Diagnosing Your Healthcare IT Ailment

As healthcare organizations move forward with the installation of electronic medical record systems, they face a big decision – whether to control the system in-house or to outsource their IT management. In making a decision about outsourcing, many elements need to be taken into consideration. There are five major reasons why healthcare providers go with… Read more »

Understanding Meaningful Use Stage Two: Patient Portals

As healthcare providers move to meet Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements, they are looking at ways of providing patients with greater access to their health information. The main goal of Stage 2 is to use clinical decision support (CDS) and care coordination to improve the overall quality of care by providers. As such, Stage 2… Read more »

Healthcare and the Adoption of the Cloud

Cloud computing has become a mainstay of the business world because of the advantages it offers – the ability to store large amounts of information and deliver it on demand, allowing users powerful IT access without having to worry about IT maintenance. It is also making big inroads in healthcare and is predicted to have… Read more »

Increasing Healthcare Productivity Through Mobile Applications

Information technology has brought productivity increases in many areas, and it has the potential to increase productivity in healthcare as well. One area where technology is likely to have a major productivity impact is with mobile applications. Recent surveys show that there is a significant trend of physicians using mobile applications in their practices. Although… Read more »

Is Your Facility at Risk Because of Security Shortages?

With the amount of work being done online and the huge number of online transactions, maintaining the privacy and integrity of digital information becomes a big issue. Cybersecurity has become a major problem as vulnerabilities emerge in online systems. Even though the need for protection is increasing, the shortage of IT professionals who know about… Read more »

Healthcare Facilities Concerns Heightened in the Digital Age

In the age of electronic health records, the issue of patient privacy has acquired new urgency. With information stored electronically, it can be accessed by multiple users from different locations from any computer terminal, as well as mobile devices. Some electronic medical records also have patient portals so that patients can access their records as… Read more »

A Strong IT Department Can Reduce Treatment Disparities

Information technology has the potential to bring great improvements in the quality of healthcare in many different areas. One of those areas is reducing the disparities in treatment among different communities, especially in minority communities. Computer technology can facilitate the collection and use of demographic data to improve the quality of care for minority communities…. Read more »

Healthcare Facilities Struggle to Easily Share Data

Over the past few years, the healthcare industry has begun to heavily rely on technology to document, track, and disseminate medical information. The sharing of data is a huge challenge, as it is currently difficult to share individual patient information between different medical providers. This sharing of information becomes even more important when a patient… Read more »

ICD-10 Deadline Is Approaching. Will You Meet It?

If you are involved in healthcare, you know a big deadline is looming. The date is October 1, 2014. That’s the deadline for all healthcare providers to begin using Clinical Modification ICD-10-CM for diagnosis coding and Procedure Coding System ICD-10-PCS for inpatient procedure coding. It will be a huge undertaking, and if healthcare providers, vendors,… Read more »

The Looming Transition of the Stage 2 of “Meaningful Use”

Hospitals and other medical facilities have been educated on Meaningful Use and how that relates to the implementation of electronic healthcare records in their facility. Stage 2 of the Meaningful Use program is slated to begin in 2014. Stage 2’s final regulations, that were recently published, are emphasizing interoperability, the ability of providers to share… Read more »