Electronic Health Records

An electronic health record (EHR) stores all of an individual patient's information in electronic format. The record is maintained by the provider over time and may include the patient's medical history, current medications, demographics, doctor's notes and other important administrative information. Issues concerning EHRs include data exchange, privacy and security, and patient consent. The final rule for Meaningful Use, released on July 13, 2010, allows hospitals to qualify for thousands of dollars in stimulus funding for the adoption of electronic health records.

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As in many fields, it's taken for granted that a physician's education never really ends. But when it comes to continuing medical education, many healthcare stakeholders believe that the current system is, in a nutshell, broken.
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June 12, 2013
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Technology and communications company Harris Corporation has been selected to help improve the Veterans Benefits Administration's Enterprise Data Warehouse, the primary source for veterans' benefits data and information.
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June 12, 2013
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National eHealth Collaborative on Monday announced two new membership campaigns for clinicians, hospitals, health systems, health information exchanges and provider associations.
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June 11, 2013
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Calling it a landmark move, the HIMSS EHR Association, a collaboration of more than 40 EHR companies, released an EHR Developer Code of Conduct. The code is a reflection of the industry's commitment to collaborate as trusted partners with all stakeholders, says Mickey McGlynn, chair of the organization.
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June 11, 2013
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Six Legacy Health hospitals and their ambulatory clinics, located in Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash., have reached HIMSS Analytics Stage 7, the highest level on the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model, the model used to track EMR progress at hospitals and health systems.
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June 10, 2013
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A half million Cleveland Clinic patients gained access to more of their healthcare information Thursday, and by the end of the year they will see all that is in their electronic medical record, including physician notes, via MyChart, the secure online portal.
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June 7, 2013
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Health Tech Hatch announced Thursday that it will operate as the user testing platform for ONC's Blue Button Patient Co-Design Challenge, designed to spur a growth in opportunities for health data to be put to use.
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June 6, 2013
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More than a third of physician practices plan to purchase, replace or upgrade ambulatory EHR systems, according to HIMSS Analytics' newest Ambulatory Electronic Health Record & Practice Management Study. Meanwhile, nearly half of physician groups say they'll join an HIE.
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June 6, 2013
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More than 292,000 Medicare and Medicaid eligible providers have received an EHR incentive payment as of the end of April. Not all EPs are new, some are returning from a previous year, said Robert Anthony, deputy director of the HIT Initiative Group at CMS' Office of E-Health Standards and Services.
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June 6, 2013
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A new KLAS report, its first on ambulatory electronic medical record usability, finds that success in achieving high usability ranges from 85 percent to 55 percent. Of the EMR vendors reviewed, athenahealth ranked No. 1.
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June 6, 2013
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The seven-hospital Bon Secours Health System in Virginia recently announced that some 5,000 former patients had their protected health information compromised following an electronic health records data breach.
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June 5, 2013
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Adoption of basic electronic health records increased from nearly 34 percent in early 2011 to 44 percent by March 2012, according to a new study. Former National Coordinator for Health Information Technology David Blumenthal, MD, says that despite the challenges, EHR use is inevitable.
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June 4, 2013
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Cloud-based Microsoft Exchange service features all the mission critical enterprise-class communication and collaboration capabilities of an in-house solution without the unpredictable costs and management headaches. With flexible customization options, healthcare organizations can seamlessly move to a cloud-based solution without compromising security or altering their current encryption approach.
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May 23, 2013
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In this Webinar, we will address health BI challenges and discuss our end to end business analytics platform that transforms the data center, enables modern applications, unlocks insights on any data, and empowers people centric IT.
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May 15, 2013
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Recent headlines have raised plenty of eyebrows with record setting big-dollar penalties levied against healthcare organizations due to HIPAA violations. Industry experts surmise that this unprecedented trend is the result of significant changes that have occurred recently to HIPAA regulations.
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May 14, 2013
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The approach of capturing healthcare data via structured templates and drop-down menus in today's EHR user interfaces comes at the expense of lost physician productivity and isn't working in practice. Physicians value dictation to capture the complete patient story and can be resistant to adopting template-based systems. To achieve Meaningful Use, the enterprise has need for structured and encoded data to optimize care plans, drive decision support, increase quality, and ensure appropriate billing. Creating an additional challenge is the lack of widespread interoperability in healthcare data. This webinar explores close-loop clinical documentation as a solution that manages these seemingly opposing needs.
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May 13, 2013
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Automated medication administration, electronic health records, computerized physician order entry (CPOE), barcode point-of-care (BPOC) and other automated procedures for improving patient care all rely on accurate input that barcoding can provide. This white paper will explain the role wristbands can play in improving patient safety and freeing nurses and other valuable medical personnel from paperwork and clerical tasks.
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May 6, 2013
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Do you still rely on tactical integration? Strategic interoperability can move your organization beyond tactical integration by connecting internal and external data, systems, and users across the broader IT ecosystem. This approach is increasingly critical to support a broad range of major healthcare initiatives including ACO, analytics, meaningful use, population management, device integration, and more. Strategic interoperability can deliver quick-to-achieve breakthrough clinical and operational benefits.
