Quality and Safety
Just a few years ago, discussion of the use of radio-frequency identification in healthcare was usually limited to drug manufacturers and wholesalers. But more and more hospitals are using RFID technology to improve safety and efficiency.
The final Physician Fee Schedule rule for 2015, published by CMS on Oct. 31, brings with it a number of changes that physicians and practice managers need to understand about chronic care, telehealth and meaningful use.
MedStar Health, the largest healthcare provider in Maryland and the Washington, D.C., region, and Cerner have signed a seven-year agreement to streamline operations, help improve the quality of patient care and develop technologies that align with MedStar's vision.
Worries over the usability of electronic health records have escalated recently -- in tandem, it seems, with their broad adoption. Now comes research from Frost & Sullivan that confirms this, and suggests that EHR usability challenges are likely to get worse before they get better.
Purchasing spree continues as Optum gains chronic condition management, smoking cessation and other services.
What propels a group practice to fifteen-fold growth? At Westmed Medical Group, in New York's Westchester County, the surge can be attributed largely to care transformation driven by analytics.
In what's being hailed as a "spectacular success story," the World Health Organization has declared Nigeria free of the Ebola virus transmission, with public health agencies and government officials citing a mobile health initiative as largely responsible for the triumph.
The Ebola cases in the United States, despite their limited numbers, have generated considerable discussion and anxiety. But the focus on EHRs in these discussions does not recognize more prominent health IT needs when it comes potential outbreaks, nor the ways we have yet to meet most of these needs with incentives and infrastructure.
Frustration with electronic health records has never been higher among RNs, with vast majorities complaining of poor workflows, bad communication and scant input on implementation decisions, a new survey shows.
The folks at Penn Medicine know a little something about putting data analytics to work. After identifying three years ago that their sepsis mortality rates were higher than expected, they set out to do something about it by harnessing predictive analytics. And the results? They're impressive.