Healthcare IT

Though facility managers are understanding the gains presented by EMR, a recent study found that the medical community has a long way to go before achieving paperless operations.

No matter what age or strength level a person may hold, all members of the U.S. population are susceptible to the dangerous side effects inherent to many pharmaceutical drugs.

Facility managers in Georgia have announced that the Medical College of Georgia Hospital and Clinics in Augusta will merge with Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon into a new HIE called “Georgia Regional Academic Community Health Information Exchange.”

To afford healthcare providers with more complete and easily digestible clinical summaries, it was recently announced that one of America’s leading drug store chains, Walgreens, will reportedly adopt an eprescribing platform in each of the company’s 7,800 affiliated pharmacies.

During the course of the study – entitled EMR Benefits and Benefit Realization Methods of Stage 6 and 7 Hospitals – the researchers found that EMR systems are improving patient care and safety.

Although critics have questioned the utility of government-mandated transitions to healthcare IT, Dr. Farzad Mostashari is suggesting that healthcare IT is propelling forward in a positive manner.

Interestingly, in order to enjoy optimal benefit from electronic data exchange, reports state that several existing HIEs in different communities are merging with one another to create an even larger pool of clinical resources to draw from.

The Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN) recently announced that the state is now the first in the country to achieve full participation with all of its acute care hospitals joining a statewide community health record.

As more states have begun to enter healthcare information exchanges (HIE), officials from Pennsylvania announced recently that the state has made plans to develop its first comprehensive electronic exchange program.