October 3, 2012 David Raths
article
The federal Health IT Policy Committee met Oct. 3 to fine-tune some meaningful use Stage 3 recommendations as it prepares to seek comments from stakeholders in November. Providers and health IT vendors will have until Dec. 21 to offer feedback on the feasibility of adopting the measures in healthcare settings.
October 2, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
In contrast to what happened on November 1, 1999, when the Institute of Medicine released its industry-shaking report, "To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System," what happened on September 6, 2012, caused barely a ripple. That was the release of the IOM's third report in a series, this one called "Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America," which builds on the thinking presented in its two predecessor reports, and envisions the entire healthcare system continuously learning.
September 15, 2012 Mark Hagland
blog
As David Share, M.D. and his colleagues at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan collaborate forward with local providers to master care management and utilization strategies, the criticality of leveraging analytics thoughtfully becomes ever-more-apparent. We’ll be discussing these issues in our upcoming Healthcare Informatics webinar on Sept. 25, and learning from the experiences of some of the most pioneering organizations nationwide.
September 14, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
Much progress has been made to develop data and transport standards for Stages 1 and 2 of meaningful use, and as the NeHC webinar held September 13 pointed out, there is still much work left to be done to harmonize standards in healthcare. As part of the activities for National Health IT week, NeHC hosted a webinar devoted to the discussing the current Standards and Interoperability (S&I) Framework pilots and how its activities apply to current work being done in the industry with transitions of care, health information exchange, and population health.
September 12, 2012 Mark Hagland
blog
David Nash, M.D. was extremely prescient when he established the Jefferson School of Population Health at Thomas Jefferson University in 2008. Is population health moving squarely onto the center of the radar screens of healthcare leaders yet? Tune into the September 20 Healthcare Informatics webinar to find out.
September 11, 2012 Pete Rivera
blog
You cannot make a blanket policy to say that the coding software will be used exclusively. This is like telling a pilot to trust their instruments, although the ground is getting closer and closer.
September 10, 2012 Mark Hagland
blog
The Institute of Medicine’s new comprehensive report, “Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health care in America,” advocates a healthcare system of continuous performance improvement—and healthcare IT leaders will be at the center of the action
September 9, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
In Michigan, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has implemented and grown a patient-centered medical home initiative that is already the largest in the country, with over 3,000 physicians involved. What David Share, M.D. and his colleagues are learning has strong implications for PCMH development nationwide.
September 6, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
A committee impaneled by the Institute of Medicine has produced a report aimed at pushing the healthcare industry towards continuous performance improvement and continuous learning. And Paul Tang, M.D., speaks with HCI’s Mark Hagland about the implications for today’s healthcare leaders.
September 4, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
Jane Metzger, research principal in the Global Institute for Emerging Healthcare Practices at CSC, has authored a report that looks at the current push to reduce avoidable readmissions, in the broader context of continuity of care efforts in patient care organizations
August 28, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo and David Raths
article
Many in the industry are mostly positive about the changes that were made in the final rule of meaningful use Stage 2, which the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued last Thursday, Aug. 23. As HCI Senior Contributing Editor David Raths detailed in his Aug. 24 blog, there have been several key changes and innovations in the final rule. To illustrate these images, HCI has put together a pictorial view of the major changes seen in the final rule.
August 23, 2012 John DeGaspari
blog
As technology becomes more pervasive in healthcare, examples of how it is being used effectively to improve care are cropping up everywhere. I came across one example yesterday, during a conference call regarding the announcement by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regarding the selection of primary care practices to participate in the agency’s Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative.