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May 6, 2013
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The CMS EHR Incentive program (commonly known as Meaningful Use) is not just about getting all providers to use EHRs. It’s creating a foundation of detail clinical and administrative data – all expressed in the same standard vocabulary – that can be used to automate the calculation and reporting of patient outcomes. With the shift from volume to value in care delivery and reimbursement models, comprehensive quality measures are an essential element – else how can we determine value? But the historical approach to measuring quality using manually abstracted data will not work in a healthcare environment focused on value. Quality metrics must be automated. The industry must shift to eMeasures – metrics calculated and reported based on data captured in the EHR as a by-product of care delivery. This spring, CMS published the timeline for implementing a unified set of electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) and e-reporting requirements intended to synchronize and integrate CMS quality programs and reduce provider reporting burden. Are you prepared to embark on the journey to the new generation of quality measures and reporting?
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May 6, 2013
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In healthcare organizations today, it's all about getting the most from the technology you choose by providing versatility. One monitor mounted on a wall in a patient room, programmed at the back end with applications, cable and other features, can deliver a host of multimedia choices. These can range from TV, movies, music, Internet access, email and games to educational information, treatment tips and even meal menus - far from the days of simple in-room television.
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May 6, 2013
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Hospitals and health systems have invested significant funds and other resources to meet numerous strategic enterprise initiatives such as ICD-10, Meaningful Use, HIPAA requirements, whether to join or form an ACO, and others. Executives from four major health systems came together for a roundtable discussion on how employing an integrated strategy has helped them overcome challenges and achieve goals. <br> </br> Learn how leading healthcare organizations are:<br> </br> • Educating stakeholders on the ultimate benefits of the initiatives<br> • Adopting methodologies that streamline workflows and reduce costs<br> • Sharing information and promoting best practices across the enterprise<br> • Avoiding initiatives being deployed in silos<br> • Knowing when to partner with trusted organizations to achieve initiatives more rapidly and efficiently<br>
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April 30, 2013
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The Office of the National Coordinator has specified the use of RxNorm as the medication and medication allergy vocabulary constraint within certified systems which enable Meaningful Use Stage 2 clinical information exchanges. Specifications for the electronic computation of clinical quality measures (CQM) leverage “eMeasures” and their associations to medication and medication allergy value sets to enable the programmatic computation of summary CQM reports for CMS submission.
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April 30, 2013
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As healthcare reform continues its fast and uncertain path, healthcare organizations know no matter what, information is going to be key in providing insights into their business. It can help to identify trends in services and costs so changes can be made. Simply getting to the information can be a challenge on its own, but the key is accessing information, having the right tools to be able to unscramble the information to drive change improvements, and be the catalyst that will drive your organization to consider making a move today.
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April 29, 2013
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The regulatory environment continues to become more stringent as HIPAA regulations require nearly every healthcare organization to maintain an easily accessible and complete archive of electronically stored information (ESI). Healthcare IT departments are pulled in many directions in order to stay aligned with federal requirements for access control, integrity, and transmission security for patient communications or implementing Electronic Medical Records (EMR) systems. Managing communication systems is an unnecessary burden that ultimately distracts IT teams from contributing towards the improvement of patient care. Today, healthcare providers can turn to hosted services to more easily meet the security and privacy requirements for electronic Protected Health Information laid out in the HIPAA Security Rule, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s HITECH requirements, and other federal regulations.
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April 10, 2013
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I'm quoted in the current issue of Medical Economics, on the subject of the Medicare PQRS: Physician Quality Reporting System. I'm not a big fan of PQRS, since it rewards reporting of process measures, not outcomes, and the amounts at stake have not been enough to move most docs to bother.
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April 11, 2013
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I've been hitting the road hard to learn from clients and teammates who are making a real difference in this industry. Their passion for health care is inspirational. Allscripts continues to lead the charge toward our vision of an Open, Connected Community of Health.
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April 9, 2013
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While the Annual Conference & Exhibition is HIMSS' signature event, the organization emphasizes the value of health IT in myriad other ways during the year through the framework of education, exhibition, and networking.
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April 4, 2013
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Healthcare organizations around the country have been working diligently to implement electronic health record technology and attest for meaningful use -- the federal government’s standards that allow eligible providers and hospitals to earn incentive payments if they meet specific criteria.
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April 2, 2013
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Healthcare stakeholders and policymakers are working overtime to build the bridge into the digital future. But is there a risk that bridge may collapse under the weight of expectations?
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March 14, 2013
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Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator for Health IT, announced the release of an ONC RFI at HIMSS March 6, entitled "Advancing Interoperability and Health Information Exchange," in order to identify ways in which ONC may accelerate interoperability of EMRs without any additional statutory or regulatory authority.
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March 8, 2013
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Last year HIMSS became a member of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) and committed to develop and implement the Healthcare Transformation Project (HTP).
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March 6, 2013
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Among the numerous challenges that an ACO model presents, is the need for more sophisticated IT systems that will support distributed care management across a diverse care team that extends from the primary care physician, to the specialists, to the care manager, the patient and others.
