As if there weren’t enough pressures on providers and health systems, now they have to worry about competition from retail health clinics. Attention-grabbing headlines like this one from Forbes makes you wonder where all this is leading: “Healthcare for $4: Are You Ready For Wal-Mart To Be Your Doctor?” Health clinics operated by drugstore chains Read More
A growing percentage of the U.S. population does not speak English – greater than 35% in some states. How can hospitals and health systems cope with this potential safety issue? How does a teenager tell his doctor he has a “dolor de estómago” (stomach ache) if the doctor doesn’t speak Spanish? If an elderly woman Read More
By Lisa D. Ellis The latest technological approaches are helping healthcare facilities do their job better—and more efficiently—than ever before, right down to the very last detail. In fact, that’s where Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) comes in, offering on-demand video interpretation services to facilitate accurate communication for patients who are hearing impaired or have language Read More
by Joan Trezek “I changed doctors because we just weren’t communicating.” “I really like my doctor; I feel like I’m important and being listened to.” While phrases like patient engagement and shared decision making weren’t much in evidence a few years ago, they are very popular in today’s healthcare environment, where comments from both ends Read More
by Jennifer Busick In an episode of the TV series “Northern Exposure,” the fictional Alaskan hamlet of Cicely is tapped to participate in a drug trial. Residents line up to collect bottles of identical pills, one of which is an investigational new drug that may (or may not) prevent the common cold; the other, of Read More
by Lisa D. Ellis An innovative pairing of Google Glass and QR codes is transforming the way physicians “see” patients—and is ramping up the cutting-edge delivery of clinical care. Using technology in innovative ways Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), which is a major teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School in Boston, has long been Read More
by Brian O’Neill Healthcare providers and payers have intrinsically known for years the importance of effective communication to high-quality care. But, truth be told, the system hasn’t always worked as well as it should. Primary care physicians have their challenges in communicating with specialists (including hospitalists). Physicians and nurses don’t always talk to each other Read More
by Lisa D. Ellis In today’s fastpaced healthcare environment, two innovative hospitals are finding new and exciting ways to leverage web-based technologies—both to strengthen their own internal strategies and also as vehicles to share research, training, and lessons learned within the broader medical community. Nicholson Center’s commitment to education The Florida Hospital Nicholson Center in Read More
by Jane Weber Brubaker When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law in March 2010, it simultaneously ignited a firestorm of disruptions to established but unsustainable care delivery and reimbursement models and opened abundant opportunities for healthcare innovators. A new generation of digital health entrepreneurs has emerged to meet the challenges of healthcare Read More
by Brian O’Neill With healthcare reform bringing millions of newly insured patients into a system that already sees shortages in primary care physicians and select specialties, the industry is being pressured to become ever smarter about how providers, insurers, and patients themselves communicate and interact. Fortunately, affordable electronic communication tools are available today that support Read More
by Jennifer Busick Here’s the problem: You need a way to get critical healthcare information about a patient to a healthcare professional—or a group of healthcare professionals. Maybe a nurse needs to know that vital test results are ready. Perhaps an emergency room physician needs a neurosurgery consult. Or, perhaps the need is as simple Read More
by Richard ‘RJ’ Kedziora How do you define project failure? Is it when the project costs more than the original budget? Is it when the delivery date is long past and the project is still incomplete? Or is failure defined by a completed project that does not fulfill the agreed-on requirements? Maybe it’s all three. Read More
by Kris Rusch The near-universal access to at least some forms of information and communications technology in the United States makes it possible for hospitals to reach new patients with telemedicine while helping to address long-standing disparities in access to care, particularly for residents in rural areas. Telemedicine, also called telehealth or E-therapy, refers to Read More
// By Dan Dunlop // It has been said that the patient is the most underutilized resource in health- care. With the rise of the “connected patient,” clinicians, administrators, and marketers have started to place greater emphasis on patient insights and desires. Hospitals and health systems, how- ever, have been slow to address the changing Read More
by Sheryl S. Jackson Automating Process Reduces Need for Staff and Saves Advertising Dollars When the University of Utah Health Care added physician ratings to its website (as detailed in the May 2013 issue of eHST) to combat the less reliable results found on rating sites such as Yelp, Healthgrades, or RateMDs, Matt Gove was Read More
by Cheryl Haas If you’re a business person and considering an outside contract for any kind of service, it’s accepted procedure that you will obtain at least three bids to compare price and quality before deciding which contractor to use. Likewise, if you’re buying a car, purchasing an airline ticket, or looking at hotels, it’s Read More
by Jane Weber Brubaker Cleveland Clinic was an early adopter of Epic’s electronic health record (EHR) beginning in 2000. In 2012, Cleveland Clinic launched MyPractice Healthcare Solutions, a branded version of the Epic EHR platform, to share best practices with other organizations. “Part of Cleveland Clinic’s mission is to share its experience and model of Read More
by Kris Rusch Scheduling medical and dental appointments can be a source of frustration for patients and providers alike. Patients often complain of long lags between the time they realize they need to see a practitioner and the date of the next available appointment. For people wanting to see specialty care providers, the next available Read More
Ask The Expert with Daniel Fell Recently, my 91-year-old father voiced considerable frustration about changes in his insurance plan. Rather than presenting changes in a clear, concise manner, the plan used language that only confused him more and forced him to spend hours on the phone talking to customer service representatives. At the time, I Read More
by Jane Weber Brubaker The key challenges facing healthcare systems today revolve around the quality and efficiency of care delivery. How can technology optimize the time and talents of the care team in a rapidly evolving environment that focuses on care coordination? Will fee-for-service be replaced by value-based models? When? How can providers qualify for Read More
by Theresa Jacobellis Personal computers, tablets, and smartphones bring a world of information, commerce, and communication to millions of users wherever they may be. Now, this technology is helping healthcare providers overcome the barriers of cost, distance, and inconvenience to deliver checkups and urgent care to people in their homes, places of business, and retail Read More
by Theresa Jacobellis As the American healthcare system is reformed, greater emphasis is being placed on wellness and prevention. Savvy providers are harnessing mobile technology to empower patients to be more engaged in their own healthcare, with the potential to improve treatment compliance, enhance outcomes, and even maximize reimbursements by reducing readmissions. Earlier this year, Read More
WEBSITES/MOBILE APPLICATIONS Concussion Recognition App Now Available for Free. The popular Concussion Recognition & Response app from PAR is available at the Apple App Store and at Google Play for Android devices. New Symptom Checker Identifies Conditions Caused by Drugs. The free personalized symptom checker from eHealthMe compares symptoms with more than 40 million drug Read More
Reference Source with a Click How often do you use Google to learn more about something in an online article, such as the location of a town, a person’s background, or the definition of a word? Rather than leave the Web page, get the browser add-on from Curiyo. Once installed on your computer, Curiyo identifies Read More
by Mark S. Gothberg “I began actively helping my elderly parents a number of years ago. Every time I took them to a doctor’s appointment, we would be asked for the same information over and over again, especially about what medications were being taken,” says Jim Rattray, until recently vice president of marketing and public Read More