Larry McClain

– During the Premier Breakthroughs conference on June 15, representatives from Providence Health & Services detailed the benefits of installing a collaborative perinatal wide area network (WAN) to connect the system’s five hospitals in southern California.

Regional Health in South Dakota advocates standardized electronic charting system as a means to improve care coordination while reducing legal risks.

Supply chain executives at the Premier Breakthroughs conference in Nashville this week agreed that materials management departments are often the IT stepchild in their organizations – although EMR innovations are making their jobs a lot easier.

Because Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) is viewed as one of the Senate’s most knowledgeable healthcare advocates, analysts are guardedly optimistic about the prospects for the Whitehouse-sponsored Behavioral Health Information Technology Act (S.539, which would extend meaningful use incentives to behavioral healthcare providers.

Just as cable television can trace its roots back to CNN, Nashville's fast-growing healthcare IT sector got its start with HCA, Inc., the hospital company founded more than 40 years ago in Music City. Leaders who helped HCA rise to prominence shared their insights on Dec. 7 at the Nashville Health Care Council's panel discussion celebrating that group's 15th anniversary.

At first glance, today's healthcare IT titles seem like a game of Scrabble gone haywire: CIO, CMO, CMIO. At a panel discussion at HIMSS Summit of the Southeast in Nashville, Oct. 12, professionals representing all three job descriptions discussed the changing landscape.

CCHIT chair Karen Bell says the EHR certification process required for meaningful use is moving steadily in the right direction. "It's a little bit like the Wild West because things are changing so rapidly," she said. "But we're clearly making progress."