Interoperability & EHRs

The electronic health records giant says it will join TEFCA, a new national health information exchange framework. With records and data more easily available, patients and providers will see the benefits, Doyle says.

America’s largest electronic health record company will be a part of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement. Epic’s Matt Doyle says the company will encourage its thousands of partners to follow suit.

True interoperability of patient data has been a goal for decades. But any enthusiasm must be tempered by the security and privacy issues healthcare companies continue to experience.

The software giant says it has received all regulatory approvals and should close the deal within days. Oracle says the merger will transform the healthcare industry.

More than 200 patient records at a veterans hospital in Washington were corrupted. The problem prompted calls to delay a wider rollout of the new health record system.

The federal watchdog points to problems in migrating data and the need to get more feedback from stakeholders. The Department of Veterans Affairs has been struggling to modernize its patient records for years.

Providers are still spending more money than they should in submitting claims and prior authorization, according to the new CAQH Index. The industry could save billions by moving toward more automation, the group says.

With more information available on phones and watches, most data is now health data, Penn researchers say. But a new study shows many have privacy concerns.

Women are seeing fewer patients and putting in more hours on documenting health records, a report from athenahealth says. As a result, female clinicians could end up earning less.

The typical breach costs several million dollars. Attackers have realized hospitals are prime targets, so healthcare leaders need to make protecting their systems a top priority.

Black patients were more likely to have negative descriptions. The authors suggest bias in records could exacerbate inequities in healthcare.

As more care is shifted to the home, payers must support better reimbursements for providers, Greenstein said.

Several problems exist with current programs that address social determinants of health (SDOH); however, a new social model aims to combat these issues and improve the programs’ effectiveness.

Issuing phone calls to marginalized patients increases COVID-19 vaccination likelihood.

Investigators compare ICD and CPT codes for estimating the incidence of skin cancer.

Tom Knight, founder and CEO of Invistics, discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for better solutions for drug diversion, where healthcare employees commit medication theft, within their healthcare organizations and how technology can help resolve the issue.

In an interview recorded earlier this year, Chief Healthcare Executive Associate Editorial Director Mary Caffrey spoke with 2 leaders of Citius Tech about meeting healthcare challenges with digital solutions.

Kate Cordell and Ken Knecht, cofounders of Opeeka, discuss their company’s Person-Centered Intelligence Solution and how it can help children and their families manage and coordinate their mental health concerns as well as the benefits the tool can have on health systems.

Tara Vail, chief growth officer of HST Pathways, discusses the lack of EHRs at ambulatory surgery centers and the challenges to adoption.

Joint replacement is a major cost concern for health systems and Medicare.

The algorithm can be adopted by other hospitals and health systems to identify incident stroke.

The vice president and chief data officer at Parkland Hospital in Dallas discusses how the health system leverages data.

The total cost is approximately $39 per enrolled patient compared to $239 per patient for a traditional cohort study.

An overwhelming volume of patients and lack of interoperability highlight challenges to accessing patient health data during COVID-19.

Interoperability has been discussed for years, but a partnership between a specialty pharmacy solutions company and UVA Health shows how the ability to "talk to" electronic health records is finally happening.