January 28, 2013 John DeGaspari
article
Beaumont Health System, a three-hospital regional academic health system in the Detroit, Mich. area, is engaged in a process improvement plan involving the Kaizen performance improvement methodology. Kaizen, also known as continuous improvement, is a long-term approach with a goal of achieving small, incremental changes in processes to improve efficiency and quality.
January 23, 2013 Gabriel Perna
blog
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) Federal Readmissions Reduction Program is once again receiving a critical eye. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health say the initiative would punish hospitals that serve the uninsured and poor patients.
January 22, 2013 John DeGaspari
news
A review of the available evidence underscores the safety of the federal childhood immunization schedule, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. However, the report offers a framework for conducting safety research using existing or new data collection systems. should signals indicate the need for investigation of the schedule.
January 22, 2013 Mark Hagland
blog
HIMSS Analytics' recent press release on the acceleration in the pace of EHR adoption is encouraging, but then again, the numbers could be read in different ways, depending on one's perspective
January 8, 2013 David Raths
article
At the Jan. 8 Health IT Policy Committee meeting, Farzad Mostashari, M.D., national coordinator for health IT, and Paul Tang, M.D., vice chair of the committee, outlined some priorities for the year ahead, including a glimpse of what Stage 4 of meaningful use might address.
January 3, 2013 John DeGaspari
blog
A large number of physicians are coming under scrutiny on physician-review websites. One problem, though, is that many of those sites rely on few patient reviews. In fact, according to a study of 500 urologists by Loyola University Medical Center, ratings are based on scores of only 2.4 patients on average.
December 27, 2012 Mark Hagland
news
A new study is casting a harsh light on so-called “never events” in the surgical sphere, finding that such adverse events, which can include leaving a sponge inside a patient or operating on the wrong side of the body, led to malpractice litigation in more than 4,000 instances every year, and cost healthcare professionals at least $1.3 billion in malpractice payouts between 1990 and 2010.
December 26, 2012 John DeGaspari
news
Anthem Blue Cross, Woodland Hills, Calif., plans to launch an integrated telehealth system early next year that will allow its members to use their personal computers to choose their doctor and address their non-emergency health needs via a live two-way video. The online care service, called LiveHealth Online (www.livehealthonline.com), will be launched in the first quarter of 2013, initially to small- and large-group fully insured customers and self-funded national employers.
December 21, 2012 Gabriel Perna
blog
What an exciting year we had in health IT. It was my first complete one at Healthcare Informatics and I think I picked a good one. There was big-time policy news, a record-breaking HIMSS conference, and a plethora of interesting health IT leaders and cutting-edge projects, all helping push this industry into a new direction where quality is the standard. Looking back at the year that was, I think five moments stand out for me personally.
December 19, 2012 John DeGaspari
news
In an analysis of national malpractice claims, Johns Hopkins patient safety researchers estimate that a surgeon in the United States leaves a foreign object such as a sponge or a towel inside a patient's body after an operation 39 times a week, performs the wrong procedure on a patient 20 times a week and operates on the wrong body site 20 times a week.
December 18, 2012 by Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
As healthcare moves toward a future in which providers will handle more population level risk, the chief integration officer will play a central role in helping hospitals integrate and align with physicians to build a broad-based care management platform.
December 5, 2012 Gabriel Perna
article
While some are skeptical of accountable care organizations (ACOs), a recent report from the New York City-based consulting firm, Oliver Wyman says the ACO movement is alive and well. The report’s authors say 31 million patients are attached to an ACO, a number which only represents a fraction of the possible impact ACOs can have on healthcare delivery. In this Q&A, one of the report’s authors talks about the surprises, opportunities, and critics of ACOs.
