Quality and Safety
Getting physicians on board with cost cutting measures proves to be one of the healthcare industry's top challenges, one that has become critical as hospitals buy up more physician practices. There's the technology available to help doctors accomplish this, but it often costs a pretty penny. The question then becomes is it worth it economically?
Glenn D. Steele Jr., MD, president and chief executive officer of Geisinger Health System, will step down next summer.
Not all medical infrastructure and equipment is created equal, as healthcare providers can attest. This year, after analyzing feedback from thousands of providers, KLAS officials have named the 2014 highest performing vendors across 23 different categories.
Electronic health records have a big role to play in improving hospitals' medication reconciliation, a new study finds, but challenges related to data quality, technology and workflow remain.
More than 5,000 IT staff from 194 nominated hospitals completed the 79-question online survey. To qualify to be considered a top hospital, at least half the employees in an IT department needed to complete the survey.
For at least the last decade, the health IT field has seen a scholarly back-and-forth on the effectiveness of electronic medical records. As soon as one study is published that finds technology has little impact on patient outcomes, another emerges that seems to show just the opposite. But, today, more accurate information is emerging.
After landing 11 new grants, clinicians at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center are gearing up for projects aimed at boosting care and engaging patients. The grants are aimed at making it possible for clinicians and other staff members to experiment with ways to boost care and also better involve patients.
Federal government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration, are being hindered in carrying out their missions due to growing complexity of their IT networks.
On the up side, more hospitals are adopting computerized physician order entry, which has proven to reduce medication error. On the down side, hospitals can't seem to get a handle on certain hospital-acquired infections.
When researchers at UPMC's Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh reviewed more than 1,000 pediatric consultations offered in Latin America via telemedicine, they found that physicians in those countries were highly satisfied with the service and believed telemedicine had improved patient outcomes.