Top Stories

Of Musical Scores and ACOs

Gabriel Perna
Just like a conductor’s score brings together the pieces of an orchestra, information systems bring together the pieces of an accountable care organization (ACO). Many providers, like Banner Health, are beginning to learn that more proven clinical technologies included in an ACO make for a better “score.”

“Be Nice”: Who Knew??

Mark Hagland
Seattle Children’s Hospital’s Drex DeFord, in his closing keynote address to the HCI Executive Summit, last week shared with Summit attendees his philosophy of leadership. Refreshingly, DeFord, the current chairman of the CHIME board of directors, believes that CIOs need to get—and stay—outside their comfort zones.

Extending Your EHR to Independent Hospitals and Clinics: Five Considerations

Susan Heichert, Mary Bear-Dukes, and Dawn Mitchell
Some hospitals and health systems are looking to extend their own EMR solutions to independent hospitals and clinics. The practice became possible with the relaxation of anti-kickback statutes in 2006, but the sense of urgency has heightened in today’s environment. In fact, some organizations are even implementing new EMR solutions internally while extending the same solution to private practices simultaneously.

ONC Announces Imaging Interoperability Challenge

May 18, 2012    
news
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is launching a new Investing in Innovation (i2) Initiative developer contest aimed at improving interoperability among office-based ophthalmic imaging devices, measurement devices, and electronic health records (EHRs). The ONC’s i2 program is a way to promote the use of technology to find solutions that drive better outcomes, engage users in their health, and improve healthcare quality.

FCC Chairman Looking for Patient Monitoring Broadband Spectrum

May 18, 2012    
news
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski, recently joined healthcare IT vendors GE Healthcare (Chalfont, St. Giles, U.K.) and Philips Healthcare (Andover, Mass.) to unveil a proposal that would allow for allow greater use of spectrum for Medical Body Area Network (MBAN) devices. These devices can be used for technologies like wireless patient monitoring, which allow healthcare providers to check on a patient outside a hospital setting.

Survey: IT is Top Spending Priority at Nonprofit Hospitals

May 17, 2012    
news
According to a survey conducted by Fitch Ratings, a New York City-based global rating agency, the majority of nonprofit hospitals expect capital spending to either increase, and most of them are going to spend their money on IT. The survey said factors influencing capital plans, such as potential decreases in reimbursement levels, shifting clinical practice patterns from inpatient settings to outpatient settings, and the possible implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), have lead to this increase in IT expenditures.

Through Meaningful Use, ePrescribing Grows

May 17, 2012     Gabriel Perna
article
A new report from Surescripts on ePrescribing says the technology is growing in usage among office-based physicians. This can be attributed to the regulatory incentives of meaningful use, as well as improved medication adherence. According to the report, nearly 60 percent of physicians who started using ePrescribing in 2008 have met Stage 1 measures.

Community-Based Recovery Program Goes Virtual

May 17, 2012     David Raths
article
The real promise of personal health records is in their integration with electronic health record systems, rather than as a set of files sitting idle on an individual’s PC. But getting to that type of integration may be one of the trickiest challenges the health IT community faces. Yet some organizations are making progress on getting patients to use health IT tools and share their data.

Advocacy Corner

D.C. Report: ICD-10 Compliance Delay an ‘Appropriate Middle Ground’

May 15, 2012     Jeff Smith, Assistant Director of Advocacy at CHIME

D.C. Report: Senators Demand More Tangible Anti-Fraud Results from CMS

May 8, 2012     Jeff Smith, Assistant Director of Advocacy at CHIME

Extending Your EHR to Independent Hospitals and Clinics: Five Considerations

May 17, 2012     Susan Heichert, Mary Bear-Dukes, and Dawn Mitchell
article
Some hospitals and health systems are looking to extend their own EMR solutions to independent hospitals and clinics. The practice became possible with the relaxation of anti-kickback statutes in 2006, but the sense of urgency has heightened in today’s environment. In fact, some organizations are even implementing new EMR solutions internally while extending the same solution to private practices simultaneously.

Agfa Healthcare Opens New Facility for Digital Pathology

May 17, 2012    
news
Imaging Systems vendor Agfa HealthCare (Toronto, Canada), has announced the opening of a new research and development (R&D) facility and global data center in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The facility will be a place where Afga says it will expand on current product offerings and build its digital pathology offering, which it says will continue to improve and transform the field of medical imaging and image-enable the electronic health record (EHR).

Allscripts Adds Two to Board of Directors

May 17, 2012    
news
On the heels of an eventful two-week stretch where it dismissed its Chairman of the Board, Paul Pead and replaced him with a new one, Dennis Chookaszian, a few days later, and saw three other board members resign, as well as dealt with a stock price dip, Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc. has appointed Paul M. Black, former chief operating officer of Cerner Corporation, and The Hon. Robert J. Cindrich (Ret.), former senior vice president and chief legal officer for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), as directors. Black will serve on the Board's Compensation Committee and Cindrich will serve on the Board's Audit Committee.

Amid Medicaid Hack Scandal, Utah Tech Director Resigns

May 16, 2012    
news
Stephen Fletcher, executive director of the Utah Dept. of Technology Services (DTS), has resigned from his post as a result of a hacker accessing the medical information of 780,000 Medicaid recipients within the state. The announcement was made by Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert, who also outlined the State's response to the recent health and Medicaid data breach.

WEDI: Put ICD-10 Extension to Good Use

May 16, 2012    
news
The Reston, Va.-based Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), a non-profit organization formed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) that focuses on the use of Health IT to improve the exchange of healthcare information, has responded to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding the extension of the compliance date from October 1, 2013 to October 1, 2014. WEDI says any extension of time should be put to good use, allowing for more robust assessments, remediation and testing.

Blogs

“Be Nice”: Who Knew??

May 16, 2012     Mark Hagland
Seattle Children’s Hospital’s Drex DeFord, in his closing keynote address to the HCI Executive Summit, last week shared with Summit attendees his philosophy of leadership. Refreshingly, DeFord, the current chairman of the CHIME board of directors, believes that CIOs need to get—and stay—outside their comfort zones.

Of Musical Scores and ACOs

May 15, 2012     Gabriel Perna
2
Just like a conductor’s score brings together the pieces of an orchestra, information systems bring together the pieces of an accountable care organization (ACO). Many providers, like Banner Health, are beginning to learn that more proven clinical technologies included in an ACO make for a better “score.”

Clawing Your Way up–When you Claw for a Living

May 11, 2012     Pete Rivera
Well I was sure that there would be major adjustments to be made when I left the military after 21 years. I guess the biggest cultural change came down to the uniform. In the military you always know who is in charge by all the “ornaments” in the uniform. The more the colors and “bling,” the higher up the food chain they are, especially the Army-they are all about the bling!

What Value-Add Services Can Sustain HIE?

May 10, 2012     Jennifer Prestigiacomo
Health information exchanges are taking a wide variety of approaches around the country to develop value-added services to sustain their exchanges. Panelists of the "Health Information Exchange: Strategies and Sustainability panel" at the HCI Executive Summit discuss what has worked for their exchanges.

 Vendor Corner

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CareFusion

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