Regional Extension Centers Using Information about Challenges to EHR Adoption and Meaningful Use to Find Global Solutions
Dawn Heisey-Grove | October 2, 2012
In November 2011, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) began working with the nation’s 62 Regional Extension Centers (RECs) to create a comprehensive dataset of challenges that providers are experiencing in the journey toward electronic health record (EHR) adoption and meaningful use.
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Consumer Engagement The Power of the Blue Button
Lygeia Ricciardi | October 1, 2012
In August 2010, just 25 months ago, President Obama announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was going to make Veterans’ personal health records available to them online with something called the “Blue Button.” Blue Button is an incredibly simple idea. It puts electronic information in the hands of patients—safely, reliably, and conveniently.
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State HIE Extending the Value of the Direct Project in Arkansas
Erica Galvez | September 27, 2012
Arkansas is rapidly becoming a leader in health information exchange. Since launching their statewide secure messaging tool (SHARE) in January 2012, Arkansas’s Office of Health Information Technology (OHIT) has registered more than 2,100 clinical and administrative staff to use it, with another 3,000 in queue to be fully on-boarded. SHARE uses the national standard for secure health information transport developed by ONC’s Direct Project. For a rural state that started their State HIE Cooperative Agreement with no existing exchange infrastructure and limited electronic health record (EHR) adoption,
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Meaningful Use Accelerating Progress on Adoption and Meaningful Use of Health IT among Critical Access Hospitals and Small Rural Hospitals
Mat Kendall | September 26, 2012
An accident happens on a farm and a man is taken to the nearest hospital, a tiny Critical Access Hospital, the only urgent care facility in the area, an hour drive over unpaved roads from any other hospital. The medical team stabilizes the patient and then sends him by helicopter to the nearest tertiary care hospital. What if the Critical Access Hospital could electronically transmit the patient’s medical record, including his lab and imaging results, to the tertiary care hospital while the patient is still in flight?
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EHR Case Studies Disaster Preparedness and Health Information Exchange
Lee Stevens | September 24, 2012
Last month, we watched with great concern as Hurricane Isaac approached the Louisiana coast. By an almost unbelievable coincidence, it was raging toward New Orleans and expected to hit on the exact day of the 7th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the precedent-setting natural disaster of our time. While there was much confidence in new levees and improvement to infrastructure, we were once again reminded that man cannot battle nature, we can only prepare.
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