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EHR implementations are the top priority among healthcare IT professionals, with 85 percent indicating that they are either in the midst of an EHR project or plan to start one within the next 18 months, based on a survey from Embarcadero Technologies.
For home health agencies, homecare-specific vendors' focus and attention generally outweigh the potential for integration with an enterprise vendor's EMR, according to a KLAS report.
Health IT company TriZetto has appointed Trace Devanny as its new CEO and member of the board of directors, effective July 19.
Cerner has announced that President Trace Devanny will leave the company effective July 16.
Written by Kaitlyn Dmyterko
IT-enabled medication management strategies tap computerized provider order entry (CPOE), bar-coded electronic medication administration records and clinical decision support modules in electronic health records to reduce medication errors. They have their work cut out for them: The Institute of Medicine estimates that 1.5 million preventable medication errors occur in the U.S. every year, costing some $8 billion.
Written by Kaitlyn Dmyterko
To make a muddled emergency department system more transparent and better report on patient satisfaction and performance indicators, staff at the Hospital of Central Connecticut implemented a business intelligence model to simplify workflow and increase doctor to patient time, said Jeff A. Finkelstein, MD, chief of emergency medicine during a presentation at the HIMSS virtual conference expo June 9.
Written by Mary Stevens
The vast amount of healthcare information now being generated could be the greatest asset available in improving patient care. However, to do the most good, this information must be effectively exchanged—and delivered securely—among more stakeholders than ever before.
Written by Mary Stevens
PROVIDENCE, R.I.--Portfolio project management (PPM) failed the first time it was launched at Baystate Health due to a lack of coordination, said David Rice, PMP, project planning coordinator, information systems project management officer at the Springfield, Mass., healthcare system. As a result, he provided advice to other providers on how to effectively implement a PPM.
Health IT company Cerner has formed a strategic partnership with Fort HealthCare, an integrated hospital and health system in Fort Atkinson, Wis., to create a connected health community.
Advanced visualization company Vital Images has expanded its affiliation with Cerner, and has integrated its Vitrea Enterprise Suite with the Cerner Millennium platform.
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Unlike most segments of health IT, which are dominated by a handful of healthcare-focused vendors, the enterprise business intelligence technologies deployed at hospitals are more likely to come from general software companies like SAP and IBM, according to a report from healthcare research firm KLAS.
BOSTON–There are mountains of problems to overcome when it comes to automating systems and getting patient health records off of paper. And the HITECH Act has added urgency to the tasks at hand, said John Delaney, RN, BSN, director of IT outreach at University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas. “It’s a huge job and we’ve got big problems,” said Delaney during a session at the ANIA/CARING conference last week.
Written by Gina Narcisi
Like the old adage goes: no pain, no gain. CPOE is one of those areas where the pain of implementation and physician training is certainly worth the gain of better patient care.
Nearly a third of providers planning an EMR purchase are replacing an existing program, according to a new report from healthcare research firm KLAS. When it comes to choosing an EMR, physician practices are considering an ever-increasing number of software vendors, KLAS found.
Written by Mary Stevens
When it comes to clinical informatics, nurses bring a lot to the conversation. In the course of their daily work, they’re immersion users of technology, collectors of crucial data and firsthand observers of health IT’s effect on patients. They provide much of the information necessary to improve patient care, show regulatory compliance and propel research.
Well before federal EHR efforts went into high gear, healthcare systems transitioning to electronic records were looking for ways to integrate point-of-care devices. The impending requirements for electronic medical records (EMRs) and meaningful use of electronic records data will only heighten the need for device integration.
Written by Neil Versel
Among the many differences between the proposed regulations for “meaningful use” of electronic health records and a draft circulated last summer is that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) now wants hospitals and physician practices to implement clinical decision support (CDS) for a minimum of five high-priority conditions in order to qualify for federal subsidies in 2011.
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“We’re beginning a revolution the way information is collected, managed, used and purposed for patients in the U.S. healthcare system,” said David Blumenthal, MD, chair of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, in opening remarks at an audioconference training session on meaningful use and EHR certification last week.
In Part 1 of our closer look at the final rules for meaningful use and EHR certification standards, CMIO’s Jeff Byers spoke with David Blumenthal, MD, chair of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. In Part 2, CMIOs weigh in with mixed reviews.
The framework for meaningful use is “something that had to be done and has been started intelligently,” John P. Glaser, PhD, vice president and CIO of Partners HealthCare System told CMIO. However, the challenges of becoming meaningful users and optimizing health information exchange will require unprecedented levels of communication within organizations and among healthcare systems, he said.
The contractual obligations in the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on modifications to the HIPAA privacy, security and enforcement rules under the HITECH Act for business associates and downstream entities are game changers, according to Amy S. Leopard, JD, from Walter and Haverfield, during a webinar sponsored by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
Standardizing performance measures, with the help of health IT, will make it possible to collect the right data at the right time to support performance measurement, clinical decision support, clinical research and quality improvement, said Janet M. Corrigan, PhD, president and CEO of the National Quality Forum (NQF) during a webinar hosted by the forum on June 17.