By Fred Lizza – Among the multitudes of challenges facing providers and patients in healthcare, from lack of access to lack of funds, communication issues are too often overlooked. This is because the way we do things is often seen as secondary to the thing itself.
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Health information management leaders told members of Congress that removal of a nearly two-decade ban on the use of federal funds to adopt a nationwide unique patient identifier would allow collaboration between the HHS and the private sector to identify solutions….
By Joseph H. Schneider MD, MBA – Sitting on the exam table before a routine procedure, I listened as the nurse reviewed my medical information. She checked my name, address, and birthday. All was well until she said “..and you are allergic to Wellbutrin, Toradol, Darvon and sulfa”.
By Christian Kratsas – Care coordination missteps are damaging to providers across the healthcare industry and one huge, overarching mistake is apparent: not enough information is being shared.
By D’Arcy Gue – Most of the time, discussions about behavioral health EHR costs focus almost exclusively on the actual outlay for the system, implementation and ongoing maintenance. Maybe hardware is also included when the behavioral health hospital in question doesn’t have the requisite foundation.
By Shefali Luthra – Medical errors are estimated to be the third-highest cause of death in the country. Experts and patient safety advocates are trying to change that. But at least one of the tools that’s been considered a fix isn’t yet working as well as it should, suggests a report released on April 7, 2016.
Imagine a scenario in which a patient goes to a doctor’s office or a hospital and is misidentified or matched to the wrong medical record. Imagine a doctor making critical decisions based on someone else’s medical history. Imagine if that patient is a loved one. Unfortunately, this scene plays itself out too often in today’s healthcare environment — potentially as high as 20 percent of the time — largely because there’s no universal way of accurately identifying a patient, regardless of where they seek care.
By Barry P. Chaiken, MD, MPH – In many ways healthcare is like Mikko’s ballet company. Although information technology can enhance care planning, assist in medication administration and reduce duplicative testing, it cannot replace the people required to deliver care services to patients. Nurses are needed to administer medications, therapists are needed to provide treatments, and physicians are needed to diagnose illnesses and provide treatment plans.