The researchers at Montefiore Medical Center in New York wanted to find a way to detect wrong-patient orders in their CPOE system. Since clinician reports were unreliable, they looked at a marker for these errors: the retraction of orders within 10 minutes of placement, followed by reorders 10 minutes later. The investigators hypothesized that doctors had placed many of these orders on wrong patients, and it turned out they were right: Interviews with 233 physicians over a four-month period showed that 76% of the original orders had been for the wrong patients.
The group organized to establish a health information exchange network in Tennessee will close and is now winding down operations. The Health Information Partnership for Tennessee was created three years ago to set up a network that would allow healthcare organizations across the state to digitally share their information with one another. The group, known as HIP TN, is no longer responsible for implementing the network, but three Regional Health Information Organizations in Tennessee will still work to that end, HIP TN said in a release issued Monday.
The Pennsylvania eHealth Collaborative has launched a grant program that encourages healthcare providers to use direct messaging to electronically exchange health information over the Internet. The program takes particular aim at providers who lack the resources or technical capacity to purchase advanced technology. Overseen by The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, this one-way exchange allows any licensed, certified, or regulated healthcare provider to share patient information.
The recently released results of a May poll that surveyed more than 220 hospital and health system administrators found that while 49% of respondents are more than halfway to completing full EHR implementation, 48% of those polled said they are only somewhat comfortable with the level of budgeting their organization planned for EHR deployment. Nine percent said they weren't comfortable at all with their budget plans, while 18% said they were unsure. On the positive side, 25% said they were very comfortable with the funding they had for their EHR implementation project.
Healthcare providers have yet to agree on the best way to protect the privacy of personal health information (PHI) in health information exchanges (HIEs), but John Halamka, MD, has an opinion. As CIO at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, Halamka recently announced in a blog post that BIDMC will have all of its 1,800 affiliated ambulatory care providers ask their patients to "opt in for data sharing among the clinicians coordinating their care." This would allow data exchange, not only within BIDMC, but also with outside clinicians who provide care for those patients. The patients who opt in now will still be able to opt out later.
As most healthcare providers know, the federal government is insisting that hospitals and practices improve their e-patient engagement strategy in order to meet Stage 2 Meaningful Use criteria. Private insurers are already going down this same path. When faced with such mandates, health IT executives and clinical leaders can take the parts changer's approach to patient engagement, or do a deeper root-cause analysis to find the best technology to address the issue. So how do you get patients more invested in their own care? Technology is only part of the answer. An organization's core mission and its attitude toward patients are even more important.