Picis – ED PulseCheck
Jeff Kelly, Online Industry Editor

ED PulseCheck from Picis is a tool to help hospitals maximize revenue, improve quality and realize full clinician potential of emergency departments, or EDs. Among its most critical features are integrated charge capture and medical necessity documentation to help hospitals achieve full ED reimbursements.

Read the full product review



iNTERFACEWARE – IGUANA HL7 Interface Engine
Jeff Kelly, Online Industry Editor

iNTERFACEWARE IGUANA HL7 Interface Engine allows hospitals and clinicians to share electronic medical data via the HL7 data standard. It can map electronic health data between databases and application systems without custom programming.

Read the full product review


Internal medicine docs regain productivity after EHR deployments faster than pediatricians
Jeff Kelly, Online Industry Editor

Internal medicine practices enjoyed a slight increase in productivity within months of deploying and electronic health records (EHR) systems, while pediatricians didn’t return to pre-EHR productivity levels over the same time, according to a new study.

Productivity dropped across the board for all doctors after deploying EHRs by between 25% and 33%. But, according to a report in Healthcare IT News, after several months … Read More

Medicare, Medicaid agencies plan IT overhaul
Jeff Kelly, Online Industry Editor

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are gearing up for an IT upgrade in 2011. According to this report in FierceHealthIT, part of the rational behind the upgrade is to improve the agencies' ability to share and exchange electronic medical records .. Read More




HIEs can save castaway electronic medical records and patient data
Jeff Kelly, Online Industry Editor

Patient medical records are a lot like castaways. Most are trapped in groups on small, isolated desert islands, the islands being proprietary medical systems, pharmacy software, and old-fashioned filing cabinets.

That’s what makes “trying to pull together an integrated view of your medical history … very difficult,” said Earl Jones, vice president and general manager for GE Healthcare eHealth solutions group. GE Healthcare and other … Read More

Internal medicine docs regain productivity after EHR deployments faster than pediatricians
Jeff Kelly, Online Industry Editor

Internal medicine practices enjoyed a slight increase in productivity within months of deploying and electronic health records (EHR) systems, while pediatricians didn’t return to pre-EHR productivity levels over the same time, according to a new study.

Productivity dropped across the board for all doctors after deploying EHRs by between 25% and 33%. But, according to a report in Healthcare IT News, after several months …Read More

Few children’s hospitals use electronic health records (EHR) systems
Jeff Kelly, Online Industry Editor

Less than 3% of children’s hospitals have deployed and are heavily using electronic health records (EHR) systems, according to a recent survey.

Research published in the December issue of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine indicates that the vast majority of pediatric hospitals in the U.S. “lack the minimum functionalities needed for a basic EHR.” Just 2.8 percent of the 108 children’s hospitals responding to a survey led by Mari M. Nakamura of Children’s Hospital Boston have what could be considered a “comprehensive” EHR. … Read More




Lack of EHR vendor support top meaningful use roadblock
Jeff Kelly, Online Industry Editor

That, according to a new Black Book Rankings survey of 4,000 healthcare providers. According to a report in Healthcare IT News:

“The customers of only a handful of high performance EHR vendors expressed high confidence in meeting the demonstration of meaningful use deadlines,” adds [Kevin] Parker, [lead EHR researcher for Black Book Rankings.] “The perception … Read More

Mobile health market about to explode
Jeff Kelly, Online Industry Editor

The mobile health technology market is on the verge of explosive growth, according to a new report. According to SearchHealthIT, “Physician demand for smartphones and tablet software and services will drive the growth, coupled with health care providers’ mandates for improving quality of care and cutting costs at the same time.” … Read More



Medical devices and EHRs keep their distance
December 3rd, 2010 | Jeff Kelly, Online Industry Editor

Most medical devices do not communicate or otherwise interact with electronic health records (EHR) systems, according to a new HIMSS report.

FierceEMR picks up the story from there:

The paper, released Wednesday, says that just a third of the 825 U.S. hospitals queried report having active interfaces between devices such as defibrillators, physiologic monitors, vitals … Read More

Most hospitals yet to take on "exceptionally complex" CPOE
Jeff Kelly, Online Industry Editor

Of all the Stage 1 meaningful use requirements for electronic health records, perhaps none is more “exceptionally complex” than computerized physician order entry (CPOE), according to two Siemens Healthcare Health Services execs.

“In a typical hospital, a provider must make decisions regarding hundreds of medications, procedures and laboratory tests, sometimes all in the same day,” wrote the execs, John Glaser and Dr. M. Kent Locklear, in a recent paper. “These decisions must occur in the right sequence and be continuously adjusted based on a patient’s progress. The execution of this process involves dozens of staff members and intricate ... Read More

Web-based EHR vendor targets small primary care practices with free, ad-funded system
Jeff Kelly, Online Industry Editor

Are you part of a small primary care practice interested in deploying an electronic health records (EHR) system but worried you can’t afford it? Then Dr. Robert Rowley has an offer for you.

Rowley is the chief medical officer at Practice Fusion. The San Francisco-based company’s core product is an on-demand EHR system that is geared toward small practices that don’t have the money or the infrastructure to support a traditional, client/server-based EHR… Read More




GE Healthcare exec bullish on EHR adoption, others less so
Jeff Kelly, Online Industry Editor

Thanks to financial incentives from the government and a desire by healthcare providers to improve efficiencies and lower costs, electronic health records (EHRs) could be on the verge of a “perfect storm” of adoption, according to one GE Healthcare executive.

And a heretofore lack of investment in healthcare IT on the part of providers means plenty of potential customers may feed that storm for years to come… Read More




Focus on key features, workflows when evaluating electronic health records
Jeff Kelly, Online Industry Editor

There are literally hundreds of electronic health records (EHR) vendors on the market and there’s no definitive process for determining which ones to evaluate, let alone which one to buy from.

But there are a handful of best practices that, if followed, will make the EHR buying process a little less daunting, … Read More



When it comes to electronic health records, what’s in a name?
Jeff Kelly, Online Industry Editor

Some call them electronic health records, or EHRs. Others prefer electronic medical records, or EMRs. Still others go with patient medical records software, which, I guess, would be PMRS.

“The bottom line is that it’s an alphabet soup,” said Gartner’s Dr. Thomas Handler. And while it may seem trivial, what you call them actually matters, … Read More