Category Archives: Healthcare News

Another Reason to Implement an EMR

In the past, analyses of the benefits of EMR implementation focused primarily on increased efficiency, improved patient care, and lower costs—but EMRs offer much more than that, according to a recent study by a health care IT leader. Now there’s one more reason to implement an electronic medical record (EMR) system: They have compelling environmental [...]
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More Doctors are Implementing EMRs

More and more office-based physicians plan to implement EMRs and qualify for federal incentive payments, according to recent survey data released by the ONC. Moreover, 41 percent of doctors surveyed are planning to achieve meaningful use and take advantage of the incentive payments. There has been a reversal in the low interest in electronic medical [...]
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EMRs Benefit Even Small Providers, Says Survey

EMRs provide measurable benefits for providers of all sizes, including small practices, according to a recent survey. Plus, the return on investment is high: According to researcher, it costs just $7,857 and takes just 130 hours to implement an EMR at a five-member practice. In contrast to prior suggestions that electronic medical records (EMRs) may [...]
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GOP Bill No Reason to Postpone EMR Implementation

Republican bill that imperils funding for meaningful use incentives has a long way to go before it becomes law—if it ever does. President Obama may have celebrated an emerging health care IT system in his State of the Union address, but at the same time, Republican lawmakers were producing a bill that imperils funding for [...]
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Fifty Percent of Docs Have EMRs

National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey shows that EMR adoption crept up from 48.3 percent in 2009. More than half of physicians were using at least partial electronic medical records (EMRs) in their offices by the end of 2010, according to a survey by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. The study, called the National [...]
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IT Staffing Troubles Ahead?

More than half of CIOs across the country are worried they will have to put off planned electronic health record (EHR) implementations because they can’t find IT staff to get the job done—which would mean forfeiting thousands of dollars in government stimulus funds. In September, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) surveyed its [...]
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ONC Almost Ready to Announce EHR Certification Bodies

It looks as if we’ll soon know the names of the authorized testing and certification bodies (ATCBs) for electronic health records (EHRs). ATCBs will be the only authorities that can certify EHR products for meaningful use (and thus allow health care providers to earn American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA, incentives). According to the [...]
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Be Prepared For Significant IT Investments As a Result of EHR Implementation

Government incentives will only offset electronic health record (EHR) costs by about 15% to 20%, according to McKinsey & Company—which means health care providers should be prepared to make a significant investment as part of a “radical new approach to IT.” According to their study published in management consulting firm McKinsey & Company’s business journal [...]
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Health Care Practitioners Generally Approve of Final Meaningful Use Rule

The final rule on meaningful use was released on July 13, and is significantly more flexible than earlier versions. Specifically, the final rule includes “core” and “menu” requirements. It appears that practitioners are generally happy with the final rule on meaningful use that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of [...]
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Providers lagging in IT to meet meaningful use

Most hospitals and hospital-based health care providers have their work cut out for them when it comes to meeting meaningful use requirements of EMRs, according to a new report. In the report, “The State of U.S. Hospitals Relative to Achieving Meaningful Use Measurements,” HIMSS Analytics compared the current state of hospital capabilities according to its [...]
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