Quality and Safety
With profligate use of CT and MRI scans widely blamed for increased healthcare spending, a new report shows that pairing automated prior authorization with evidence-based guidelines can ensure such tests are only used when necessary, improving patient safety while reducing medical costs by perhaps 40 percent.
The 24-hospital Sutter Health system was the talk of the town late August after a software glitch rendered its $1 billion electronic health record system inaccessible to nurses and clinical staff. Reflecting back, a Sutter nurse talks about what the health system should have done differently.
The Southeast Michigan Beacon Community, one of 17 projects nationwide awarded federal money to spur health IT initiatives, has announced that although it didn't hit the bull's eye on every mark, the project has achieved six of seven target quality measures for type 2 diabetes patients.
Mayo Clinic will be working with Northern Arizona University to test the feasibility of using a telemedicine robot to assess athletes with suspected concussions during football games.
Dr. Donald Berwick might be running for Governor of Massachusetts, but he's still got a foothold in his former life. Berwick has a long record as the leading authority on healthcare quality and now he finds himself making recommendations for improving safety and restoring confidence in England's National Health Service
The nearly $1 billion electronic health record system at Sutter Health in Northern California crashed in August, leaving nurses and clinical staff not only unable to access vital patient information for a full day, but also scrambling to record new data on paper.
Chock full of IT talent, the San Diego Beacon community is well positioned for a sustainable future. As its health information exchange gains momentum, it's starting to see "how the water flows through the pipes."
Three years after procuring a $16.1 million HHS grant to bolster local health IT initiatives and diabetic care management, the Western New York Beacon Community has chronicled mixed success -- at least in the quantifiable sense. Anecdotally, however, its success becomes much more striking, officials say.
Arguing that IT offers the opportunity to help "every American" lead a full and healthy life, the Consumer Partnership for eHealth, a coalition of more than 50 consumer, patient and labor organizations, has published an action plan designed to ensure that disparities of care are a critical focus of Stage 3 meaningful use.
Edith Ramirez, the Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission laid out the case for strong consumer protections regulating the private industry's use of big data, as the agency asks Congress for the power to level civil fines against businesses for weak consumer data security. Speaking at the Aspen Forum, Ramirez offered "A view from the lifeguard's chair."