Guest Contributors Who Maid Our Year Brighter
Day 8 of our 12 Days of Christmas Posts and by now you’re thinking we’re milking this whole Health IT in 2013 thing for all it’s worth. And you would be right.
We couldn’t let the season pass though without acknowledging some of the subject matter experts and bloggers who have contributed great content to this site throughout the year. From EHR adoption and patient engagement to data security and mobile apps, these eight contributors consistently shined a light on trending topics.
What Measures Success of an EHR Implementation by Professor William A. Hyman
Excerpt: A recent exchange with a colleague about his institution’s forthcoming EHR replacement project included the notions of when an EHR implementation was “finished”, and determining whether the adoption and implementation has been a “success.” I first asked if EHRs where ever finished, especially given the still evolving Meaningful Use (MU) requirements. In this regard Stage 3 will certainly require new EHR capabilities, so that the product will have to at a minimum be “upgraded”, and in a logistically worst case abandoned and replaced
Do Physicians Spend Too Much Time with Computers by Professor William Hersh, MD
Excerpt: A recent study of work hours of medical interns in the new era of duty hour regulations produced an interesting side finding, which is that modern medical interns spend about 40% of their time at a computer. To some, this prompted concern that computers were drawing medical trainees away from patients and their care.
Patient Centered Health IT as the Solution to Universal Health Identifiers by Robert Rowley, MD
Excerpt: The effort to build health IT products that are patient-facing, and able to pull together all the health information about oneself into one unified dashboard, is well underway. It is the inevitable next step in the evolution of health care data – putting patients at the center of their own data, and having them be the shepherds of it. In order to really achieve this in a scalable way, however, there is one big foundation-piece dilemma that needs to be resolved: establishing a unique patient identity.
Meaningful Use Incentives: The Big Giveback by Jim Tate
Excerpt: Take away, give away, and maybe even throw away. However you view the merit of incentivizing the adoption of EHRs those CMS meaningful use incentives have been bouncing all over the landscape for three years. There is no doubt that a river of cash has successfully fueled the adoption of electronic healthcare technology. As of September 2013 over 16 billion dollars has flowed into the coffers of healthcare providers
Quality Measurement 2.o by John Halamka, MD
Excerpt: There is a chasm between quality measurement expectations and EHR workflow realities causing pain to all the stakeholders – providers, government, and payers. Quality measures are often based on data that can only be gathered via manual chart abstraction or prompting clinicians for esoteric data elements by interrupting documentation. How do we fix CQMs?
HIPAA Security for iPhones by Joy Rios
Excerpt: While you may not be able to fully manage your staff’s personal gadgetry, you can certainly have policies in place to protect PHI on their mobile devices. When you’ve invested so much time and energy making sure your practice is HIPAA compliant, it would be a shame to have it all be in vain just because someone on your staff lost their phone or had it stolen
Being HIPAA Compliant is not a Snapshot in Time by Mike Semel
Excerpt: Protecting patient information is like protecting patient safety; it is something you have to do every time, by developing habits you don’t have to think about. Do you allow needles and instruments to be shared between patients? Do you touch patients with your dirty hands, or without gloves? Of course not, and you probably don’t even think about it anymore because these have become habits.
Hot Apps for Doctors and Hospitals by Michelle Rebecca
Excerpt: In the very recent past, it seems as though the whole world went mobile. Starting with basic car phones, then on to cell phones, and then finally the move to smartphones, technology has carved out better and better ways for people to stay connected on the fly.