Health IT News Features
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Health System CIO Priorities—Changes Ahead Due To Covid-19
1/14/2021
In February of 2020, one month before Covid-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, health system CIOs participated in a College of Health Information Management Executives (CHIME) survey to identify their top IT priorities and barriers to progress. A summary of this CHIME survey revealed that optimizing EHR/EMR services was the top IT priority, followed by patient engagement and consumer technologies—telemedicine, interoperability and analytics. Operating costs pressure was cited as the biggest barrier to making progress with these various health IT initiatives.
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New Communication Methods Can Help Ring In New Year Of Greater Patient Engagement
1/11/2021
Telehealth will continue to prove valuable, but it’s not enough. Though we’ve seen rapid adoption of telehealth platforms over the last year, our end goal is sustainable patient satisfaction. That means across the entire health interaction—not just at the point of care. To develop greater hospital-patient engagement, organizations need to view telehealth as only one piece of the entire puzzle.
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COVID-19 And Physician Burnout: What Hospitals Can Do To Help
1/11/2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified physician stress and burnout. Healthcare teams have had to adapt quickly to overcome new challenges and limitations to care delivery, often while operating with reduced financial and human resources. As providers grapple with patient surge and exposure mitigation, support of our physicians has never been more paramount.
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Setting The Facts Straight: 3 Common Misconceptions When Applying Automation To The Revenue Cycle
12/30/2020
After an extremely difficult year – one where health systems now face losses projected to exceed $323 billion due to COVID-19 and as much as $200 billion in administrative waste as a result of revenue cycle inefficiencies – providers, now more than ever, are feeling enormous pressure to reduce costs and effectively manage finances. Many organizations are turning to automation technologies to navigate healthcare’s operational challenges and improve outcomes at a lower cost – however, many may be taking a misguided approach that is preventing them from reaching widespread efficacy and justifying the initial cost of investment.
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Predictive Analytics And AI Trends Impacting Healthcare IT In 2021
12/17/2020
Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics continue to make transformational changes throughout the business world. While healthcare IT is seeing some impacts from AI and machine learning, it lags behind other industry sectors in fully adopting this emerging technology. However, necessity is sometimes the mother of invention, as evidenced by the Coronavirus pandemic still ravaging the planet.
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Why COVID-19 Is Forcing Us To Axe The Fax And Embrace Technologies Enabling Better Communication Between Providers
12/17/2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is placing immense pressure across the healthcare system and has highlighted the importance of interoperability and streamlined data exchange between stakeholders. In the current healthcare environment, securely communicating data promptly is more important than ever as the nation continues to manage these unprecedented times.
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Looking To 2021: Why We Need To Focus On Virtual Care
12/16/2020
To say that 2020 has been a clunker is, well, the understatement of the year. Collectively speaking, most people around the world are more than happy to see the year overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic in their rearview mirror. For that reason, perhaps no new year in recent history has been as longingly anticipated as is 2021.
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2021 Healthcare IT Landscape: 5 Predictions For Voice And Chat
12/15/2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has stifled many activities and elements in our daily lives. Technology, on the other hand, has rapidly adapted and evolved to fill many of the gaps created by social distancing and the increased need for healthcare access.
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Redefining Healthcare – How COVID-19 Brought Digital Medicine To The Forefront
11/30/2020
With the second wave of COVID-19 rapidly spreading across the U.S. and abroad, it is hard to imagine a post-COVID life at this time. The pandemic has already instilled some valuable lessons for America’s healthcare community which are starting to re-shape how medical services will be provided going forward. These changes place greater emphasis on outcomes vs. processes with less focus on symptom treatment and more holistic patient care.
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Driving Successful Aging In Place With Remote Technologies And Services
11/30/2020
Seniors seem to be top of mind for entities across the healthcare spectrum these days. With provider budgets stretched, and payer reimbursements shrinking, many are viewing senior care as a market segment that presents a rare opportunity. The market is only growing, too. According to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, 24.1 million people are now enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans – up 9% from 2019 alone. This rate of growth has many healthcare organizations taking notice.