Electronic Health Records (EHR, EMR)
As Tim Zoph sees it, it's decision time for patient data security -- a defining moment for "one of the issues of our time in healthcare," that demands healthcare leaders everywhere step up. Zoph, CIO of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago since 1993 and a CHIME/HIMSS CIO of the Year, headlined the Healthcare IT News and HIMSS Media Privacy & Security Forum Dec. 12 in Boston.
At the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology 2012 Annual Meeting, held Dec. 12 in Washington, DC, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) told attendees that interoperability is a lynch pin for health IT advancement, and it is currently lacking.
Two months after the launch of the Massachusetts HIE, Laurance Stuntz, director of the MeHI, discusses the HIE's journey so far and the road ahead. Formerly a senior VIP at the healthcare communications company NaviNet and a partner at Computer Science Corporation, Stuntz joined MeHI in May.
Even though evidence suggests that healthcare records are more valuable to crooks than financial records, three out of five healthcare organizations are not allocating enough resources to their protect patient data. Ironically, a big reason is that the industry has no way to place a value on that information.
A report issued Nov. 29 by the Office of the Inspector General calling for more oversight of the meaningful use program has been mostly well-received by stakeholders. Doctors, however, are concerned about the burden of pre-payment audits.
A new report from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) might not entirely spill the meaningful use apple cart, but it certainly isn't going to make things any easier.
Barry Blumenfeld, MD, MS, CIO of MaineHealth and Maine Medical Center, discusses rollout of the Epic EMR, the slow adoption of voice recognition, and his relief over the recent presidential election for the state of healthcare IT.
Some 1,500 patients at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) are being notified of a medical data breach involving a resident physician whose employment was terminated in 2010. The incident's validity, however, remains contentious and unclear, as it involves an earlier lawsuit against UAMS, filed by the physician who has cited allegations of gender discrimination.
Sixty-nine percent of U.S. primary care physicians reported using electronic medical records in 2012 -- up from 46 percent in 2009, according to findings from the 2012 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey. But in the U.S., just 11 percent of physicians said they had referral information available when it was needed.
Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman made it official Thursday: His firm is indeed looking at what it calls "strategic alternatives" amidst recent speculation about a sale of the company. Tullman also announced falling sales in Q3, with net income for the quarter nearly $10 million less than a year ago -- $9.4 million, compared with $19.1 million.