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UK hospital goes paperless

East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust will use Harris Healthcare’s Clinical Integration Platform to create a paperless and mobile clinical environment. The trust has signed a pilot agreement for 500 licenses, and plans to use the clinical portal to gather patient information from different clinical systems that currently work in isolation. These systems include patient administration, pathology, document management, vital signs monitoring and PACS. “We have chosen to pilot [...]

 

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Judge rules hospital must provide EMR access in hepatitis C case

CONCORD, NH – New Hampshire’s Merrimack County Superior Court issued an order Thursday requiring Exeter Hospital to provide access to its electronic medical record database, so public health officials can continue their investigation into a major hepatitis C outbreak.The court recognized that state law “explicitly bestows the responsibility of conducting outbreak investigations while simultaneously protecting certain health information to the trained professionals of the DHHS.”It noted that Public Health provided [...]

 

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Hospital execs slow to measure technology ROI

WEYMOUTH, MA – Most healthcare C-suite members are dissatisfied with their organizations’ efforts to measure return-on-investment from clinical IT systems, according to a new report from Beacon Partners. The survey, “Finding the ROI in Clinical IT Systems,” polled more than 300 healthcare executives, including CEOs, CIOs, CMIOs and CFOs. Beacon Partners, a healthcare management consulting firm, sought to analyze how hospitals and care delivery organizations use clinical system performance measures [...]

 

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Hospital EMR helps curb hep C outbreak, but privacy concerns linger

EXETER, NH – Exeter Hospital officials say the organization’s electronic medical record (EMR) system helped identify patients infected with the hepatitis C virus and ultimately prompted the hospital’s notification to the New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services. In the case of David Kwiatkowski, the radiology technician hired by Exeter Hospital who exposed thousands of patients to the hepatitis C virus, officials say the hospital’s EMR allowed physicians to access [...]

 

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Hospital location, staff skill boost EMR savings

EVANSTON, IL – It’s confirmed. Electronic medical records can indeed yield marked savings for hospitals, according to a new study by the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University that finds these savings depend on both the IT prowess of hospital staff and the institution’s proximity to IT-dense locations. The study addresses the debate between two schools of thought regarding EMRs: those who claim the systems can save hospitals money in [...]

 

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Miami hospital data breach due to employee offense

MIAMI, FL – Officials at the University of Miami Hospital have notified patients affected by a July data breach, stating in a letter that, upon investigation, two university employees were found to be “inappropriately accessing” patient information and may have sold the data.[See also: 10 of the largest data breaches in 2012 ... so far.]Specifically, the letter states that these employees were accessing patient “face sheets,” which include names, dates [...]

 

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Raza Haroon visits Fauzia Wahab in Hospital

www.mqm.org http Member of the Co-ordination Committee of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and provincial minister for Information Technology Mr Raza Haroon visited a local hospital where PPP leader Ms Fauzia Wahab is admitted. He met her son Mr Murtaza Wahab and inquired about her health and well-being on behalf Mr Altaf Hussain. He also prayed for her speedy recovery from illness.

 

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Hospital Finds Workflow Automation Solution

The Children’s Hospital of Boston, MA, a 392-bed comprehensive center for pediatric health care, records approximately 18,000 inpatient admissions each year, which translates to more than 150 outpatient programs and emergency services care for more than 300,000 patients annually. Children’s Hospital, home to the world’s largest pediatric research facility with 1,200 driven scientists and staff, has made it their goal to continuously improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the medical [...]

 

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Hospital chief pleads guilty in case over firing of Texas nurses

Stan Wiley, former hospital administrator of Winkler County Memorial Hospital, Kermit Texas, pleaded guilty to abuse of official capacity for his role in the firing of two nurses who had complained about a doctor to the Texas Medical Board, according to the Texas attorney general’s office. Wiley was sentenced to 30 days in the Winkler County Jail by visiting Judge Robert H. Moore III as part of a plea deal [...]

 

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CMS Clarifies Hospital Patient Requirements Under Meaningful Use

Last week, CMS revised an online frequently asked questions site regarding provisions in the meaningful use program that affect patient-reporting requirements for hospitals, AHA News reports. Under the 2009 economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health records can qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments. According to the revised FAQ site, eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals have two choices concerning the type [...]

 

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Addicted healers: Doctors who abuse drugs, endanger patients are not rare

JOEL HOOD, Chicago Tribune CHICAGO — Richard Ready had been a drinker most of his life, but by the time he became chief resident of neurosurgery at a prominent Chicago-area hospital, it was drugs, not alcohol, that kept him going. Ready took stimulants to keep alert through his daily rounds. He took heavy pain relievers to numb his emotions after his mother’s death. He wrote himself a prescription for the [...]

 

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MGMA report: EHRs boost practices' financial performance

Medical practices that have implemented an electronic health record (EHR) system report better financial performance than those that have not, according to the Medical Group Management Association’s (MGMA’s) newly released Electronic Health Records Impacts on Revenue, Costs, and Staffing: 2010 Report Based on 2009 Data. Practices that were not owned by a hospital or integrated delivery system (IDS) and that had an EHR reported $49,916 greater total medical revenue after [...]

 

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Hospital Group And Physicians Looking At ACOs; Harvard To Open Primary Care Education Center

Modern Healthcare: “In an Oct. 27 letter to the CMS, the Federal Trade Commission and HHS inspector general’s office, the Federation of American Hospitals offered comments on accountable care organizations. … Of particular interest, the letter noted, is whether—and how—the government would establish a safe harbor so that qualifying ACOs can have a degree of certainty when dealing with commercial payers.” An excerpt from the letter reads, “The absence of [...]

 

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Hospital Infections Boost at Least One Area of IVD

Hospital acquired infections, or HAIs remain a problem for the healthcare system, and a problem in which new diagnostic products can play a role, according to Kalorama Information. In its report, “The Worldwide Market for In Vitro Diagnostic Tests,” the healthcare market research publisher details how sophisticated molecular tests that can quickly identify patients for isolation and treatment are being utilized despite their higher price tag. Kalorama forecasts that revenues [...]

 

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Fiscal management boosts hospital results

This week brought another snapshot of how not-for-profit hospitals fared last year as unemployment climbed and shaken markets dropped sharply before beginning to recover. Moody’s Investors Service published the median financial performance for about 400 hospitals and health systems that operate in one state with a credit rating from the agency. For two-thirds of the not-for-profits in the analysis, fiscal 2009 ended in September or earlier, and the year started [...]