EHR

EHRs are used in both inpatient and ambulatory settings to document care and share information across departments. Topics include: vendor selection, system deployment, and workflow analysis. On the inpatient side, best-of-breed versus single source is a perennial debate as CIOs automate the widely diverse departments under their purview, such as the surgical suite, radiology and intensive care. On the ambulatory side, group practices wrestle with physician productivity issues and creating interfaces to outside service partners such as labs.

New Interoperability Training Tools Focus on Stage 2 Criteria

Joseph Goedert | May 24

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has launched a suite of electronic health records interoperability training tools.

Health Info Exchange

Group Practices

Hospitals

Policy & Regulation

Stimulus

Intermountain Tracking Patients’ Cumulative Radiation Exposure

Joseph Goedert | May 24

Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City now enables patients and physicians to access radiation histories and the cumulative radiation a patient has received.

Medical Imaging

Group Practices

Hospitals

Consumer Health

Disease Management

HIT Vendor Round-up: Prognosis, HealthInfoNet, PracticeMax & McKesson

Joseph Goedert | May 23

New leadership, an acquisition and milestones are among recent health information technology vendor announcements:

Group Practices

Health Info Exchange

Hospitals

Vendor News

Practice Management

Revenue Cycle & Payments

Revenue Cycle Management

Impatient About Electronic Health Records

Glen Tullman | May 23

I’m impatient about realizing the benefits of electronic health records—we all are. But, as the futurist Roy Amara once cautioned, “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.”

Comments (1)

Policy & Regulation

Hospitals

Group Practices

Health Info Exchange

Using Analytics to Support an ‘Ambulatory ICU’ Model

May 23

The Stanford Coordinated Care project puts sophisticated I.T. tools to the task of monitoring and treating difficult populations of patients.

Chronic Care

Consumer Health

Data Repositories

Systems Integration

Hospitals

Disease Management

First Vendors Get Accredited for Direct Messaging Services

Joseph Goedert | May 22

The Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission has accredited the first four vendors to meet newly developed best practices for providing secure messaging services using the Direct Project protocols.

Health Info Exchange

Group Practices

Hospitals

Payers

Policy & Regulation

Systems Integration

Feds: 2013 Goal for Meaningful Use Participation Already Met

Joseph Goedert | May 22

As of April, the federal government has met its goal for provider participation in the electronic health records meaningful use program by the end of 2013, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Group Practices

Hospitals

Policy & Regulation

Stimulus

Revenue Cycle & Payments

New WEDI Program Facilitates State ICD-10 Cooperation

Joseph Goedert | May 22

The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange has launched a new program for states to collaborate on reaching compliance with the ICD-10 code sets.

Coding

Electronic Data Interchange

Group Practices

Hospitals

Payers

Policy & Regulation

Revenue Cycle & Payments

Consumer Groups, EHR Vendors Talk Back to GOP Senators

Joseph Goedert | May 21

Fourteen consumer organizations in a joint letter advise six Republican members of the U.S. Senate to not seek to pause or delay the electronic health records meaningful use program.

Comments (1)

Consumer Health

Health Info Exchange

Group Practices

Hospitals

Payers

Policy & Regulation

Stimulus

Vendor News

Healthland Acquisition Targets the Continuum of Care

Joseph Goedert | May 21

Healthland, a vendor of clinical and financial/administrative information systems for rural community and critical access hospitals, has acquired American HealthTech, which sells software to skilled nursing facilities and other post-acute care providers.

Group Practices

Hospitals

Revenue Cycle & Payments

Chronic Care

Health Info Exchange

Vendor News

Do You Know a ‘Health I.T. Young Blood’ ? – Contest Underway

May 21

Entries are now being accepted for the second annual “Health I.T. Young Bloods” contest sponsored by Health Data Management. The contest recognizes the technology accomplishments of clinicians, administrators and I.T. staff in the health care industry.

Hospitals

Group Practices

AHA to Senators: EHR Concerns Understandable, but Don’t Pause Meaningful Use

Joseph Goedert | May 20

The American Hospital Association concurs with many concerns from six Republican members of the U.S. Senate who recently called for a pause to the EHR meaningful use program and re-examination of its strategies.

Group Practices

Hospitals

Payers

Stimulus

Policy & Regulation

Coalition to Senate: Time to ‘Re-do’ Meaningful Use

Joseph Goedert | May 20

The electronic health records meaningful use programs has not improved the quality and efficiency of care and needs to be redone, a small coalition of industry leaders say in a letter to six Republican members of the Senate.

Group Practices

Hospitals

Payers

Policy & Regulation

Revenue Cycle & Payments

Beyond the HIT Boom

Steven Heck | May 20

The thriving health care information technology industry is no longer news. But, much like the real estate market, there’s a crash coming, and soon.

Comments (1)

Group Practices

Hospitals

Payers

Policy & Regulation

Vendor News

California Developing Guidance for Patient Consent of HIE

Joseph Goedert | May 17

The California Health and Human Services Agency has released a guidance tool on requirements for obtaining patient authorization and consent for providers to electronically exchange information for treatment purposes.

Data Security

Consumer Health

Health Info Exchange

Hospitals

Group Practices

Payers

Policy & Regulation