Quality and Safety
It's a chilling reality -- one often overlooked in annual mortality statistics: Preventable medical errors persist as the No. 3 killer in the U.S. -- third only to heart disease and cancer -- claiming the lives of some 400,000 people each year. At a Congressional hearing July 17, patient safety officials put their best ideas forward on how to solve the crisis, with IT often at the center of discussions.
Geisinger Health System announced a new initiative this week that will offer patients access to advanced cancer treatment protocols and clinical trials. By partnering with Hamburg, Germany-based Indivumed, the health system has set its sights on the "next generation" of oncology, according to President and CEO Glenn D. Steele, Jr., MD.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not routinely get involved in telling hospitals how to run operations, but with increasing reports of EHR deployment problems, the Atlanta-based operation now sees the need to act.
The computerized physician order entry market will grow at 6.5 percent over five years, from $938.4 million in 2013 to more than $1.2 billion in 2018, according to a new report from research firm MicroMarket Monitor.
There are many dimensions to the Accountable Care Organization challenge, including the logistics of changing a well-established acute care model, the process of configuring the network, analyzing IT capabilities across the spectrum and determining how all those moving parts will work together.
Who's to blame when EHR implementations go south? There's often enough fault to go around. But when the fallout is bad enough, sometimes self-interested parties are all too ready to point fingers.
The use of smart pump technology has been proven to reduce the frequency of errors in the administration of intravenous drugs. But software glitches and other potentially dangerous problems persist.
One medical practice is in much better position for Stage 2 meaningful use, as an ongoing project that relays data from implantable cardiac devices directly into personal health records continues to show encouraging early returns.
The U.S. Senate voted in Sylvia Matthews Burwell as the new Secretary of Health and Human Services on Thursday afternoon. Burwell, the former head of the Office of Management and Budget, was confirmed 78-17. Before and after the vote, Burwell both faced her share of fire and garnered high praise.
Does your organization have a comprehensive data governance program? If not, you're not alone. But you're also not close to where you should be if you want to provide better care at lower cost, according to a new report.