Design Studio13 Jun 2013 13:54:50 CDTNAHAM Newsbriefhttp://multibriefs.com/briefs/NAHAM/NAHAM.xmlenHouse appropriators say they're "dismayed at the lack of progress" by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs in standing up an integrated electronic health record. A report accompanying the fiscal 2014 defense appropriations bill, which the Appropriations Committee approved June 12, says the current approach announced by departmental secretaries in February replaces the goal of a single, common EHR with the "as-of-yet unattainable goal of interoperability." 13 Jun 2013 13:54:50 CDThttp://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=51ba0ef1358751Satisfaction with electronic health records systems varies widely, and issues do not always lie with the systems themselves. With only a couple of exceptions, a new report from health information technology market research firm KLAS states that "the greatest frustration that we encountered was about vendor relations, rather than the software itself." The report, entitled "Ambulatory EMR Usability 2013, More Nurture than Nature", covers interviews with 163 providers from practices with more than 25 physicians. 13 Jun 2013 13:54:50 CDThttp://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=51b9f020639782Thomas Raskauskas, M.D, CEO of St. Vincent's Health Partners in Bridgeport, Conn., knows education is key for prepping Connecticut doctors for impending changes under the Affordable Care Act. St. Vincent's, a physician-hospital organization, recently developed a program with Fairfield County Medical Association that holds continuing medical education events every other month on the status of health system reform13 Jun 2013 13:54:50 CDThttp://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=51b9eb91d89783California issued penalties against 10 hospitals with fines totaling $625,000 for not complying with requirements that prevent patient safety risks, the California Department of Public Health reported. California Pacific Medical Center made the list twice for retained foreign objects, with St. Luke's Campus Hospital and Pacific Campus Hospital facing a $50,000 and $100,000 fine, respectively. 13 Jun 2013 13:54:50 CDThttp://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=51b9ee537b6a24The University of California-San Diego Health System has launched a telemedicine pilot program in order to help decrease emergency room wait times for patients, according to an announcement from the university. The program is designed to enable doctors to see patients via video when the ED becomes busy. Cameras will be used to bring on-call physicians who are outside of the hospital to the patient in need. In this scenario, offsite doctors are paged who then remotely link to a telemedicine station to see patients. 13 Jun 2013 13:54:50 CDThttp://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=51b9ef854f8c95Whether or not they're expanding coverage eligibility under the Affordable Care Act, state Medicaid programs are subject to a fair amount of financial and policy flux these days. But one area that can offer some control and the opportunity to improve the program's efficiency is Medicaid IT, especially if Medicaid agencies and state technology leaders consolidate systems for social service programs.13 Jun 2013 13:54:50 CDThttp://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=51b9e8c46416f6The federal government is upping the ante on healthcare providers to strengthen their policies and procedures for protecting electronic health information. On March 26, the final Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act omnibus rule went into effect, which strengthens the security and privacy rules and also extends direct liability for HIPAA security violations to Business Associates of HIPAA Covered Entities. This new rule is only the latest development in a far-reaching effort over the past three years by the federal government to greatly strengthen HIPAA enforcement and protection of confidential health information. 13 Jun 2013 13:54:50 CDThttp://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=51b9ec0cd723f7For too long, progress in preventing medication errors and other mistakes that compromise patient safety in healthcare facilities has been unacceptably slow and patients in the majority of U.S. hospitals may not be much safer today than they were 10 years ago, according to an editorial published in the Journal for Healthcare Quality.13 Jun 2013 13:54:50 CDThttp://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=51b9f17fdc0b68Health insurer Aetna beginning in August will offer hospital patient safety information to consumers via its DocFind online directory that aids in searching for physicians and hospitals in a geographic region. The safety information comes from the Leapfrog Group, an organization of large employers using their collective purchasing power to push for improved safety, quality and affordability. 13 Jun 2013 13:54:50 CDThttp://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=51b9f1c319ea49 The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is at the forefront of our nation's health IT efforts. ONC is actively supporting the adoption of health IT and the promotion of nationwide health information exchange in order to greatly improve our healthcare system. Creating policies and financial incentives for practices that use electronic health records (EHRs) based on government guidelines that promote certain technologies is one thing 13 Jun 2013 13:54:50 CDThttp://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=51b9f20a4bf3810As in many fields, it's taken for granted that a physician's education never really ends. But when it comes to continuing medical education, many healthcare stakeholders believe that the current system is, in a nutshell, broken. A 2010 report from the Institute of Medicine, "Redesigning Continuing Education in the Health Professions," summed it up: "The absence of a comprehensive and well-integrated system of continuing education in the health professions is an important contributing factor to knowledge and performance deficiencies at the individual and system levels." 13 Jun 2013 13:54:50 CDThttp://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=51b9f2cae1ed811Recent research has revealed that around 55 percent of medical bills in the United States include errors. With the surge in electronic health records, more and more practices are experiencing errors in their medical billing workflows and this is expected to increase over time. One of the main reasons for this predicament is the fact that practices spend more time implementing billing systems and less time in training their staff on how to use them effectively and accurately. 13 Jun 2013 13:54:50 CDThttp://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=51b9ec609aa1012Getting out front of possible federal regulation of their industry and its products, a trade group representing more than 40 developers of electronic health-record systems issued an EHR Developer Code of Conduct. By signing on, vendors would commit to dropping "gag clauses" that hinder patient-safety reporting and promise the smooth transfer of data from their products to another vendor's. 13 Jun 2013 13:54:50 CDThttp://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=51b9edd726b6c13For the past several years, hospital CEOs have been talking a big game about accountable care — the latest healthcare model, which pays doctors and hospitals for quality, rather than the volume of services they provide. ACOs make providers jointly accountable for the health of their patients, giving them financial incentives to cooperate and to save money by avoiding unnecessary tests and procedures. But investing in risk-sharing doesn't mean health systems are giving up on the fee-for-service system, which rewards providers for every test and treatment whether or not it improves the health of a patient. 13 Jun 2013 13:54:50 CDThttp://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=51b9e87ab062414Health information technology is full of promises — and ever-escalating costs. But there's one technology that could be bet on right now. That's the technology to accurately, securely and easily transfer health data information from one system to another. 13 Jun 2013 13:54:50 CDThttp://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=51b9ecc2e3b8e15