Quality and Safety

Thousands of clinical providers and provider organizations across the country will gain free access to what athenahealth executives describe as "a safe, privileged environment in which they can easily submit patient safety concerns and findings as well as share best practices to enhance safety and improve care."

Mobile devices have found their way into virtually every corner of the world, even in the most remote and least technologically developed countries. And this reality, says Joan Cornet, mHealth director at Mobile World Capital in Barcelona, has a "huge impact" on the potential of mobile health going forward.

Healthgrades' new report reveals how hospital selection can dramatically affect patient outcomes. The study, released Oct. 22, shows that individuals are far more likely to die or suffer complications at hospitals receiving the lowest Healthgrades rating.

The Cleveland Clinic's annual Medical Innovation Summit got under way at the new Global Center for Health Innovation on Oct. 15. Cleveland Clinic CIO C. Martin Harris spoke about how the health system stays nimble on the innovation front.

The patient identification issue refuses to go away, mainly because nobody has quite figured out how to assure proper patient identity in health information exchange. At the CHIME Fall CIO Forum in Phoenix, some leading hospital CIOs emphasized the importance of accurate patient matching.

UNC Health Care is using IBM big data analytics to help hospital workers reduce costly and preventable readmissions, decrease mortality rates and improve patient care.

Healthcare organizations with long-established electronic health records run the risk of "note bloat" and compromised patient safety unless they standardize physician documentation procedures and limit the amount of cutting-and-pasting doctors have to do, attendees of CHIME's Fall CIO Forum heard at a session on Oct. 9.

While physicians recognize the benefits of electronic health records, they also complain that many systems deployed nowadays are cumbersome to use and often act as obstacles to quality care, according to a new report from RAND Corporation.

HIMSS CEO H. Stephen Lieber spoke about the promise of health IT and collaboration Oct. 8 at the opening of the Global Center for Health Innovation in Cleveland, an initiative of local government, local healthcare providers, nonprofit organizations and health IT vendors that has been 10 years in the making.

While some observers wagered that he would succeed his colleague Farzad Mostashari, MD, as the new national coordinator, Principal Deputy David Muntz actually ended up departing ONC this past month alongside him. And as he announced his leave-taking, Muntz actually foreshadowed his next move.