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Interoperability, the Achilles heel of electronic health record progress has been in the limelight since the beginning of the stimulus package incentive funding for EHR adoption. And though EHR implementation rates have proven successful, interoperability leaves something to be desired.
The U.S. Senate voted in Sylvia Matthews Burwell as the new Secretary of Health and Human Services on Thursday afternoon.
Burwell, the former head of the Office of Management and Budget, was confirmed 78-17. Before and after the vote, Burwell both faced her share of fire and garnered high praise.
So now the pressure is on.
Delivering on its promise to offer tactical recommendations for steering the healthcare industry to ICD-10, the Workgroup for Data Interchange on Thursday circulated a roadmap.
It came within a letter addressed to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, wherein WEDI called for several actions, notably these half-a-dozen steps:
Ralph Johnson figured once would be enough. Having passed one EHR Incentive Program audit, he assumed his small health system had proven its meaningful use merit to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Then he got another email.
[See also: What not to do in a meaningful use audit]
It seems everything that could go wrong with an EHR rollout did at the Ventura County Health Care Agency, a county-run healthcare system in Thousand Oaks. Calif. A grand jury investigation found the county neglected to plan, hire and adequately train for the transition.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says the U.S. government will continue to offer open access to data as fuel for healthcare innovation.
Sebelius' remarks came at a keynote given June 3 at Health Datapalooza in Washington, D.C., as she fulfills the last days of her office under President Obama, having announced her departure in April.
Does your organization have a comprehensive data governance program? If not, you're not alone. But you're also not close to where you should be if you want to provide better care at lower cost, according to a new report.
[See also: Mobile tech popular, but governance gaps remain, says HIMSS]
Healthcare's all about the patients, right? Earning their trust so they return for annual checkups, delivering high-quality care while respecting their medical privacy at the highest level. But far too often, there's a disconnect – the idea that the care ends when the patient exits the building or a diagnosis is made, the idea that clinical deals with clinical and information technology deals with IT. But, that's not often the case in this digital age.
As the Cleveland Clinic adds its prestigious name to the hospital groups that have embraced next-generation medical kiosks – groups that include Metro Health, Miami Children's Hospital, Kaiser Permanente, Central Ohio Primary Care and Nationwide Children's Hospital – healthcare IT executives are wrestling with the powerful pros and cons of such a move.
Health IT Buzz
The Latest on Health Information Technology from ONC
Today we are pleased to release Connecting Health and Care for the Nation: A 10-Year Vision to Achieve an Interoperable Health IT Infrastructure. This paper describes ONC’s broad vision and framework for interoperability and is an invitation to health IT stakeholders – clinicians, consumers, hospitals, public health, technology developers, payers, researchers, policymakers and many others […]
The post A Call To Action for a Nationwide Interoperable Health IT Infrastructure appeared first on Health IT Buzz.
Want to make a difference? Applications for Health IT Policy Committee and Standards Committee Workgroups are now being accepted Are you interested in contributing to health IT strategy and policy, or to help identify which standards, implementation, and certification criteria are needed to help providers better use their health information technology? Apply to be considered […]
The post Applications for Health IT Policy Committee and Standards Committee Workgroups are now being accepted appeared first on Health IT Buzz.
The Health IT Policy Committee’s (HITPC) Meaningful Use Workgroup is looking to learn about your meaningful use experiences. We are hosting two virtual listening sessions – on May 20, 2014 and May 27, 2014 – where we want to hear about your successes and challenges to achieving meaningful use to inform our recommendations for Stage […]
The post Seeking Your Meaningful Use Experiences appeared first on Health IT Buzz.
For Shannon Parker, a mom in Salem, Oregon, having access to a Personal Health Record (PHR) updated with her son’s latest health information allows her to put her son at the center of his care – no matter where he’s being treated. This means giving her an electronic tool she can use to coordinate her […]
The post PHR Ignite Demonstrates Exchange of Consumer Health Information appeared first on Health IT Buzz.
The Health Information Technology Policy Committee (HITPC) has been asked by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to explore the health information technology (health IT) needs of the long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC) and behavioral health (BH) settings. In most cases, providers in these settings are not eligible to receive […]
The post Seeking Your Feedback: Voluntary EHR Certification for Behavioral Health and Long-Term and Post-Acute Care Settings appeared first on Health IT Buzz.
As we approach 2014 National Hurricane Preparedness Week (May 25-31), it seems like an appropriate time to pause and reflect on two hurricanes that have impacted the lives of many Americans, Sandy and Katrina, and the role of health information technology (health IT). ONC has long supported the use of health IT and health information […]
The post HIE Supports Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Services appeared first on Health IT Buzz.
It is my sincere hope all of you have enjoyed National Nurses Week 2014. As the week draws to a close, I’d like to offer some reflections … Next year I celebrate my 30th anniversary as a Registered Nurse. If you had told me as a 20-year-old RN (a new grad walking the wards on […]
The post Reflections for our nation’s nurses appeared first on Health IT Buzz.
Imagine this: A third grade boy diagnosed with Sickle-cell disease wakes up during the night experiencing severe pain in his chest. His father alerts the pediatrician that he and his son are on their way to the emergency department (ED) of a hospital near their home. The pediatrician phones the ED to say her patient […]
The post Health IT helps school nurses coordinate care for children appeared first on Health IT Buzz.
