Clinical

Supporting the growing trend toward patient engagement, a recent survey from the N.Y.-based health IT services vendor Accenture found that many U.S. consumers (41 percent) would be willing to switch doctors to gain online access to their own electronic medical records (EMR).

The issue of unnecessary elective early-term deliveries of babies is receiving increasing attention in patient care organizations nationwide. One patient care organization in which active work to make such changes has been taking place is the four-hospital, Springfield-based Baystate Health. There, the medical director of obstetrics, the chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology, and the organization’s clinical research director, are engaged in groundbreaking work in this very important area.

A bill was introduced this week in Congress that would permit in-state license Medicare providers to utilize telemedicine services for Medicare beneficiaries elsewhere. The “Telemedicine for Medicare Act of 2013,” was introduced by Reps. Devin Nunes (R-CA 22) and Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ 6).

In 2010, only 17 percent of residential care communities in the U.S. used electronic health records (EHRs), according to a National Center for Health Statistics data brief. Residential care communities, as defined in the brief, includes assisted-living facilities and similar residential care communities (personal care homes, adult care homes, board care homes, and adult foster care).

A Middletown, Ct.-based primary care system, Community Health Center Inc., is expanding its telehealth program for underserved patients across state lines to Delaware, the provider announced this week.