EMR Implementation & HITECH Act Blog
A blog for doctors and medical office staff seeking assistance with EMR and the HITECH Act.
Category Archives: Electronic Health Records
2010
NIST Begins Rolling Out EHR Performance Testing Program
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There are hundreds and hundreds of Electronic Health Record software packages in the marketplace that claim to be capable of allowing you to establish meaningful use, but how do you know if those claims are true? So far there has not been an impartial, independent way to determine the truthfulness of a vendor’s claims.
Filed under: Electronic Health Records, HITECH Act, Meaningful Use
Tagged: EHR, Electronic Health Records, HITECH Act
2010
MIPPA Provides Incentives for E-Prescribing
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American health care providers write close to 3 billion prescriptions per year, according to a number of estimates, with about 80% of them being written by hand. A recent study conducted by the Weill Cornell Medical School in New York found that about 4 of every 10 handwritten prescriptions had an error while the rate of errors found in electronic prescriptions is around one-seventh of that, or about 6%.
2010
Financing of EMRs Carries Both Risks and Rewards
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Physicians looking to adopt Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are facing an interesting dilemma. Incentive money won’t be available from the government for the the implementation of EHRs until 2011, but implementation will require spending substantial amounts of money now – as much as $25,000 to $50,000 per provider, by some estimates – to get the system up and running and qualify for those incentives.
Filed under: EHR, EMR, Electronic Health Records
Tagged: EHR, Electronic Health Records, Electronic Medical Records, EMR, EMR Software, HITECH Incentives
2010
EMR/EHRs For Neurologists – What To Look For
The American Academy of Neurology convened a work group to look at EMR/EHR systems and formulate a set of recommendations for neurologists as they evaluate systems for their practices. Here’s what they suggested.
Electronic Prescribing – This should be a part of any practice’s system. The ability to electronically prescribe medications will add convenience and improve both efficiency and patient safety.
Documentation and Progress Notes – Documentation and progress notes are the most time-consuming ongoing task in patient care. Dictation has costs and doesn’t lend itself to producing the discrete data needed for decision support databases, and typing is too time consuming. The group favors systems with advanced template and list systems to facilitate this function
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Filed under: Electronic Health Records, Electronic Medical Records
Tagged: American Academy of Neurology, EHR, EMR, neurology
2009
The Acronyms of HITECH: What Do They All Mean? (Part 1)
The effort to create an NHIN and implement electronic medical records/electronic health records (EMR/EHRs) available through RHIOs while still complying with HIPAA has created an alphabet soup of terms, acronyms and initials in various combinations.
To help you sort out what all these terms mean, we have created a short glossary. This is Part 1 (Part 2 will be published tomorrow). Because almost everything here seems to be subject to change, this will be a living document of sorts.
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2009
CPOEs, EHRs and Massachusetts Law
Massachusetts takes its electronic health records (EHRs) very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that last year it passed a law requiring hospitals to use EHRs and doctors to be competent using EHRs by 2015. The same law also mandated hospital use of computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems by October 1, 2012.
The law, signed by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, also created and funded the Massachusetts e-Health Institute (MeHI) to be the guiding force behind the implementations of Electronic Health Records and CPOE. Part of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech), a statewide development agency, MeHI is already looking at EHRs for use in Massachusetts hospitals.
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Filed under: CPOE, EHR, Electronic Health Records, HIT, HITECH Act
Tagged: CPOE, EHR, Electronic Health Records, HITECH Act
2009
ARRA Incentives for EHR Implementation: How Much and When?
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) includes reimbursements to hospitals and physicians for electronic health record (EHR) implementation. Amounts and schedules are subject to change as the rules and regulations are finalized, but we can go over what EHR implementation reimbursement specifics look like today.
There are four possible reimbursement scenarios. Let’s take a look at EHR implementation financial incentives for each:
2009
Phases of an EHR Implementation: Steps to Building Success
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The reality of electronic health record (EHR) implementation draws closer and medical staffs are ramping up. They wonder: what impact will this have on day-to-day practice? Some health care professionals tapped as project leaders are already planning the steps necessary to set up an EHR system. They’ve realized that an EHR implementation roll-out will take time and the investment of a team to coordinate the entire system.
2009
The Children’s Hospital Boston: EMR Software Linked to Patient EHR
The Children’s Hospital Boston recently reported that the electronic medical record (EMR) software in its Children’s Center will feed stored relevant data directly to patient health records. This will allow for parents of patients to share updated contents of their children’s electronic health records (EHRs) with various health care providers. This is a great example of how EMR software can be used by an organization to bring added value to the patient data they currently store. Now the gap between concerned parents and their child’s physicians can be bridged.
As medical staff seek to find the best EMR usage, examples such as Children’s Hospital Boston are important to consider. For pediatric clinics and general practitioners alike, this implementation shows both a thoughtful means of patient care and an inspirational usage of EMR software.
David Hill
PC Healthstop Blogging Team
Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/garylerude/ / CC BY-ND 2.0
2009
RHIOs: The Glue That Will Hold HIT Together
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Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs) will serve as an infrastructure for – and enable sharing of — electronic health information. A RHIO is designed to pull together all of the organizations, facilities and individuals in the race to computerize health data. Implementers such as hospitals, medical offices, laboratories, payers, insurers and patients all have a stake and must have their issues taken into account. That’s where RHIOs come in.
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