Hospital executives know that traditional cost-cutting methods have reached the point of diminishing return. Reduced reimbursement, increasing regulations, staff reductions, mandatory overtime, and lower capital expenditures have had disastrous effects on care delivery and the overall health of provider institutions. Yet the federal government is asking for more givebacks. You say you can’t squeeze water from a stone, but perhaps you can.

The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services announced in February 2012 that nearly 2,000 hospitals received incentive payments under the CMMS’ <a href="/directory/electronic-health-record-ehr" target="_blank" class="directory-item-link">EHR</a> Incentive Programs. In addition, 85 percent of hospitals now report that by 2015 they intend to take advantage of the incentive payments. With the competitive inpatient market moving toward critical mass, many hospitals face the challenge of meeting Stage 1 MU criteria. Forward-thinking hospitals and health systems are approaching patient education beyond checking a box on their way to qualifying for incentive payments. Learn how Ochsner Health System now provides consistent patient education materials based on evidence-based medicine to its clinicians across its seven hospitals and 40 clinics.

In just a few short years, the health information exchange (HIE) market has grown exponentially and continues to expand in terms of number of initiatives, scope of services provided and technology offerings. When the nonprofit, community-based Central Florida Regional Health Information Organization(CFRHIO) was formed in 2003, its leaders focused on improving the quality of healthcare across the seven counties it serves. Read this white paper to learn how CFRHIO built a repository platform that collects data from numerous clinical providers into a central database, which participating providers can access, regardless of where the data came from or where the patient is when the data is retrieved.