Electronic Health Records (EHR, EMR)
Three hospitals -- in Hawaii and Texas -- recently reached Stage 7, the highest level of HIMSS Analytics Electronic Medical Records Adoption Model, which is used to track EMR progress at hospitals and health systems.
As we close out 2013 and look forward to a fresh new year, we present you with 10 stories that had you, our readers, most captivated. They inlcude news about IRS troubles and EHR breakdown at a major hospital system. Bad news seems compelling. But so does good news, in the form of lists.
In an eventful 10 years for healthcare, meaningful use made an unmistakable mark as vendors large and small took advantage of an unprecedented opportunity. As one observer puts it: "Obama's stimulus was the catalyst that lit this industry up five years ago. We haven't looked back since."
Driven by increasing demand for clinical information technology and administrative tools, the North American healthcare IT market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.4 percent, set to reach $31.3 billion by 2017 from $21.9 billion in 2012, according to a new report from Research and Markets.
In a year-end set of new regulations, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the HHS Inspector General finalized the Stark law exemption, which allows hospitals to fund up to 85 percent of EHR costs for physicians, and the OIG outlined the related anti-kickback "safe harbor" for "protected donors."
Physicians in the first subspecialty of clinical informatics, spearheaded by the American Medical Informatics Association, got their board certifications this month -- a pivotal moment in healthcare's "systemic overhaul," according to AMIA.
HHS appointed a new chief to head the Office of the National Coordinator Dec. 19, and so far the decision has been lauded by industry leaders.
"In 2003, fewer than 5 percent of hospitals in the U.S. had any form of electronic records," said David Brailer, MD, who became the nation's first "heath information czar" in 2004. "A smaller percentage of doctors' offices had them, probably less than 1 percent. It was something everyone knew was inevitable, but the fire had not been lit," he tells Healthcare IT News.
The Office of the Inspector General found that nearly all of the more than 800 hospitals it surveyed in late 2012 had federally recommended EHR audit functions in place, but "may not be using them to their full extent," while only a quarter of them had policies on the notoriously problematic practice of copying-and-pasting.
In the wake of HealthCare.gov's botched launch, analysts -- and Congressional leaders -- contend the private sector would have done it better. That's not necessarily so, says Karen Evans, who offers five tips for successful rollouts.