The article about Pediatric Associates in CA has a nugget with a potentially outsized impact: the implication that VFC vaccines…
News 10/30/12
DigiChart founder William Bates, MD will step down from his role as chairman, assuming the title of chairman emeritus.
Huntington Medical Foundation selects Allscripts RCM services for its 50 providers.
The AMA solicits members to participate in a survey to rate EHR systems. I am not clear on the survey process or how the rankings were derived, but they seem consistent with similar findings by other sources.
eClinicalWorks hosted 4,500 attendees at its 2012 National Users Conference last week in Washington, DC. Keynotes included Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin, MD and National Coordinator Farzad Mostashari, MD.
The Phoenix Business Journal profiles Desert Ridge Family Physicians, a six-physician practice that says its effective use of (NextGen’s) EHR has resulted in numerous efficiencies, including the ability to message patients securely, maintain a low staff member to physician ratio (2:1 compared to an industry average 5:1), and lower its no-show rate to three percent versus the industry average of 15 percent.
Adult Primary Care Associates (GA) contracts with ProviDyn for private cloud services for its Allscripts EHR and PM software.
Resurgens Orthopaedics (GA) selects Merge Honeycomb Archive as its patient image archiving and long-term disaster recovery solution.
Athenahealth is considering metro Atlanta as the site of its southeast hub, which would create about 400 jobs in that area. Meanwhile, the company is negotiating with Harvard University for the purchase of the $200 million, 11-building campus that includes athenahealth’s current headquarters. CEO Jonathan Bush says the company is considering at least three options that would expand its headquarters from 330,000 square feet to as much as one million square feet.
Impact Advisor’s Carol Slone recommends that practices establish basic goals prior to EHR adoption and measure the implementation success based on results. Typical benchmarks include quality of documentation, job reassignment, ease of use, level of staff complaints, and productivity.
A small study finds that 85 percent of oncologists and primary care physicians use social media at least once a week or once a day to scan or explore health information, and sixty percent of providers say social media improves the care they deliver. The numbers sound high to me, but clearly social media is having an impact on the way physicians are practicing medicine.
Beginning November 1, physicians can submit requests for significant hardship exemptions from the 2013 e-prescribing penalty. Requests will be reviewed case by case and all decisions will be final.
