For anyone who has been working in the healthcare IT industry over the past 15-18 years, including yours truly, we can all attest to the fact that interfaces – including the technology that facilitates them – have progressed from being important prerequisites for operational efficiency to mission critical elements for patient care and safety.

We just wrapped up the month of October supporting National Cybersecurity Awareness Month and the emphasis focused on the mantras of Own IT, Secure IT, Protect IT as it relates to your personal and patient data. As a leader in Patient Privacy, we were proud to participate in National Cybersecurity Awareness month, and share many educational resources throughout the month. Each week during the month we focused on a different topic to give you tips for what hospital leaders (and in some cases, you personally) can do to improve cybersecurity protection.

Your facility may be gearing up to integrate Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC) into your existing physician order workflow, which is the program established to increase the rate of appropriate advanced diagnostic imaging services provided to Medicare beneficiaries. The mandate from CMS is that the program needs to be fully implemented by January 2021.

Let me begin by saying, I live on the Atlantic coast, just north of Jacksonville, FL. Because it’s hurricane season in this area, I always keep a keen eye on hurricane updates. Recently, I tracked and monitored Hurricane Dorian and the impact it might have on my family.

With the increase in high-deductible health plans, there is a greater demand for patients needing a simplified way to pay their out of pocket health care bills.

According to Healthcare Finance, there has been a 30 percent rise in patient costs. From a 2017 study, 89 percent of provider financial administrators expected that healthcare payments will be made on phones and mobile devices by the fourth quarter of 2018, yet only 20 percent are currently ready for electronic payments other than checks, cash or credit/debit cards.

A picture really is worth a thousand words. Taking complex ideas or data and compiling them in a single picture conveys the meaning more effectively than any words. Visual communication is still one of the most effective and powerful forms of communication. When applied in healthcare, it presents a clearer picture, increases patient safety, facilitates communication between providers, prioritizes workflow, and improves patient satisfaction.

It's quite common for patients to move throughout their community seeing numerous physicians as part of their treatment plan. Connecting these provider practices with the hospital HIS system for seamless data exchange can prove to be challenging. 

Think of it as insurance. You dislike having to pay for it, but it is a critical need in any organization. You can be ready for planned downtimes, but what happens when it is unplanned?

As sited in HealthIT.gov about EHR downtimes, “Such unavailability can introduce substantial safety risks to organizations that have not adequately prepared. Effective contingency planning addresses the causes and consequences of EHR unavailability, and involves processes and preparations that can minimize the frequency and impact of such events, ensuring continuity of care."

When discussing Meaningful Use with CIOs, I’ve received some comments that they pursued specific measures to meet the requirement, but they believe they’re not taking full advantage of the measure in their real-world, day-to-day workflow.