July 24, 2012 Gabriel Perna
article
Across the country, providers are using mobile solutions to enhance nurses’ ability to take care of patients at the point of care, whether that’s through advanced communications, direct messaging, RFID barcode scanning, medication reconciliation, or some other means. It’s a recognition that nurses, as the glue of a provider setting, need to be armed with the latest technology.
June 20, 2012 John DeGaspari
blog
With the expected decision on healthcare reform by the Supreme Court, what will happen to patient safety and quality reforms taking place under the Affordable Care Act? In a recent article in Scientific American, several healthcare experts said that patients will suffer if the law is struck down. Yet a recent article in the New York Times also points out that initiatives that hospitals have already put in place will have a lasting impact, and the economic pressure to provide better care to more people is irreversible.
June 14, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
Not only must organizations create sophisticated business intelligence tools to help identify high-risk patients, providers will have to engage patients and provide better care coordination to reduce readmissions, said IT industry leaders. “If we’re going to crack this whole issue of readmissions, plus so many other deficiencies, we need better processes, better outcomes, and a sustainable process, which is what cost [reduction] is really all about, then we’re going to have to solve these problems. It’s not just decreasing readmissions,” said James L. “Larry” Holly, M.D., CEO, Southeast Texas Medical Associates.
June 8, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
With nurses increasingly becoming weighed down by mobile devices, some pioneering hospital leaders are moving forward to try to streamline nurse mobility. Among these is Steve Shirley, CIO at Parkview Medical Center in Pueblo, Colo. At the beginning of this year, Shirley led the implementation of an iPod-based mobile application that enables nurses to access patient data and clinical workflows.
June 1, 2012 Mark Hagland
blog
A new AHRQ-funded study found what shouldn’t surprise any of us: that nurses in hospitals with fully implemented EHRs are reporting fewer medication errors and cultures of improved patient safety.
May 25, 2012 Gabriel Perna
article
In an effort to improve evidence-based medicine practices, leaders at Eisenhower Medical Center, a 524-bed, community hospital, implemented a quality dashboard monitor solution. In the monitor’s initial run, it was successful in improving metrics related to ventilator acquired pneumonia (VAP) and stroke management care.
May 11, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
National Nurses Week, May 6-12, will culminate tomorrow in a day that will honor nurse informaticists nationwide. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) will be recognizing Nursing Informatics Day by updating its Nursing 101 document, an introductory primer for those new to nursing informatics.
May 2, 2012 John DeGaspari
article
In an effort to reduce its readmission rates, Cullman Regional Medical Center, a 145-bed hospital in Cullman, Ala., found that that communication issues were consistently the root cause of patients being readmitted for the same condition. This is especially a problem at discharge, when crucial information is given to the patient, who may be sent home without fully understanding his or her care plan or medications. By reinforcing discharge instructions to the patient, the hospital has been able to lower its readmission rates.
April 19, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
HEALTHeLINK, the Buffalo-based Beacon Community, has had early successes with its diabetes telemonitoring pilot that identifies high-risk patients through mobile monitoring before they are hospitalized. The pilot, which has enlisted local home health agencies to help monitor patients without flooding physicians with data, has seen both physician and patient satisfaction.
April 11, 2012 John DeGaspari
blog
An interesting article in yesterday’s New York Times described what it says is part of a growing trend in healthcare: trying to cater to the medical needs of elderly patients. A few months ago Mount Sinai Medical Center opened its first geriatric ED, which was modeled on one at St. Joseph’s regional Medical Center in Paterson, N.J., according to the Times. Mount Sinai maintains that its geriatric ED is the first one of its kind in New York City.
April 2, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
The leaders at Aria Health focus on time savings and patient safety, leveraged through smart IT. One key learning: it’s vital to ask the front-line clinicians what it is they think is important to measure and move forward to improve on.
February 29, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
blog
A nursing symposium session at HIMSS12 made me think back about my magazine’s recent website redesign and transition to a new content management system (the ‘other’ CMS). The HIMSS12 session, Transitioning From a "Best of Breed" to a Single Vendor EHR With CPOE, brought up some great points about change management within organizations and how best to guide people through what can be at times an emotional EHR transition.
