One way to avoid HIPAA headaches

One way to avoid HIPAA headaches: "



With the April 20 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) deadline looming, a lot of CIOs are, well, freaking out. Not Garrett Martin.
'HIPAA has not really been a constraint for us, other than making sure that everybody logs off at night,' Martin said.
Martin is IT director for Canyonlands Community Health Care, a nonprofit in remote northern Arizona that provides medical care to an area that includes several Indian reservations.
For Canyonlands' Martin, the road to HIPAA compliance was paved by a brand new system--and the risks that a new Internet system posed to patient's privacy rights."

It's the Year for E-health Records - Computerworld

It's the Year for E-health Records - Computerworld: "In a recent visit to the Cleveland Clinic, Bush declared that every doctor in the U.S. should use EHRs to improve quality and reduce cost. In his 2004 State of the Union address and during the presidential campaign, he called for the nation to eliminate paper medical records within a decade.
Other countries are doing that. The U.K. has allocated �6 billion to build a network of EHRs. In Sweden, 85% of physicians use EHRs.
Why is all this happening? Simple: The existing medical system is drowning in the inefficiency caused by lack of automation. "

Data on ER visits, pharmacy sales may help war on terror

Data on ER visits, pharmacy sales may help war on terror: "In the fight against terrorism, few stones are left unturned.
Every day, patient data from a handful of emergency rooms is sent to the Indiana State Department of Health to be crunched and analyzed.
An epidemiologist watches intently for upward trends in rashes, fevers and unexplained deaths. Or a sudden surge in over-the-counter drug sales.
The practice -- called syndromic surveillance -- broke onto the public health scene immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and later anthrax deaths.
The surveillance method is widely viewed as a tool to detect a possible bioterrorism attack. Computers allow the instant sharing of data, so rapidly spreading diseases can be detected within hours, rather than days."

Health Data Management | Three Vendors = One Records Tool

Health Data Management | Three Vendors = One Records Tool : "Western Medical Associates in Santa Cruz, Calif., will use technology from three vendors to create an electronic medical records solution. "

National Technology Transfer Center to Play Key Role in New State Program Focused on Improving Rural Health Care for West Virginians

National Technology Transfer Center to Play Key Role in New State Program Focused on Improving Rural Health Care for West Virginians: "The vision shown by Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., in applying government technology success stories to the private sector will come alive once again when a nationally accredited military health program will be adapted to the needs of West Virginia's medically underserved, rural patients to overcome the barriers of geographic isolation and to improve the quality of their health care.
The initiative, called HEALTHeWV, will utilize the information technology of Walter Reed Army Medical Center's award-winning HEALTHeFORCES program to implement a disease-outcomes-management and preventive-health-services program that enhances health care quality, reduces costs and improves a patient's overall health outcomes."

$9 million infusion for medical bar-coding company

$9 million infusion for medical bar-coding company: "Patients at hospitals and nursing homes don't always receive the correct medication -- a costly mistake that results in as many as 45,000 deaths per year.
But a 3-year-old Kent company by the name of Integrated Healthcare Systems believes it can eliminate those errors by bar-coding medicines, thus saving lives and billions of dollars for the health care industry."

Healthcare IT: integrating the internet - Pharmaceutical Business Review

Healthcare IT: integrating the internet - Pharmaceutical Business Review: "By far, the most frequently cited potentially valuable feature for physician practice websites is appointment scheduling, with 63% of physicians desiring this functionality. Interestingly, online consultations were the second most frequently cited functionality at 40%, even though this feature carries with it larger physician risk in terms of misdiagnosis and, if not conducted through a secure connection, could also jeopardize patient information confidentiality. "

Electronic health record system in the works

Electronic health record system in the works
: "Their medical condition is serious, their behavior erratic. Hospital emergency rooms have powerful drugs that might help, but they also might cause harm. A reaction with the drugs a patient takes daily for ongoing problems can be especially dangerous.

'I've seen enough people in emergency rooms,' said Wayne Price, director of the Blue Valley Mental Health Center in Beatrice. 'The people who come do not have an accurate picture of all the medications and all the over-the-counter drugs they are taking.'

A system to link the electronic records of regional medical providers could help physicians make better decisions when somebody comes to the emergency department, Price said."

E-mail a great office tool, but sometimes you need to talk ... American Medical News

AMNews: E-mail a great office tool, but sometimes you need to talk ... American Medical News: "How many times has this happened to you? A member of your staff e-mails a question about a patient record, which you promptly answer between patient appointments. Fifteen minutes later, when you check e-mail again, you find a follow-up question to the query you just answered.
This could feasibly continue for a few more exchanges, or it could end, but not without a final note from the staff member thanking you for your assistance. Either way, you spent extra time dealing with the issue over e-mail when a face-to-face conversation initially probably would have been quicker."

Medical Records Safe from prying eyes?

Philadelphia Inquirer | 03/21/2005 | Editorial | Medical Records Safe from prying eyes?: "How can any regulation be called a 'privacy rule' when it permits sharing Americans' most personal medical information with 800,000 or so health, business and government entities?
Even a hospital gown offers more privacy, and this widespread access to medical records should leave patients with a different sort of chill running up the spine. How can they be open about their medical needs if traditional doctor-patient confidentiality has been eroded?
Medical privacy rules put in place in 2003 under HIPPA - the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 - can make it harder to send someone flowers in the hospital, or check on their condition, than limit access to patient records."

Medical records going digital - Eventually, patients might carry own information on CDs

Local News - The Coloradoan - www.coloradoan.com: "A study released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that less than a third of the nation's hospital emergency and outpatient departments use electronic medical records, and even fewer doctor's offices do."

The Tech Guru: Dr. Gerard Burns

The Tech Guru: Dr. Gerard Burns: "Six years ago, Gerard A. Burns was as tech-phobic as any doctor. A trauma surgeon at Yale School of Medicine, he had his secretaries read him his e-mails while he was scrubbing up for surgery. So how did the 44-year-old become a key player in turning Hackensack into a leading e-hospital? He got bored. In 1999 he left for business school and ended up landing a job at a medical software company. When Hackensack in 2002 was looking for someone to get its 1,285 docs to adopt digital medicine, Burns jumped at the chance."