While Meaningful Use, Accountable Care Organizations and ICD-10 are taking up a significant portion of hospital leaders’ attention these days, there’s another strategic initiative that should be added to the list, says a veteran industry watcher. And, she adds, expect to see some major market shifts as vendors, both big and small, jump on board to take advantage of the potential opportunities.

While healthcare payers have  experimented in the past with acquiring healthcare providers, expect to see the deals getting larger and more frequent, says an industry analyst. Robert Booz, vice president and distinguished analyst in Gartner’s Industries Research area and a 30-year industry veteran, says he’s seeing a growing number of  healthcare payers acquiring healthcare providers,
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Capturing the vast amounts of data available in biomedical devices for inclusion in an electronic medical record has been described as the Holy Grail of connectivity, and one hospital system’s quest is nearly complete as it readies itself for the first of its two go-lives later this month.

Health information systems are being implemented fast and furiously, driven by the prospect of Meaningful Use incentives. However, a growing concern among industry watchers is that when the HITECH dust settles, the outcome may be less than ideal.

With the rush to implement health information technology, it’s no wonder that everyone in healthcare feels overwhelmed.  Change, even in a less manic environment than today’s, is difficult and while pushback from users is something to be expected, there are strategies that CIOs can use to effectively manage change. 1.  Take a walk in a
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In a world where all certified EMR systems may be equal in terms of functionality needed to get organizations to Stage 1 Meaningful use, usability may be the differentiator that separates the good from the mediocre.  But how do purchasers know if the systems they’re buying are “usable?” Robert Schumacher, Ph.D., managing director of User
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Hospital IT life was more complex before Meaningful Use. Dozens of projects competed for the CIO’s attention and for operational and capital budget dollars. Only the carefully vetted winners advanced to the next round. MU clarified the multi-year IT strategic agenda for many hospitals, putting the focus on the incentive carrots.  That meant that some
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The odds are pretty small that your healthcare organization will be unlucky enough to be one of the approximately 150 selected for the first HIPAA privacy and security audits under the HITECH Act.  But despite the odds, here’s what you need to know if the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights
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Technology can play a vital role in ensuring that patients’ end-of-life decisions, particularly about care settings, can be honored, says a hospice industry veteran. “Our patients are at a time in their lives when they want to be in a setting of their choice,” Christie Franklin, chief executive officer and president of Bristol Hospice, tells
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In the highly competitive environment of emergency care delivery, the leadership at Catholic Medical Center (CMC) knew something had to change.  In 2004, Manchester, NH-based CMC faced a scenario shared by hospitals throughout the country. The emergency department was losing money and facing competition from urgent care centers, and was eager to improve market share,
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