Clinical

With all the talk about patient engagement as a component of both meaningful use and of healthcare quality improvement, it seems to be lacking in one of the most obvious places of all: the hospital room.

A new survey from the American Health Information Management Association finds that 95 percent of the more than a thousand healthcare industry professionals queried believe that "high-value information" is essential for improving patient safety and care quality.

It's a chilling reality -- one often overlooked in annual mortality statistics: Preventable medical errors persist as the No. 3 killer in the U.S. -- third only to heart disease and cancer -- claiming the lives of some 400,000 people each year. At a Congressional hearing July 17, patient safety officials put their best ideas forward on how to solve the crisis, with IT often at the center of discussions.

The Certification Commission has selected two new, all-volunteer panels to develop criteria for electronic health records in women's health and in oncology, the latest domains to be added to CCHIT's certification programs.