Explorations in the Design and Implementation of Clinical Information Systems
Backups are important. However, when things really go wrong, they alone are not enough. “Disaster” may sound overly dramatic, but, in fact, catastrophic data losses are not rare. Depending on where you live, floods, tornados, hurricanes or earthquakes are a fact of life. Of course, man-made misery (e.g., viruses, tampering, sabotage) accounts for its share [...]
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Dealing with abnormal test results was one of the main misery points during my years in practice. It was too easy for things to fall through the cracks. When clinicians receive an abnormal result, the usual steps are: review the patient’s chart, decide what to do, and take action. Proper management may require additional tests, [...]
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The newly proposed rules for EHR certification, referred to by ONC as Certification Criteria for Electronic Health Record Technology, 2014 Edition, contains a few pleasant surprises that bode well for EHR users. There are provider-friendly changes in how CEHRT is defined; a new security requirement that may help with data breaches; and comments on data [...]
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Making an EHR sale takes time and resources. Once a sale is made, client sites provide vendors with a steady stream of income. Client sites that decide to switch from one EHR to another will find vendors less than eager to see them go. Though data migration options should be included in contraction negotiations, it [...]
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The hubbub over meaningful use and Medicare incentives has been so distracting that the advantages of the Medicaid EHR incentive program seem to have been lost in the noise. It also doesn’t help that seven states still have not launched their programs. Here are a few important differences between the programs. Eligibility Medicare Medicaid Doctors [...]
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Each of the three previous posts in this series addressed a different aspect of security: information security principles, HIPAA changes in the HITECH Act, and the components of the HIPAA security rule. The subject of this post is meaningful use objective 15, which states: Objective: Protect electronic health information created or maintained by the certified [...]
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Information security is not a glamorous topic. However, HIPAA (1) has made it an unavoidable concern for those who use healthcare information systems. Unfortunately, this very important topic is often presented in a way that is difficult to understand unless one is a security professional. My goal in this series of posts is to make [...]
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I have spent the last few months reviewing a seemingly endless stream of documents about HITECH, MU, HIE and EHR incentives. My focus has always been on helping providers understand the details of these programs, so that they can maximize their chances of qualifying for the incentives. It occurred to me that having an instrument [...]
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Eleven years ago, when I began working on the EHR project at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, I sought to do everything possible to assure that the project was a success. This led to an intensive search of the literature for case studies and reviews of IT projects. I discovered a wonderful paper: “Why Healthcare Information [...]
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The EHR Science Blog presents the musings of Jerome H. Carter, MD, CEO of NTM Informatics, Inc. He is also the editor of Electronic Health Records, Second Edition, published by the American College of Physicians.
Posts on this blog are the personal views of Dr. Carter and do not reflect the official policies or positions of the American College of Physicians.