News 3/25/14

EHR usage in small physician offices has helped spur overall EHR adoption to 61 percent, according to an SK&A report on physician office EHR use. Other key findings:

• The adoption rate for single doctor offices grew from 42.3 to 53.7 percent from 2013 to 2014.
• EHR adoption rates increase as the number of physicians practicing at each site rises; as the number of exam rooms at each site increases; and, as average daily patient volume rises.
• Physicians working for integrated health systems have higher adoption levels than providers working under other type ownership models.
• Epic, eClinicalWorks, and Allscripts lead other vendors in terms of market share.

St. Francis Health System (OK) will go live across its 70 physician offices in May and at its hospitals in June.

The AAFP offers an online PCMH planner to help practices achieve medical home practice transformation by assessing a practice’s current program and identifying specific goals to fill any gaps. The subscription-based planner starts at $100 for members and $149 for non-members.

How do these things still happen? A Topeka, KS man opens a dumpster in his office complex and finds discarded medical records, complete with patient names and social security numbers. Perhaps not coincidentally a document scanning service has an office in the same complex. The state attorney general’s office have removed the charts for further investigation.

The Naval Branch Health Clinic Albany (FL) announces the availability of secure email between patients and providers using RelayHealth’s secure messaging service.

GMed introduces a revenue cycle management service that complements its existing gastroenterology-specific EHR and practice management, report writing, and patient portal platform.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation launches Flip The Clinic, an initiative meant to transform the average doctor visit to be more satisfying. The idea is to have the Flip The Clinic website serve as a hub for patients, providers, and other stakeholders to share ideas for improving the physician visit experience so that it’s more satisfying for patients and optimizes physician expertise. I like the concept and the mission, but I’m not convinced it’s something the average patient (or physician) will take the time to find and participate in. I hope I’m wrong.

The use of copy and paste functionality in EHRs should only be permitted in the presence of strong technical and administrative controls, which include organizational policies and procedures, requirements for participation in user training and education, and ongoing monitoring. That’s the recommendation of AHIMA in a newly published position paper that warns users that the efficiency and time savings benefits of copy/paste functionality should be weighed against the potential for creating inaccurate, fraudulent, or unwieldy documentation. The use of copy and paste functionality is too entrenched in EHRs to be eliminated so kudos to AHIMA for offering solid and realistic recommendations to reduce the potential risks.

The Federation of State Medical Boards is considering a policy that could impact the delivery of telemedicine services by requiring a physician to be licensed where the patient is located. The policy also requires the same standards of care apply for both virtual and face-to-face encounters.

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