EMR Implementation & HITECH Act Blog
A blog for doctors and medical office staff seeking assistance with EMR and the HITECH Act.
Tag Archives: Electronic Health Records
2010
NIST Begins Rolling Out EHR Performance Testing Program
Continue reading »
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
Continue reading »
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
HIT Safety Concerns Spotlighted by FDA, HHS and Senator Grassley
Continue reading »
We’re less than a year into the implementation of the HITECH Act signed into law by an administration that wants every American to have an EMR by 2014, and questions are already being raised as to the safety of Health Information Technology. It looks more and more like error and adverse event reporting will be an integral part of implementation of EHRs. Both Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plan to start tracking errors caused or created by EMRs, EHRs and other health information technologies.
Filed under: CPOE, EHR, EMR, HITECH Act
Tagged: CPOE, EHR, Electronic Health Records, Electronic Medical Records, EMR, HITECH, HITECH Implementation
2010
Massachusetts Receives $24 Million in HIT Funding
Continue reading »
Massachusetts, long a leader in the delivery of quality medical care to its citizens, has just received more than $24 million from the federal government to speed the adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs) throughout the Commonwealth.
Filed under: EMR, Electronic Medical Records, HIT
Tagged: EHR Privacy, Electronic Health Records, Electronic Medical Records, EMR, EMR Implementation, HIT, Meaningful Use
2010
Financing of EMRs Carries Both Risks and Rewards
Continue reading »
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
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.
Continue reading »
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.
Continue reading »
Filed under: CPOE, EHR, Electronic Health Records, HIT, HITECH Act
Tagged: CPOE, EHR, Electronic Health Records, HITECH Act
2009
RHIOs: The Glue That Will Hold HIT Together
Continue reading »
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.
2009
The Advantage of EMR Software Customization: Using Templates
Continue reading »
One of the greatest benefits of migrating to an electronic medical record (EMR) system is being able to customize templates in the EMR software. Templates can be designed to suit a broad range of needs for authorized users. After all, EMRs promise to store a patient’s entire medical history: scans, x-rays and test results along with notes from various medical practitioners. EMR software customization is key for your successful practice.
Filed under: EMR, Electronic Medical Records
Tagged: EHR, Electronic Health Records, Electronic Medical History, EMR, EMR Customization, EMR Software, EMR Templates
2009
EMR Software in the Exam Room, but on What Hardware?
Continue reading »
As medical offices adopt EMR systems, the question will likely arise: Should we use laptop or desktop computers in the exam rooms to run EMR software? Point-of-care access to patient records is key so a laptop may seem like a convenient solution. But laptops can have their own issues, which can be detrimental to medical offices.
Recent Comments