The opening of the Carolinas Medical Center-East Lincoln Medical Plaza in Denver, NC, has been pushed back from March to November 2008 after revised designs and plans for the facility's surgical center needed approval from the North Carolina Department of Health. When complete, the $10 million facility will feature a surgical center, doctors and staff offices, and other speciality services including family medicine, cardiology and orthopedics.
When a veteran John Hopkins safety researcher assembled a checklist of proven safety procedures and required critical care doctors to use it, the results prevented infections and saved lives. The checklist, however, drew critical scrutiny from government regulators. The federal Office of Human Research Protections said using a safety checklist--and studying its effects--amounted to conducting an experiment without a patient's consent. Researchers say the dispute could delay similar safety initiatives nationwide.
Are hospitals ready for a world where consumers are more engaged in their healthcare? Not yet, but the leaders at Alegent Health in Omaha, Nebraska hope to encourage other hospital leaders to drive change rather than wait to be driven by it. This week, Alegent is hosting the "Power to the Patient" forum to educate hospital leaders on ways they can invite consumers into healthcare. Alegent CEO Wayne Sensor talks to HealthLeaders Media Editor-in-Chief Jim Molpus about why Alegent felt the necessity of hosting the forum.
Champions in Healthcare, a new consulting firm founded by clinicians, hopes to overcome one of the greatest barriers to widespread use of health-IT by concentrating on how physicians and nurses think and work. The group had a "soft launch" in early January but is aiming to make a bigger splash at the annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference in late February.
The California Regional Health Information Organization has announced that Cisco Systems, Inc. has agreed in principle to participate with its technology partners, in building the the largest statewide health information exchange service in the United States. Cisco will participate in strategy development, infrastructure design and deployment, and implementation services for the not-for-profit CalRHIO Health Information Exchange Utility Service.
Spectrum Health has announced a strategic relationship with Cerner and Microsoft Corp. in developing a consumer-centric technology that empowers patients to take an active role in their care. The Care Console system keeps patients informed about their condition, medical care and provider team during their hospital stay. Spectrum Health is piloting implementation of the Care Console system in one of its units at its 750-bed Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids, MI.
EDS has been awarded a $209.9 million, six-and-a-half-year contract to upgrade and continue to maintain Indiana's Medicaid Management Information System. EDS will continue as fiscal agent to the state and its 27,000 healthcare providers, who care for more than 800,000 recipients. Through the contract, EDS will provide a Web-based tool that will enable healthcare providers to electronically enroll in Medicaid programs.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has proposed restrictions for the coverage of cardiac CT angiography. Under the restrictions, Medicare beneficiaries can only receive reimbursements with two clinical indications of coronary artery disease under the coverage with evidence development process.
The American Health Information Management Association's Foundation of Research and Education has launched a new project focused on electronic health records and other information technology for use in nursing homes. The project will help enable post-acute and long-term care vendors and providers to develop and implement EHRs and healthcare IT products that will be functional in the emerging interoperable nationwide health information network.
An appropriations bill passed by the House and Senate and signed by President Bush leaves the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology with a budget of $61.3 million for the current fiscal year--the same amount it received for fiscal 2007. Asked about the ramifications of working with a flat budget rather than the much larger one the administration had requested, the national coordinator for health IT said it means the ONCHIT will not be able to accelerate in the ways it had hoped or start certain new projects.
