Electronic Health Records (EHR, EMR)
One of the biggest challenges American hospitals face right now is adopting electronic medical records systems. It's costing tens of billions of dollars, eating up tons of staff time and it's especially tough for the country's 2,000 rural and small town hospitals.
With the maturing of the meaningful use incentive program, federal advisory groups are beginning to re-evaluate their roles and the best way to support providers moving forward. At the April 24 HIT Standards Committee meeting, federal officials announced changes in leadership along with proposals about how the organization might reconfigure itself.
In a letter to National Coordinator for Healthcare Information Technology Karen DeSalvo, MD, the Electronic Health Record Association argues that ONC's proposed Voluntary 2015 Edition Electronic Health Record Certification Criteria rule will cost too much, will disrupt progress and simply isn't "necessary or workable."
Health information technology systems have made their way to the No. 1 patient safety concern for healthcare organizations, according to the findings of a new ECRI industry report.
If you think your hospital IT department is one of the best in the U.S., nominate it for Healthcare IT News' 4th annual Where to Work: BEST Hospital IT Departments program. Nominations opened April 23, and close May 23.
Cloud-based EHR company athenahealth will resign from the EHR Association. Its executives say it does not belong there, since it is neither an EHR company nor a software vendor.
John Glaser, Ph.D., talks about common issues for EHR customers and his top priorities for Siemens.
Sure, the EHR Incentive Program, with its $22 billion plus paid out thus far to meaningful users, might have helped bring the healthcare sector out of the Dark Ages and into the 21st Century, technologically speaking, but do these systems really improve the quality of patient care? A new study out says: for the most part, no.
Meaningful use just might have its financial perks. That's according to the top 25 highest performing meaningful users under the Electronic Health Record Incentive Program, all of whom brought in some $171 million in Medicare payments back in 2012.
Encouraged by the patient engagement spurred by giants such as Geisinger and the VA who've taken part, Kaiser Permanente Northwest and eight other health systems in the region have signed on to OpenNotes -- the first widespread adoption of the data sharing program.