03/11/2013
Some hospitals say that CMS' Hospital Compare website includes inaccurate data on emergency department wait times because of coding errors. A spokesperson for CMS said that hospitals had an opportunity to review the data and make corrections by a set deadline. HealthLeaders Media.
03/11/2013
A new survey by the National eHealth Collaborative finds that stakeholders see the ability to enhance care coordination as a major driver of health information exchange, while costs are seen as a major barrier to health data exchange. Clinical Innovation & Technology, FierceEMR.
03/07/2013
A new data brief from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT finds that the percentage of U.S. acute care hospitals with a basic EHR system more than tripled from 12.2% in 2009 to about 44.4% in 2012. In a separate data brief, ONC examines the increase in hospital capabilities to meet certain meaningful use objectives. Becker's Hospital Review, Health Data Management.
02/28/2013
A College of Healthcare Information Management Executives survey finds that chief information officers at health care organizations had an average annual salary of $208,417 last year, which is higher than average CIO pay across all industries. Healthcare IT News et al.
02/25/2013
A study finds that Facebook "likes" could be an indicator of hospital quality and patient satisfaction. According to the study, hospitals' Facebook "likes" had a negative association with mortality rates and a positive association with patient recommendation. FierceHealthIT, HIT Lab release.
02/22/2013
A new study finds that the use of computerized provider order entry systems contributed to a 12.5% decline in medication errors in 2008. According to the study, a total of about 17.4 million prescription errors were avoided that year because of CPOE systems. Medscape et al.
02/15/2013
Health insurers, pharmacy benefit managers and health care providers are using data analytics for several purposes, such as to predict which patients are most likely to generate high costs or which patients are likely to be admitted to the hospital. Wall Street Journal.
02/13/2013
A new report by the American Health Information Management Association and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society aims to provide insight on the staffing and workforce needs of health information exchange organizations. Healthcare IT News, FierceHealthIT.
02/12/2013
A new report from research firm KLAS finds that physicians using best-of-breed emergency department information systems rated their experience 59% higher than physicians using ED tools that are part of an enterprise health IT system. Healthcare IT News, InformationWeek.
02/11/2013
IBM has released two new applications that use its Watson supercomputer to help health care providers and insurers make decisions about patient care and insurance coverage. One of the new decision support tools offers recommendations for treating patients with lung cancer and the other tool recommends treatments that should be covered by insurers. AP/Atlanta Journal-Constitution et al.
02/07/2013
A survey by communications firm Level 3 finds that health care CIOs list electronic health record implementation, meaningful use and compliance as their top health IT priorities for 2013. Most respondents say they plan to increase IT spending this year. Healthcare IT News et al.
02/05/2013
The American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitals have sent separate letters to CMS outlining their concerns that electronic health record systems are not yet fully capable of accurately reporting clinical quality measures. AHA News, Modern Healthcare.
02/04/2013
A group of Michigan medical researchers argue in a New England Journal of Medicine perspective that electronic health records could help boost intensive care unit triaging. They added that the meaningful use incentive program could accelerate progress in this area. Clinical Innovation & Technology et al.
01/30/2013
A report by the Washington State Health Care Authority finds that electronic data sharing and other best practices helped the state reduce Medicaid costs and cut down on unnecessary emergency department visits among Medicaid beneficiaries. Becker's Hospital Review et al.
01/11/2013
The American Hospital Association is asking CMS to quickly address a claims processing issue that AHA says excludes some physicians from the meaningful use program. The issue affects physicians who bill Medicare using the Method 2 approach. Becker's Hospital Review et al.