From The Editor

  1. 4 Ways To Maximize Healthcare Margins 8/23/2012

    Healthcare providers today face unprecedented financial pressures that are putting their businesses at risk. These 4 tips can not only help you keep your head above water, but can actually help to increase your profitability. By Ken Congdon, editor in chief, Health IT Outcomes

  2. Why Are Patients Anti-EHR? 8/16/2012

    A new survey shows that only 26% of Americans want EHRs. What lies at the root of patient aversions to EHR technology?

  3. Uncovering The True Value Of HIE 8/9/2012

    A new study by Vanderbilt University reveals that access to HIE (health information exchange) data resulted in significant cost savings. What should the healthcare industry take away from this study?

  4. Forget About Meaningful Use 8/1/2012

    If your sole motivation for EHR adoption is to capitalize on Meaningful Use incentive dollars, then perhaps it’s time you reassessed your strategy. Data indicates that most successful EHR implementations are based around organizational goals.

  5. Have Best-Of-Breed EMRs Lost The Hospital Battle? 7/18/2012

    Recent conversations with hospital executives show a trend toward an enterprise (or single vendor) approach to EMR adoption. What does this mean for best-of-breed EMRs?

  6. Critical Content Can't Be Siloed 7/5/2012

    This special edition of Health IT Outcomes focuses on the “critical” patient health and financial data we are in the process of digitizing as a healthcare system. The federal government has deemed this move as a monumental step in cutting healthcare costs and improving patient care in the United States. It has even put incentives in place to spark IT adoption to this end. However, not everyone is convinced reduced costs and improved quality of care will be the result of this initiative.

  7. ICD-10 And Meaningful Use Dominate AHIMA 2011 10/11/2011

    Last week marked the 83rd annual American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) convention. This year’s event was held in Salt Lake City, and attendance seemed a bit lighter this year than in years’ past — perhaps the result of fiscal cautiousness given our struggling economy. However, one contingent of the AHIMA membership community was at the conference in full force — coders. This attendance, no doubt, was heavily influenced by the upcoming transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 code sets scheduled to take place in October 2013. ICD-10 will increase the sheer number of codes by nearly five times — from 14,000 to almost 70,000 — and changes the format of codes overall. For example, an ICD-9 code could only be up to five characters in length, where an ICD-10 code can be up to 7 characters long. These changes require upgrades to coding software and supporting backend systems, as well as significant change management on the part of the coding community. As expected, a number of ICD-10 solutions and services were on display in the AHIMA 2011 Exhibit Hall geared toward helping healthcare facilities meet these new coding requirements.
    By Ken Congdon, editor in chief, Health IT Outcomes

  8. IT Drives Top 10 Health Systems 6/3/2011
    Thomson Reuters released its third annual ranking of the top 10 health systems in the United States earlier this week, and most of the highest achieving providers are also widely considered to be innovators and early adopters in the area of health IT. The top-performing providers for 2011 are listed in this article.