'Samantha Brown points out that, “Healthcare, like every other industry, gets caught up in the idolatry of the ‘innovators.’”' I…
Morning Headlines 10/1/14
Optum will acquire MedSynergies, a physician practice management, revenue cycle management, and referral management software platform with 9,300 customers across the US.
Doctors Find Barriers to Sharing Digital Medical Records
The New York Times interviews Epic CEO Judy Faulkner in a piece addressing problems with interoperability between EHRs, and the accusations that have been leveled at Epic specifically.
Health Affairs interviews Kaiser Permanente ex-CEO George Halvorson, who discusses a variety of topics, including the rise and fall of HMOs, the implementation of its $6 billion health IT infrastructure, and the state of health reform in the US.
Effect of a Postdischarge Virtual Ward on Readmission or Death for High-Risk Patients
A study published in JAMA finds that discharging patients directly home, versus transferring them into a post-discharge “virtual ward,” where elements of acute care are carried out in the community setting, has no effect on readmissions or death rates.
This NYT article is garbage and poorly done…
Judy artfully calls out ONC and the lack of a single standard and simple Rules of the Road by ONC to force other vendors to share records across EHRs.
From Epic’s website:
4.6 Million Patient Records…
… were exchanged securely on the Care Everywhere network in July 2014 – to and from Epic EHRs, non-Epic EHRs, HIEs, and government agencies.
Epic is a leader in interoperability and although many would like to attack, Epic stands on the foundation of the most interoperable system in healthcare.
If a vendor like Epic can not share records between their own software then we have bigger problems then interoperability. To boast that Epic can share records between their systems, wow what a feata. The issue is that HIT has not developed a standard to exchange data between vendors without their clients being stuck in the competetive middle, high cost of development and maintenance. Stabdards are needed and adoption should be low cost. Vendors are reaping millions from the ARRA, and its time to give back a little to tie it all together. And lastly some of you need to stop drinking the Koolaid.