Patient care requires fast-paced, asynchronous collaboration that ensures quick responses for life-saving decisions. By Galina Datskovsky, CEO of Vaporstream
Ransomware is now a prominent threat to hospitals. By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Texting can keep patients motivated, engaged, and on the road to better health. By Christine Kern, contributing writer
“Most Wired” hospitals are partnering with other providers to share health data, study found. By Christine Kern, contributing writer
It seems every week there’s another study documenting the problems physicians have with healthcare IT. The findings invariably are consistent with what the AMA has been saying for the past several years — physicians overwhelmingly dislike EHR systems’ poor usability and interoperability, and resent the extra time they have to spend at the keyboard.
Frequent alarms from medical technology are overloading physicians and leading to situations that could put patients at risk. By Katie Wike, contributing writer
With all the talk of Big Data, there are still big questions as to how to most effectively leverage information and data to make a positive impact on healthcare delivery, cost, and outcomes. One health system leader thinks an approach developed by a Major League baseball team might be a game changer.
Health IT is in a state of constant evolution, and it often seems that, for every problem solved, another is created. That’s why it’s vital we stop to assess where the industry stands from time to time, as well as look to the future to determine the best course to take to achieve our collective goals.
Valley Medical Center is an acute care, non-profit community hospital in the suburbs of Seattle. An entity of University of Washington Medicine, Valley Medical Center has a network of primary care, urgent care and specialty care clinics throughout King County. HealthCare’s Most Wired and HIMSS Analytics Stage 7 awards are evidence of the hospital’s commitment to using innovative healthcare technologies to deliver high-quality care.
To meet growing demand and address the need for improved facilities, University of California San Francisco Medical Center spent 10 years and $1.5 billion on a new, three-building hospital complex in Mission Bay. The new facility includes a 289-bed children’s, women’s specialty, and cancer hospital complex, which opened to the public in February 2015 with state-of-the-art equipment and emerging technologies.
Voalte Me™ extends the capabilities of Voalte One™ by connecting caregivers inside and outside the hospital walls. In the hospital, they use hospital-owned shared devices, while those outside use personal smartphones. At Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Florida, physicians, nursing managers and administrators are relying on Voalte Me to send and receive secure text messages about patient care, strategize on how to alleviate weekend crowding in the Emergency Department, and disseminate group messages to the staff. And they do all this from outside the hospital, using their own personal smartphones equipped with Voalte Me.
When it comes to healthcare communication, no single software application can meet every need. To achieve seamless care collaboration, you need a comprehensive healthcare communication platform that provides multiple applications. To manage complex business functions, many market sectors have been shifting to a software platform model. Some platforms even offer development tools that allow companies to create their own applications.
Many hospitals consider the Emergency Department (ED) as their hospital’s front door. Some patients arrive seeking treatment for a sports injury or a bee sting. Others are rushed in by ambulance, suffering from a potentially life-threatening event.
A strong smartphone platform with secure texting lets physicians communicate with other healthcare providers without the inefficiencies of pagers and call-back loops. Be confident that your physicians are communicating securely inside and outside the hospital by choosing a smartphone solution that includes these three key elements.
There are now more ways available for people to communicate than ever before. Thanks to mobile technology and robust wireless networks, anyone with a mobile phone can place a call, send a text, check their email, respond to social media messages, and take and send photos and videos from just about anywhere.
Despite the best intentions, healthcare organizations can struggle with consistently and reliably collecting precise patient information and matching individuals to their medical records. The consequences of patient misidentification and mismatching can be severe, ranging from medical errors to adverse effects on the bottom line. Patient misidentification also makes it difficult for organizations to track their costs and determine the total cost of care in risk-based arrangements.
Many industry leaders championed a free market approach to healthcare during the 12th Annual World Health Care Congress last week. Here are a few key reasons why I don’t think this model is “the fix” our industry so desperately needs.
For the past five years, EHR/MU was selected as the top health IT initiative for the coming year. This year, there’s a new top initiative, and what it is should come as no surprise.
With all the talk of Big Data, there are still big questions as to how to most effectively leverage information and data to make a positive impact on healthcare delivery, cost, and outcomes. One health system leader thinks an approach developed by a Major League baseball team might be a game changer.
From notifying care givers of proper bed rail placement for patients with a high fall risk to directing patients to their medical appointments, the possibilities of the Internet of Things (IoT) in healthcare are truly endless.
Health IT is in a state of constant evolution, and it often seems that, for every problem solved, another is created. That’s why it’s vital we stop to assess where the industry stands from time to time, as well as look to the future to determine the best course to take to achieve our collective goals.
Our inaugural class of Health IT Change Agents set a high bar, but this year’s class can more than hold its own when it comes to driving positive change and advancing health IT.
Ransomware is now a prominent threat to hospitals. By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Vocera Communications, Inc. (NYSE:VCRA), the leading provider of intelligent, real-time communication and collaboration solutions for mission-critical mobile environments, celebrates its 15-year anniversary this week.
