February 09, 2012
As a family physician in a small rural community, I’m not in the thick of the debates over health information technology. But I know something that policy-makers in Washington need to know – and consumers across the country, as well.My patients love their electronic health records (EHRs)! They totally understand how EHRs are improving their care, making it safer and more effective. A year ago, they wouldn’t have known to ask if we were using an EHR system. But since our practice implemented them, they see the difference – and they want more.
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February 07, 2012
Truman Medical Centers operates one of Kansas City’s largest” quality safety net” hospitals, where we provide care for a high number of lower-income patients, as well as those without insurance. This care often goes uncompensated. In fact, we provided more than $108 million in uncompensated care over the course of the fiscal year in 2010. That’s a big number, and is one reason why we’re constantly looking for ways to improve the quality and efficiency of the care we provide to our patients.
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February 02, 2012
As many of you now know, Florida Hospital Flagler will be recognized by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) as one of 66 hospitals (out of more than 5,000) qualifying as Stage 7 on the HIMSS Analytics EMR adoption scale at HIMSS12. The dedication and hard work of the Adventist Health System (AHS) Information Services teams and the strong IT vision put forth by David Ottati, CEO, and his leadership team at Florida Hospital Flagler made this achievement possible.
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January 31, 2012
In the paper world, the physician has to transcribe information from various places in the chart into a summary note. This transcription is done so other care providers can read key information without having to page through the chart. Examples of this kind of documentation are the immediate post-operative note and the discharge summary. With the advent of the EHR, paper documentation tasks have often been directly translated into electronic versions. This process does not take full advantage of the system’s ability to gather information from the electronic medical record and include it in a pre-completed note without end user intervention.
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January 04, 2012
In any company, making a change in the way day-to-day operations function can be a daunting task. The right IT solutions must be identified, quickly implemented and adopted by the employees. Each part of this process presents its own specific challenges. In a health care setting, when the change affects the way clinicians practice medicine, these challenges are magnified. This is the situation Somerset Medical Center (SMC), a 355-bed regional medical center in Somerville, N.J., faced several years ago when it decided to upgrade its clinical information system.
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December 07, 2011
Recently, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) awarded Stage 6 Certification to Hospital de Dénia (Dénia, Spain). Currently, only seven hospitals in Europe have received Stage 6 recognition from the HAE (HIMSS Analytics Europe).HIMSS Stage 6 demonstrates that Hospital de Dénia provides, among other benefits, structured and continuous clinical documentation and a closed medication cycle using a unified hospital system, Cerner Millennium, to give providers a horizontal vision of care, reduce patient risks and increase the quality of care.
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November 03, 2011
As EHR adoption continues to accelerate, more and more physicians will have access to a computer (desktop, laptop, tablet, etc.) when they engage in patient care. Ideally, having such a device in the exam room should benefit the patient more than the physician. The idea is to engage them with their care and their health data.
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October 28, 2011
Sepsis, or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening disease that arises when the body’s response to infection injures its own tissue and organs. It affects nearly 750,000 Americans annually, resulting in a mortality rate of almost 29%. Recognition of potentially septic patterns within the first two hours of their appearance is vital to the survival of the patient. Cerner developed the St. John Sepsis agent in order to help clinicians recognize these patterns and get patients the treatment they need. Heartland Health in St. Joseph, Mo., was one of the first health care organizations to begin using the agent. Joe Boyce, CMIO at Heartland Health, recently shared some insight on why his organization decided to use the agent, and the benefits they’ve seen to this point.
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October 26, 2011
At Indiana University Medical Group, we’re really proud to have eight sites that have achieved level 3 Medical Home certification from the National Committee for Quality Assurance. A Patient-Centered Medical Home is an approach to providing comprehensive primary care. It facilitates partnerships between individuals as patients and their personal providers while providing better access to health care and increasing satisfaction. A medical home is a sophisticated primary care practice where technology is utilized with services to enhance the doctor-patient relationship and bring additional teammates into the care of patients.
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October 04, 2011
We are all waiting for various federal and state health reform mandates to become final. Few have confidence that any will offer solutions that guarantee access to care while simultaneously improving the reimbursement hospitals and doctors receive for the incredible work they do. All that is certain is that uncertainty will prevail.
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