EMR Implementation & HITECH Act Blog
A blog for doctors and medical office staff seeking assistance with EMR and the HITECH Act.
Monthly Archives: October 2009
2009
EMRs And Data Mining: A Double-Edged Sword
In many respects, an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) is no different from a credit card record. It is lightning fast and it never forgets anything. That makes EMRs perfect for data mining.
Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School recently used computers to mine more than 500,000 de-identified medical records of Massachusetts residents. They wanted to see if there was any pattern in those records that would enable them to predict future diagnoses of domestic abuse.
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Filed under: Electronic Medical Records
Tagged: EMR, EMR Data Mining, Predictive Medicine
2009
EMRs Offer Significant Benefits to Medical Offices
We hear a lot of talk about Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) in a medical office, and all the potential trials and tribulations you may face implementing them. When you look past all the talk about incentives, implementation and compliance, there are some solid benefits to be gained by a medical office implementing EMRs.
Here are a few question to ask yourself:
How many patient records does your staff pull – and later refile — for you and the rest of your medical office during the course of a month? EMRs will eliminate that cost. Even if you cut the cost of filing by just one or two FTEs in a year, that could easily be a $20-30,000 annual savings.
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Filed under: EMR, Electronic Medical Records
Tagged: EMR, EMR and Malpractice, EMR Benefits, EMR Cost Savings
2009
EMR Software Can Benefit Health Care Professionals in Geriatric Medicine
Health care professionals in geriatric medicine know that patients can require a significant amount of medical care at a variety of facilities. The challenge is in updating medical records, unless of course the patient’s records are maintained with electronic medical record (EMR) software. Considering the volume of care provided to geriatric patients as well as the number of physicians who require access to their records, EMR software can provide a real benefit. With it, general practitioners and other primary caregivers are able to more effectively manage the flow of the patient’s received care.
But the question you really want to know is: How can EMR software enable caregivers in geriatrics to more effectively practice quality health care?
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Filed under: EMR, Electronic Medical Records
Tagged: Electronic Medical Records, EMR Software, Geriatric EMR
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
Risk-Benefit Analysis of Web-Based EMRs
Have you been researching web-based electronic medical records (EMRs) to determine whether it would be the best choice for your medical practice? If so, then you’ve probably spent some time considering the advantages and disadvantages, reading different reviews, and trying to gauge from company descriptions if online, web-based EMR software is the right route. As an alternative to the pro/con debate framing this choice, it might be more helpful to consider a risk/benefit analysis in the decision-making process.
Web-based EMRs carry with them a certain amount of risk, which includes both real and perceived risk.
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Filed under: EMR, Electronic Medical Records, Web-Based EMR
Tagged: Electronic Medical Records, EMR Risk Analysis, EMR Security, EMR Software
2009
Health Information Technology: A View From The Inside, Part 2
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In a continuation of yesterday’s post, we’ll finish our discussion with Dr. Brian Keaton, President and CEO of NEO RHIO. NEO RHIO is a Regional Health Information Organization serving 22 counties in Northeast Ohio. Dr. Keaton is a past President and Board Chairman of the 26,000 member American College of Emergency Physicians, an emergency physician and a professor of emergency medicine at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. Let’s continue to hear from him about how all the pieces of the EMR puzzle will fit together in relation to the HITECH Act.
Filed under: EMR, Electronic Medical Records, HITECH Act
Tagged: EMR, HITECH, HITECH Incentives, RHIO
2009
Health Information Technology: A View From The Inside, Part 1
Continue reading »Dr. Brian Keaton is President and CEO of NEO RHIO, a Regional Health Information Organization serving 22 counties in Northeast Ohio. He is a past President and Board Chairman of the 26,000 member American College of Emergency Physicians, an emergency physician and a professor of emergency medicine at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. We caught up with him between meetings and talked with him about how all the pieces of the EMR puzzle will fit together.
Filed under: Electronic Medical Records, HITECH Act, RHIO
Tagged: EMR, HIE, HIPAA, HITECH and RHIO, Regional Extension Center, RHIO
2009
The HITECH Act – what it means to a health care professional
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, otherwise known as the HITECH Act, is on the minds of many health care professionals. This legislation will affect technical, procedural and managerial aspects of your daily practice. Specifically, the HITECH Act will address the issue of computer upgrades as well as electronic storage of patients’ medical records. Continue reading below video >>
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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