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February 26, 2013
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The Health IT Standards Committee has formed a new workgroup, the Consumer Technology Workgroup (CTWG).
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February 22, 2013
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At BIDMC, we've already achieved 100% EHR adoption and 90% Meaningful Use attestation among our clinician community. Now that the foundation is laid, I believe our next body of work is to craft the technology and workflow solutions which will be hallmarks of the "post EHR" era.
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February 12, 2013
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To put it mildly, the transition to EHRs comes freighted with a whole host of expectations.
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February 7, 2013
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The association between mental health and physical health has a long history, yet the two disciplines often are viewed as disparate pieces of patient care. Making this link between a patient’s physical and mental well-being is becoming paramount in terms of streamlining a patient’s medical lifecycle.
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February 1, 2013
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The Chief Technology Officer of CareCloud, a Miami-based provider of cloud-based practice management, electronic healthcare record (EHR), revenue cycle management and medical billing software and services for medical practices, headed back to school at Florida International University (FIU) the other day. Tom Packert showed up for class in the Master of Science in Health Informatics and Management Systems program, but not as a student. Instead, he came to launch a unique partnership between CareCloud and FIU that will let students in the Master’s program access CareCloud Charts, its electronic health record software, as if they were physicians or practice administrators with their own practices.
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October 1, 2012
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In the year since the first NYeC gala, there have been revolutionary advancements in health IT throughout New York and across the nation. On Monday, October 15th, five champions of health IT will be highlighted at the second gala and award ceremony.
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September 28, 2012
Press Release
Sandlot Solutions, a leading healthcare information technology company, recently released The New Model of Health Information Exchanges: Using Data and Analytics to Improve Health Care Delivery, an industry report highlighting the evolution of health information exchange (HIE) and how advancements such as digital envelope technology drive new functionalities and capabilities. Fourth-generation HIEs extend beyond the simple exchange of patient records to the meaningful use of data for the delivery and coordination of care at the individual and community levels.
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September 27, 2012
Press Release
Aetna and Hunterdon HealthCare Partners have announced a new accountable care agreement that will improve the quality and cost of patient care, helping members and plan sponsors save money.
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July 19, 2012
Press Release
UBM Medica US's Physician's Practice 2012 Technology Survey, sponsored by AT&T, found that 72 percent of U.S. healthcare providers surveyed—are in some stage of EHR adoption.
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July 18, 2012
Press Release
Vitera Healthcare Solutions, one of the nation's largest providers of electronic health records (EHRs) and practice management software and services, today announced that Southaven Internal Medicine of Southaven, Mississippi, is the first practice in the United States to successfully submit the 2011 reporting period of Physician Quality Reporting Systems (PQRS) measures.
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March 8, 2012
Press Release
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will visit Houston to discuss how hospitals and health care providers are finding innovative ways to improve patient care.
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March 8, 2012
Press Release
University Health System, the lead trauma center for South Texas, will use Allscripts Community Record, powered by dbMotion, to share patient data with its facilities and the University of Texas (UT) Health Science Center San Antonio. The Allscripts solution will help provide a single patient record for the many physicians and patients who use both facilities.
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March 8, 2012
Press Release
Medsphere Systems Corporation and Kern Medical Center today announced that Kern has met the requirements for Stage One Meaningful Use with Medsphere’s OpenVista system, the enabling electronic health record (EHR), and has received more than $5 million in initial reimbursement from the federal government.
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January 24, 2012
Press Release
For an unprecedented third time in a single year, Amazing Charts has been honored as the best Electronic Health Record (EHR) system for small practices. Most recently, Amazing Charts was ranked number one in the category of Ambulatory EMR (1-10 Physicians) in the 2011 Best in KLAS Awards: Software and Services.
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January 18, 2012
Press Release
Today, cloud-based healthcare solution provider CareCloud announced its official entrance into the electronic health record (EHR) market. CareCloud Charts' breakthrough user interface is a revolutionary approach to maintaining and sharing patient medical information across the continuum of care while accelerating, rather than hindering, clinical workflow.
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January 13, 2012
Press Release
e-MDs, the provider of the nation's most highly rated EHR, congratulates Christopher Wenner, MD, for being recognized on Monday, December 5, 2011, by Minnesota's Regional Extension Center for Health Information Technology (REC) for his leadership in the nationwide transition toward electronic health records. Dr. Wenner is one of the first providers in Minnesota to attest to Meaningful Use for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program. He worked with REACH, the REC designated by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to assist clinicians in Minnesota and North Dakota in becoming meaningful users of electronic health records. e-MDs is pleased to congratulate Dr. Wenner on becoming a member of an exclusive group of leaders – the Meaningful Use Vanguard (MUV). MUV is an initiative of ONC, designed to honor, thank, and bring together clinicians like Dr. Wenner, who have successfully implemented EHRs. MUVers (members of the MUV program) serve as local leaders and advisors in the nation's transition toward an electronically-enabled health care system. Dr. Wenner is one of many e-MDs clients in every region of the country who have become MUVers.
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January 12, 2012
Press Release