EHRs Target Quality, Safety, Efficiency & Access

June 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment

By Brian O’Neill

Just a decade ago, the adoption of electronic health records and other health information technology (such as computer physician order entry) was minimal in the United States. Fewer than 10 percent of American hospitals had implemented HIT while a mere 16 percent of primary care physicians used any form of EHRs. But that is all changing.

The HITECH Act, part of the 2009 economic stimulus package passed by Congress, aimed at inducing more physicians to adopt EHR as a way to improve quality, safety, efficiencies and access. Title IV of the act, in fact, promises maximum incentive payments for Medicaid to those physicians who adopt and use “certified EHRs” beginning in 2011. On the flip side, physicians who do not convert to EHRs by 2015 will be penalized by a reduction in Medicare payments.

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Medical Device Integration: A “Meaningful” Way to Mature the EHR

January 17, 2011 by 1 Comment

By Dave Dyell

There are a lot of reasons to pay attention to medical device integration (MDI). Here’s a major one: MDI is directly connected to returns on your EMR investment. Basically, the more “meaningful” the use of the hospital’s EMR, the better positioned that hospital is to receive federal stimulus dollars.

So what does MDI have to do with “meaningful use?” A lot. MDI unifies all of the digital information generated by individual devices in a hospital, automating the flow of this data directly into a patient’s electronic medical record. The result? A more robust and relevant EMR.

For this reason, hospital boards committed to meeting the federal government’s “meaningful use” requirements are paying attention to MDI. They’re paying attention for other reasons, too. Just as MDI is intimately tied to maturing the EMR, it is also tied to improvements in productivity, safety, and access to data throughout the hospital and beyond.

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Four Tips for Successful EMR Implementation

January 6, 2011 by 1 Comment

Ron Wince

By Ron Wince, Guidon Performance Solutions

America’s health system is on the brink of significant transformation.  Due to the layered complexity of the health care reform legislation, nearly every participant in the health system will be affected, including providers, patients, payers and government agencies.  While providers will have much on their minds in the coming months, from mandates on reimbursement and payment reform to measurement and reporting of care, the most groundbreaking of these changes is the urgency to implement and adopt a system of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs).

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Filed Under: EMR, Technology