Electronic health records (EHR) are here to stay. There’s even a federal program administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to encourage “meaningful use” of digital documentation. On the surface, the idea of implementing EHR is great: issues with illegible handwriting and sharing paper records should be eliminated, and information…
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It has been some time since our last post about the VA scandal and it is time to check into what has happened since then. It has recently come to light that senior department officials in Washington knew the serious problems the VA hospital in Phoenix had long before it became public news. So despite…
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ACO – Is it a new name for HMO? What do we actually know about ACOs? So before we write it off as being “HMO-like” and destined to fail, let us try to understand why the mention of “ACO” evokes such mixed reactions. First and foremost, ACO is not a new concept. First…
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Errors in documentation can occur along the patient trajectory — e.g., the patient doesn’t describe symptoms correctly, medical staff improperly triage the patient, the physician incorrectly interprets symptoms — or along the paper trail. When something is incorrectly entered into the documentation, it is handed through the care pathway, on to…
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Last week’s post hopefully shed some light on the issues facing the Veterans Administration today, recently made public through scandal, and grabbing the unanimous attention of both the Oval Office and Congress on both sides of the political divide. These problems include accusations of data falsification for the appearance of shorter wait…
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There is no doubt that the entire U.S. healthcare system has taken a huge hit following the economic crash in 2008, affecting both public and private sectors alike. The staggering, disproportional rise in healthcare related costs were further compounded by reimbursement wars created by players struggling to survive and to keep their…
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It is a well-known fact that a major shift of power in the American healthcare system has occurred over the past 30-40 years with the creation of managed “care” driven primarily by the rising cost of unimaginable advances in medically related technology. The doctor, once the captain of the ship…
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Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) arose from the Affordable Care Act, which was passed into law in March 2010. The Affordable Care Act was designed to redirect the responsibility for healthcare into the hands of individuals, but also to make it more affordable for them. In this blog post, we’ll take…
Continue Reading...Much of the talk in the EHR industry centers on the on the giant Epic EHR and their impressive portfolio. I personally spent four years documenting on Epic and can say it has some impressive components to it, however, in my opinion it was not built for the fast paced…
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