At the New York City Health Department’s Primary Care Information Project (PCIP), we work to promote health equity and address the health disparities that persist across our country, not just during Minority Health Month (which was April). We accomplish our mission of improving population health through the use of health IT by leveraging relationships with over […]
The post Addressing Health Disparities through the Lens of Public Health appeared first on Health IT Buzz.
Federally funded health centers are making strides adopting and using electronic health records (EHRs) to treat some of the nation’s poorest and most at-risk patients since the enactment of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, according to a new first-of-its-kind study. We know that health IT can help improve care quality. […]
The post Rapid Advances in Health IT Adoption and Use in the Safety Net appeared first on Health IT Buzz.
HealthLeadersMedia.com - Tech News & Analysis
HealthLeaders Media is a leading multi-platform media company dedicated to meeting the business information needs of healthcare executives and professionals.
The Obama administration is revamping HealthCare.gov and scrapping significant parts of the federal health-insurance marketplace in an effort to avoid the problems that plagued the site's launch last fall, according to presentations to health insurers and interviews with government officials and contractors. But the makeover—and the tight timeline to accomplish it—are raising concerns that consumers could face another rocky rollout this fall when they return to the site to choose health plans. Some key back-end functions, including a system to automate payments to insurers, are running behind schedule, according to a presentation federal officials made to health insurers. [Subscription Required]
As the purchaser representative on the federal Health IT Policy Committee, David Lansky, PhD., is the voice of employers, insurers, and other organizations responsible for healthcare compensation. It's a role he's handled for five years, one that complements his full-time position as CEO and president of Pacific Business Group on Health, a nonprofit business coalition that helps its 60 purchaser members provide coverage to more than 3 million employees by improving the quality and affordability of healthcare. In both positions, Lansky focuses on improving the nation's healthcare delivery system by curtailing unnecessary spending and enhancing visibility by measuring outcomes and value.
New models of collaboration (even among competitors) are producing shorter boarding times and fewer instances of aggressive behavior in the emergency department.
The crowd in a hotel ballroom in Washington, D.C., was rocking on Monday, the 2,000 people shrieking with excitement over federal health-care databases. That could only happen at Health Datapalooza, the annual summit for data geeks, doctors, researchers and patients who want to use data to transform health care — or at least make a buck. Both of those goals are proving to demand a lot more than just coming up with a nifty API and getting the venture capitalists to buy in. Speakers at the Datapalooza gave plenty of examples of how people are trying to use data to make medical care safer, swifter and less expensive. But almost all of these projects are still works in progress.
IT leaders at healthcare providers are under siege. ROI, legacy systems, cloud software, and the EHR wars are a few of their current concerns.
Spending on electronic health records systems by hospitals and health systems continues to rise, as enthusiasm for them wanes among senior healthcare executives, survey results show.
Data made public by CMS includes information comparing the average hospital charges in 2012 for the 100 most common Medicare inpatient stays at more than 3,000 hospitals.
The OpenNotes initiative, which seeks to enable easier access for patients to doctor's notes, might have helped. The idea is that if doctor's notes were more transparent, then a patient would become more involved in their own treatment. And the "playing field" between doctor and patient also is leveled somewhat. "We doctors hide from patients what we feel about them and what we think, and I think that it is a mistake," said Tom Delbanco, professor of general medicine and primary care at Harvard Medical School. "There is absolutely no reason patients should not know what we are thinking about them and doing."
By using multiple electronic health records (EHRs) and other applications, hospitals take a best-of-breed approach that allows them to use the most appropriate solution for different departments or requirements. Yet a lack of standards can force workarounds, data duplication, and interoperability problems for IT and end-users. To address this, some healthcare providers standardize on one platform across their organization, even though it may not meet the specific needs of departments such as radiology or surgery. Others, looking to retain these separate EHRs or access to legacy systems, use integration tools to provide users with access to data housed in multiple applications.
Long Island dermatologist Kavita Mariwalla knows well how to treat acne, burns and rashes. But when a patient came in with a potentially disfiguring case of bullous pemphigoid—a rare skin condition that causes large, watery blisters—she was stumped. The medication doctors usually prescribe for the autoimmune disorder wasn't available. So she logged in to Modernizing Medicine, a Web-based repository of medical information and insights, for help. Within seconds, she had the name of another drug that had worked in comparable cases. "It gives you access to data, and data is king," she said of Modernizing Medicine. "It's been very helpful especially in clinically challenging situations."
Hospital and health system leaders know the reimbursement transformation is coming—even if it hasn't reached them yet—and they are beginning to form alliances with regional providers to find strength in numbers.
If it's Monday, your smartphone might remind you, you should probably be thinking about quitting smoking. Your odds of being diagnosed with the MERS virus are 1 in 150 based on other cases in your city. Oh, and don't worry — your blood pressure has stayed steady with your latest prescription. No need to see the doctor. These are only a handful of the insights that e-health, or the use of remote technology to provide medical care, could someday tell us and our doctors about how we live. The idea that a computer screen, a cellphone, or even a wearable wristband could revolutionize medicine isn't exactly far-fetched.
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Originally posted at Crave
Originally posted at Crave
Originally posted at Crave