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.

Samaritan Medical Center, Watertown, N.Y., a 294-bed community hospital, has seen its volume of data to grow significantly in the few years. That, in turn, has prompted the hospital to streamline the ways it manages and backs up its data from a business continuity perspective.

The American College of Physicians (ACP) has become the latest organization to inform federal officials that the healthcare industry is not ready for Stage 2 of meaning use, while Stage 3 proposals seem unrealistic.

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).