Morning Headlines 7/12/13

Defense and VA to Congress on Health Records: It’s The Data, Not The Software

Defense Undersecretary Frank Kendall reports to a House Armed Services and Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing that the DoD and VA will create a new shared platform that will allow the two departments to pass key clinical information from separate EHRs. The new plan replaces the original iEHR plan that promised a single, integrated EHR for approximately 200 VA and DoD hospitals nationwide. The iEHR program was originally expected to cost between $4 billion and $6 billion but the budget soon ballooned to $28 billion, which is more than CMS is projected to spend on the entire Meaningful Use program.

Allscripts jumps on better 2Q contract booking

Allscripts shares rise more than 16 percent this week when the company reports an increase in contract bookings for the second quarter. The recently announced five-year managed IT contract extension with North Shore-LIJ Health System helped boost the numbers.

Fort Worth hospital reports huge data breach

A Fort Worth, TX hospital is notifying hundreds of thousands of patients cared for during the 1980s that their personal health information may have been exposed after microfiche pages containing names, addresses, birth dates, health information, and in some cases Social Security numbers are found in a local park.

HIMSS Workforce Survey, July 2013

HIMSS publishes the results of its first annual healthcare IT workforce survey, which finds that 85 percent of surveyed organizations had done at least some hiring this year compared to just 13 percent that had experienced layoffs. The most common positions being filled are for clinical application support staff and help desk staff. Seventy-nine percent of respondents say they will add staff next year.