One can learn quite a lot by examining the statistics of eligible professionals (EPs) who have received a Medicare or Medicaid EHR Incentive payment. No doubt, the figures are impressive, with 6,358 unique providers having been paid an aggregate of more than $109 million through June in the current program year, according to CMS. Totals…

As the deadline for Stage 2 of Meaningful Use starts closing in, there has been more chatter and discussion about whether eligible professionals and hospitals are ready. On one side of the argument is that a delay in MU Stage 2 would slow the introduction of some important patient engagement features/functions as well as delay…

This article, written by ACP President Molly Cooke, was originally published in the ACP Internist and is reprinted here with permission of the editor. From the July/August ACP Internist, copyright © 2013 by the American College of Physicians By Molly Cooke, MD, FACP I have been using my facility’s current electronic health record (EHR) for…

For those who have been intimately involved with health information technology, particularly Electronic Health Records over the past decade, the speed of adoption and change in practice workflow has been breathtaking. This is not just a North American phenomenon — it has happened in similar fashion across the Western World and in many parts of…

Unintended Consequences of EHRs: Patient Safety Risks – Bloomberg – While EHRs have reduced errors relating to issues such as illegible handwritten prescriptions, there are also unintended consequences that can result in significant negative outcomes. Some may be related to human error, for example inputting the wrong drug information into the EHR; however, technical errors…

As required under the HITECH Act, the Department of Health & Human Services — via the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) — has filed its annual report to Congress on the adoption of health information technology. Among the highlights, ONC told lawmakers that by the end of 2012, nearly three-quarters of office-based physicians (72…