Meaningful Use Stages 2 and 3 in the works

JMcDaniel - 09/21/2010

The Health IT Policy Committe - the federal advisory committee responsible for making recommendations to the National Coordinator for Health IT - is meeting Wednesday (9/22) to beging drafting requirements for Stages 2 and 3 of Meaningful Use, as reported by Healthcare IT News. Eligible health care providers will need to meet Stage 2 requirements by 2012 to qualify for EMR incentives.

Healthcare Costs Expected to Increase by 11% in 2011

JMcDaniel - 09/17/2010

A new survey by Aon Consulting is anticipating healthcare costs to rise between 10.5 and 11% in 2011, as reported by Becker's Hospital Review. Health care reform laws are expected to add 2%-5% to costs over the next three years.

Worried about EHR impact on efficiency? How will you measure it?

DWillcutts - 09/10/2010

People on the front lines of care tend to immediately jump to the very reasonable concern that implementation of a new EHR will destroy productivity and hurt patient relationships.  Studies have come out suggesting otherwise, however I suspect that will provide small comfort to a physician’s practice.  If you plan to move forward how will you evaluate this question?  What techniques can help?  Have you heard about “Data Envelopment Analysis”? 

Steps to Choosing an EHR - excerpt from a Vendor Site

DWillcutts - 09/10/2010

We see many web sites and articles from software vendors and consultants.  The quality can be pretty varied but we often see some pretty good stuff.  We ran across this list of “12 (Relatively) Easy Steps to Choosing an EHR or EMR” and thought we should highlight it.  The advice is pretty simple and straight forward.  A practice can use this as a good starting point to think through the issues, although we think it also provides a good example of why many practices need a strong independent consultant that can help guide them through the process.

EHR Drivers - the Frost & Sullivan report is interesting but perhaps things are more straight forward?

DWillcutts - 09/01/2010

A recent Frost & Sullivan report predicts the EHR market will double from $1.3 billion to $2.6 billion between 2009 and 2012 before market saturation occurs and revenues level off at $1.4 billion. Information Week spoke to one of the authors of the report and highlighted what they felt are the drives of this change. While I think the points are valid they seem on the one hand a bit obvious and on the other they perhaps miss the larger picture. The drivers they highlighted include:

Would Most Hospitals Fail to Meet Meaningful Use?

JMcDaniel - 08/31/2010

How far does the industry need to go to get to "Meaningful Use"? 

50,000 Extra Employees Needed For Meaningful Use Criteria

JMcDaniel - 08/27/2010

In order to meet the Meaningful Use criteria required to get government incentives for EMRs, the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT is estimating that an additional 50,000 IT employees are needed, according to a report from Fierce EMR.

C Suite Leadership Critical to Success of EMRs

JMcDaniel - 08/26/2010

Although IT will certainly play a major role in developing and implementing Electronic Medical Record technologies, the projects must be led by the C Suite. That is the recommendation of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executive's "Meaningful Use" guide for CIOs, as reported by Information Week.

Health Care Records Stolen at the University of Kentucky

JMcDaniel - 08/25/2010

Health Data Management is reporting a disturbing security breach at the University of Kentucky: a laptop computer containing medical records for more than 2000 individuals was stolen from a locked room. The theft occurred in June, and so far there is no evidence that the records have been used for nefarious purposes - or even that the records have been accessed - but the fact remains that names, medical records, and in some cases Social Security numbers have been stolen.

New software matching nurses and patients in real time

JMcDaniel - 08/12/2010

Electronic workforce management tools are nothing new; data is invaluable in effectively managing resources. However, when managing nurses, another problem arises: In addition to managing costs and nurse-to-patient ratios, how do you maintain the top priority of meeting a patient's daily needs?

Are White Papers Too Much? Is PwC's 10 Minute series a better approach?

ReadyConsultant - 08/06/2010

Developing White Papers is a common method for consultants to demonstrate their subject matter expertise.  These tend to be lengthy and dense reports providing great detail on a specific topic.  When done effectively White Papers can help a consultancy stand out, become a go to reference material for prospective customers and build the overall brand.  But how effective are they at getting your C-suite executive target to read them?

Health IT Staff Burn Out - How Are You Dealing With It?

jlee - 08/04/2010

Health care IT has likely never seen a time of such tremendous activity.  There have been times before when deadlines loomed and major multi-years projects were required.  However today there seem to be multiple high stakes issues with over lapping deadlines that all depend on IT to deliver.  This will inevitably put new stress and pressure on the IT department staff all the way to the CIO.