagnostic imaging, effective July 1, 2014. Additional requirements will be phased in by 2015.
The standards changes relate to either quality and safety issues that were needed to more fully address the evolution of healthcare delivery practices.
Among this week's people on the move, ONC welcomes a new national coordinator, and ClearDATA gains a senior vice president.
HHS appointed a new chief to head the Office of the National Coordinator on Thursday, and so far the decision has been lauded by industry leaders.
Physicians in the first subspecialty of clinical informatics, spearheaded by the American Medical Informatics Association, got their board certifications this month -- a pivotal moment in healthcare's "systemic overhaul," according to AMIA.
HHS appointed a new chief to head the Office of the National Coordinator Dec. 19, and so far the decision has been lauded by industry leaders.
"In 2003, fewer than 5 percent of hospitals in the U.S. had any form of electronic records," said David Brailer, MD, who became the nation's first "heath information czar" in 2004. "A smaller percentage of doctors' offices had them, probably less than 1 percent. It was something everyone knew was inevitable, but the fire had not been lit," he tells Healthcare IT News.
By the way things look now, the healthcare industry is not on track to meet the ICD-10 compliance deadline of October 2014. In fact, providers have fallen even further behind with timeline milestones than they did back in February, according to new report findings. But it's not just providers. Vendors also have a long way to go.
Karen DeSalvo, MD, front-runner of healthcare in post-Katrina New Orleans and healthcare IT champion, will take over the Office of the National Coordinator in mid-January.
New Orleans Health Commissioner Karen DeSalvo, MD, will take over as national coordinator for health information technology, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Dec. 19.
The Department of Health and Human Services has a few glaring management and performance issues it needs to work out in the coming year -- at least according to a new report put out by the Office of Inspector General.