Electronic Health Records (EHR, EMR)
As it works to broaden health information exchange capabilities across the care continuum, the Office of the National Coordinator has drawn up a certification guidance aimed at technology developers serving specialized providers who are ineligible for Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive payments.
The 24-hospital Sutter Health system was the talk of the town late August after a software glitch rendered its $1 billion electronic health record system inaccessible to nurses and clinical staff. Reflecting back, a Sutter nurse talks about what the health system should have done differently.
Meaningful use Stage 2 of the electronic health record incentive program is definitely tougher, and some elements of CPOE could catch providers off guard, says Laura Kreofsky, principal advisor at Impact Advisors.
Much of the challenge nationally for bringing healthcare into the digital age, says outgoing ONC chief Farzad Mostashari, will be "getting to a common base of capabilities around the country, so that these providers...have some common assumption of what the capabilities of the systems will be around interoperability."
The Southeast Michigan Beacon Community, one of 17 projects nationwide awarded federal money to spur health IT initiatives, has announced that although it didn't hit the bull's eye on every mark, the project has achieved six of seven target quality measures for type 2 diabetes patients.
The nearly $1 billion electronic health record system at Sutter Health in Northern California crashed in August, leaving nurses and clinical staff not only unable to access vital patient information for a full day, but also scrambling to record new data on paper.
Three years after procuring a $16.1 million HHS grant to bolster local health IT initiatives and diabetic care management, the Western New York Beacon Community has chronicled mixed success -- at least in the quantifiable sense. Anecdotally, however, its success becomes much more striking, officials say.
Arguing that IT offers the opportunity to help "every American" lead a full and healthy life, the Consumer Partnership for eHealth, a coalition of more than 50 consumer, patient and labor organizations, has published an action plan designed to ensure that disparities of care are a critical focus of Stage 3 meaningful use.
Allscripts President and CEO Paul M. Black, hired in December 2012 to rescue the troubled EHR vendor, and other company executives sounded defensive and optimistic notes this week as they attempt to regain the confidence of customers, investors and health IT industry analysts.
Richard Antonelli, MD, a primary care pediatrician and medical director of integrated care at Boston Children's Hospital, has been thinking and working at making a difference in the field of care coordination for more than 20 years. Now, he's in the midst of a project that he's convinced will engage and empower patients and their families.