September 17, 2012
news
On Sept. 13, the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC), a non-profit standards development organization and accrediting body, announced the release of its new certification programs for vendors handling the electronic prescription of controlled substances (EPCS).
July 24, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
Experts at a Blueprint Healthcare IT discussion last week warned that the Field of Dreams strategy of "build it and they will come" won't necessarily work when it comes to physician adoption of a health information exchange (HIE). Lack of physician usage of an HIE portal was the No. 1 pitfall when it came to HIEs that was mentioned in the webinar, "Top Ten Ways an HIE Can Go Wrong".
June 20, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
State and federal leaders discussed the challenges they face when coupling federal health information exchange (HIE) methods like the Direct Project with statewide efforts for more robust HIE, during a discussion June 19 at the State Healthcare IT Connect Summit in Dulles, Va. "Someone said to me 'the best HIE is invisible,'" said Lee Stevens, program manager, State Health Information Exchange, ONC.
October 25, 2011 Gabriel Perna
article
For the folks at John Muir Medical Group (MMG), an independent practice association (IPA) with more than 700 physicians that cover 25 specialties spread across three counties in Northern California, there is a clear cut advantage to having an enterprise data chart, which was implemented in 2009, that makes single-patient data chart electronically accessible electronically to all MMG providers.
September 20, 2011
blog
This past week I read about the Radiological Society of North America’s (RSNA) effort for something known as the Image Share Project, while at the same time I received some information from Merge Healthcare on Adopting an Enterprise Imaging Strategy.
April 18, 2011 Bobbie Byrne, M.D.
blog
In our EHR implementation project plan, we had built in a specific “go-no go” decision point. This decision point was scheduled prior to the start of training as, once we were scheduled to begin training, it would mean the expenditure of a whole lot of time, energy and cash. Prior to the “go-no go date,” IT owners meet with all the business owners, review the current module and issues and obtain physical sign-off.
April 15, 2011
blog
This past week saw a controversial announcement, and one that probably slipped under the radar. Iron Mountain has been through a real thunderstorm with respect to a press release over the weekend. In the meantime, Microsoft continues to muddy the waters with its own announcement. The real issue is – what do both have to do with how Information Technology services should view storage clouds with respect to imaging?
April 14, 2011 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
blog
I had a conversation recently with David Horrocks, president of Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP), Maryland’s statewide HIE based in Catonsville, Md., and one of his main concerns was the fact that physicians today are getting mixed messages on what health IT to adopt.
April 12, 2011 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
Winchester Medical Center, a 411-bed community hospital in Winchester, Va., part of the six-hospital Valley Health system in Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland, has been taking an innovative approach to inpatient education. The hospital has been using patient engagement software from the Bethesda, Md.-based GetWellNetwork since 2003. Currently, the hospital has 360 beds live with the service and has implemented some key applications including a falls pathway, pain management pathway, and service recovery pathway. Beginning in 2008 the results from the patient engagement software fed back into the hospital’s electronic medical record (EMR) from the San Francisco, Calif.-based McKesson, and a GetWellNetwork tab was added in the EMR so clinicians could verify that patients watched certain education videos and record patient pain assessments.
September 8, 2010 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
At the end of August, the Certification Commission on Health Information Technology (CCHIT) and the Drummond Group were named by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) as the first technology review bodies that have been authorized to test and certify electronic health record (EHR) systems. Since CCHIT got its start in 2004, the commission has certified a couple hundred EHR systems every year. CCHIT’s Chair Karen Bell, M.D., took time out to speak to HCI Associate Editor Jennifer Prestigiacomo about the commission’s dual certification approach and what’s changed with the announcement of the Stage 1 meaningful use final rule.
