EHR: Even in a Disaster Environment
When the life is upset by natural disaster, war and other events, documenting medical care and saving that information for future reference can be both highly beneficial to patient care and highly problematic. Two recent examples of this situation are Hurricane Katrina and the war in Afghanistan. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) have been shown to facilitate quality patient care as noted in our...
Read More20+ Federal Healthcare Apps
The federal government has developed several mHealth offerings. A USA.gov page lists 85 federal government mobile apps and mobile websites. 21 of them, or 25%, are healthcare related. Of these, 14 are apps, 6 are mobile websites and one is offered as both an app and a mobile website. Users with mobile devices made by Apple, iPhones and iPads, have the most app choices. Of the 15 healthcare apps...
Read MoreStaffing: Recruit, Train and Retain
In 2008 Forbes named healthcare the largest and fastest growing industry in the nation. While other industries are shrinking, the healthcare industry continues to make strides in growth. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS), the healthcare industry supports approximately 14.3 million jobs. Furthermore, the BLS states the healthcare sector grew by 720,000 jobs from December...
Read MoreTime for a Mobility Strategy?
Better and better mHealth are making increased use of better and better mobile hardware. The availability of high resolution photos, video chat, processing power, GPS service, and robust web browsers has spurred a new generation of apps. Patients are relying them and a new report indicates that the smart phone adoption rate is twice as high among physicians as the general population. With the...
Read MoreEHR: Now Comes the Hard Part
HHS is taking on a new EHR challenge. In recognition that the time for EHR has come (see our previous posts Are Patients Benefiting from EHR? and EHR Market Maturing), the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) faces the huge task of convincing the healthcare industry to adopt EHRs. The push to adopt not only makes sense in terms of patient care benefits and a...
Read MoreAre Patients Benefiting from EHR?
A study of 27,000+ diabetes sufferers in and around Cleveland, Ohio over 3 years found that care afforded to patients with EHRs met standards of care more often than patients with paper records. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, signals that federal investments in electronic health records (EHRs) could be leading to healthier patients. Highlights of the study’s...
Read MoreEHR Market Maturing
One signal that an industry is maturing – in a good way – is when its participants work together to develop standards that enable interoperability. In the case of Health IT, the federal government has promoted industry maturity. HHS has designated six organizations as Office of the National Coordinator Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies (ONC-ATCB). The designation...
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