Posts tagged EHR
New EHR-sharing plan introduced by Highmark
Aug 22nd
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (8/20, Nixon) reports that Pennslyvania’s largest health insurer, Highmark Inc., “is developing its own network to allow doctors and hospitals across Pennsylvania to easily share electronic health records.”
Although Highmark “is not ready to release details of the network, known as a health information exchange, such as cost or the hospital systems or software provider involved” a spokesman for the insurer said the network “is planned to be available to hospitals and doctors across the state.”
Highmark is Pennsylvania’s largest health insurer with more than 4 million members in the state.
As discussed in a previous post, the federal government is pushing exchanges and electronic medical records as ways to reduce medical errors, prevent duplicative treatment and reduce costs. The Tribune- Review reports that the anticipated interoperability of the exchanges with electronic medical records are “envisioned as being analogous to the world’s banking system, in which bank transactions are performed electronically and easily occur between different institutions.” Additionally, “[a]n exchange would allow a doctor to quickly pull medical records for a patient he or she is treating, no matter where that patient may have been treated in the past.”
For more information:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_752483.html#ixzz1VmhYvU00
Christine Salimbene, Vice President & General Counsel
Ms. Salimbene joined MTBC in 2009 as General Counsel, Vice President and Company Secretary. She and her team focus on mitigating business risk and ensuring compliance with all legal requirements.
Usability as the Essence of EHR Adoption Program
Apr 18th
We all know that EHR adoption is encouraged in the healthcare industry and the incentives that the government is willing to give help speed up the conversion process. However, adopting an EHR is just the beginning of the process. The conversion process isn’t complete until all healthcare providers implement it in their practices and keep using it. This requires that the implemented EHR technology is easily usable. However, most EHR vendors do not systematically conduct EHR usability testing.
The National Center for Cognitive Informatics and Decision Making (NCCIDM) in Healthcare noted that only a handful of EHR vendors have in-house teams working on usability issues.
Usability is one of the top barriers for physicians to adopt EHRs. While the research is ongoing, many EHR vendors don’t have much of an R&D budget on product usability. The NCCIDM research suggests that EHR vendors should consider this point and make strategic investments to address their workflow shortcomings.
With the advent of the federal incentive program, the scrutiny of EHR products has increased. Along with it comes the need to make investments in usability, which will be the first step towards sustainability and growth in the healthcare industry.
Care Connectivity Consortium to Demonstrate Feasibility of Cross-Country Data Exchange
Apr 5th
A new Care Connectivity Consortium (CCC) has been formed to consider the feasibility of cross-country health information exchange and to implement “interoperability tools” by the end of next year. The consortium includes five large integrated delivery systems, all of which are pioneers of EHR technology, including Geisinger Health System, Danville, Group Health Cooperative (GHC), Intermountain Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente and Mayo Clinic.
The objective of the consortium is to demonstrate improved care techniques and better data availability at remote locations. This will help integrated and instant access of valuable information about patient’s medications, allergies, and health conditions, allowing them to provide the right kind of treatment at the right time, anywhere.
The focus is on speeding up the process to form the National Health Information Network (NHIN). The consortium is also expected to conform to national HIT standards in constructing its data exchange.
Other providers and healthcare workers are also expected to take part in exchanging information and improving patient care. Regional health information exchanges might also work in alliance with the consortium to accomplish shared goals.