Anesthesiology physicians in the ICU at George Washington University Hospital have saved a collective total of nearly 30 hours per week on patient billing and clinical documentation since deploying wireless technology from MobiHealth Inc., according to Christopher Junker, M.D., the hospital's director of neurocritical care.
Financial incentives designed to help providers adopt healthcare technology are starting to materialize, according to a new report. The joint findings were released Wednesday by the Foundation for eHealth Initiative, a non-profit group focused on promoting quality, safety, and efficiency through electronic medical records and standards, and the Health Strategies Consultancy, a think tank and consulting firm focused on the commercialization of new medical technology.
FRAMINGHAM (03/25/2004) - Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) expects an "eight-to-ten-digit type of savings" with its recent implementation of MEDecision Inc.'s CarePlanner Repository Information System (CRIS), according to BCBSMA CIO Gary Austin.
FRAMINGHAM (03/23/2004) - Kryptiq Corp., a provider of workflow connectivity technology for healthcare, announced Monday it has joined the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Partners for Patients program as a "declaration of support" member, according to David C. Kibbe, director of the AAFP Center for Health Information Technology.
FRAMINGHAM (03/18/2004) - The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) announced this week it has made US$2.45 million available in grants "to study the effectiveness of patient-provider Web portals."
FRAMINGHAM (03/16/2004) - Massachusetts emergency room clinicians will soon have access to critical medication information for incapacitated patients, due to an initiative led by the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium (MHDC).
FRAMINGHAM (03/09/2004) - The University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) has overhauled its network system using an optical ethernet (OE) technology from Nortel Networks Corp.
FRAMINGHAM (02/19/2004) - Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) officials anticipate 20,500 people and 715 vendors will be networking and demonstrating the latest healthcare technology wares at next week's annual conference and exhibition at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. The new figures mark 6 percent and 4 percent increases, respectively, over the 2003 conference, which drew 19,300 attendees and 686 exhibitors.
FRAMINGHAM (02/19/2004) - IBM Corp. announced Thursday it has launched a US$250-million initiative to assist healthcare providers and payers in saving money and reducing patient errors.
FRAMINGHAM (02/13/2004) - University Physicians Group (UPG) in Long Island, N.Y., was recently awarded first place for the most innovative use of technology in a clinic/physician practice by the Healthcare Delivery Solutions Congress. UPG was recognized for its application of PhysicianSuite, a desktop-based electronic medical record (EMR) solution from iMedica Corp.
FRAMINGHAM (02/13/2004) - The time it takes a nurse to contact a physician at Fairfield (Ohio) Medical Center has dropped 90 percent since implementing One-2-One, a Web- and telephone-based communication system from PerfectServe Inc.
FRAMINGHAM (12/30/2003) - Two of the final three contracts for the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) Care Records Service were awarded last week as part of the unprecedented initiative to create and maintain electronic medical records for all the country's citizens and clinicians.
FRAMINGHAM (11/20/2003) - Reported medication errors in hospitals are on the rise, according to a study released Tuesday by U.S. Pharmocopeia (USP), a nonprofit, standard-setting organization promoting safe use of medications. The study found 192,477 reported errors at 482 hospitals and healthcare facilities in 2002, which was an 82 percent increase from the 105,000 reported errors in 2001 (with 31 percent, or 149, more organizations surveyed). Of the 192,477 errors, 1.7 percent, or 3,213, accounted for patient injuries, compared with 2.4 percent, or 2,520, errors in 2001. "The increase in errors can be partially attributed to more hospitals participating in the study, different types of hospitals submitting data, and an upsurge in reporting," said a USP spokesperson.
FRAMINGHAM (11/13/2003) - On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded a four-year grant for nearly US$500,000 to Cybernet Medical, a provider of biometric monitoring technology and medical devices for outpatient care.
FRAMINGHAM (09/25/2003) - A partnership between the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) and Quilogy Inc., a provider of emerging technology solutions, has yielded an electronic prescription pad for physicians. The software will be rolled out in the coming months.