Quality and Safety

Sault Tribe Health Division also uses its specialized IT system to manage digital incident reporting and credentialing management.

The groups urge the Senate to follow the House's lead and finally lift the ban on federal funding for a nationwide unique patient identifier, making the case that it can help avoid serious safety risks due to matching errors.

More than two dozen organizations will get money from HRSA's new Rural Residency Planning and Development Program grants.

Etsimo's platform can help increase patient empathy by freeing up doctors' time while ensuring patients stay healthier longer, says co-founder and CEO Thomas Grandell.

Coroners have called for action to prevent further fatalities linked to the NHS Pathways system following 11 patient deaths.

Population health management vendor SPH Analytics is merging with SA Ignite, which develops tools to help providers optimize their performance scores for the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System. Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed. WHY IT MATTERS Together, the two companies will be able to offer more expansive technology for pop health and quality measurement, officials said, giving clients new tools to help them manage the transition to value-based reimbursement. The post-merger company will focus on helping provider customers meet quality measure requirements, educating them on the details of MIPS and other advanced value-based payment frameworks and offering consultative support to help clients to maximize the financial ROI of  new reimbursement models. The newly combined business serves more than 21,000 providers, including hospitals, physician practices and provider networks. THE LARGER TREND Healthcare providers have no shortage of quality measures, across a variety of federal programs, with which they're expected to comply for value-based reimbursement. This past week, for the first time, HHS announced that it will hold a Quality Summit to take a fresh look at the tangle of regulations and streamline them where necessary. Beyond these prescribed quality measures, however, more and more health systems are taking a more expansive view of population health, applying advanced analytics to stratify risk and, sometimes, using technology to help them intervene and improve the social determinants of health for those patients most at need. ON THE RECORD "This strategic alignment creates a meaningfully expanded client base and enables us to build on our impressive track record of helping clients achieve substantive and sustained results in their shift to value-based care," said Amy Amick, president and CEO of SPH Analytics, in a statement. "The SA Ignite solution set blends with our Population Care and Population Value solution lines in a highly complementary manner that will help us better serve our combined client base." “Working alongside electronic health records, our cloud-based IgniteMIPS software delivers powerful analytics that surface truly actionable improvement opportunities," added Tom S. Lee, CEO and founder of SA Ignite. "Now merged with SPH, we are able to offer our customers a broader suite of quality measures such as MIPS CQMs, HEDIS, and ACO measures, as well as cost and utilization analytics and patient level drill-down capabilities." Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.

The program is a labor of love for the health system’s chief information and administrative officer. And it’s helping entry level employees in IT move up to principal engineer/senior analyst.

The smartphone app also came in handy during a ransomware attack: When other systems were down, it was up and running.

The Quality Summit will convene healthcare stakeholders to explore ways the department's many quality programs can be assessed and adapted to better advance value-based care models.

Deborah Heart and Lung Center’s workforce development program for its health IT team centers around staff experts who teach new recruits about how technology works there – and across the wider healthcare industry.