MercyRockford Health System, a vertically-integrated regional health system with five hospitals and 561 W-2 employed physician partners in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, has partnered with Premier, Inc., a healthcare improvement company, for group purchasing and expense reduction services on a system-wide basis. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Formed in January 2015 through the merger of Mercy Health System and Rockford Health System, MercyRockford also operates
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Health IT | News, Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
Can A National Patient Identifier Solve Interoperability Challenges?
Editor's Note: Thomas Grove is a Principal of Consulting and Compliance Services at Phoenix Health Systems, a division of Medsphere Systems. As a healthcare management executive with 20+ years of experience, Thomas has extensive expertise in strategic assessments and planning, revenue cycle management, and process improvement.
Many EHR components were developed as early as 30 years ago, but it wasn’t until 2009 that the federal Meaningful Use incentive program precipitated wide-spread
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3 Ways Care Teams are Transforming Healthcare Delivery
When it comes to the changing health status of patients after acute episodes and between visits, uncertainty abounds. Until now, care teams have had little to no visibility into the health of their populations, severely limiting their ability to prevent adverse health events before costs spiral.
This week, care management and patient engagement platform RoundingWell released initial insights uncovered from analysis of data gathered directly from patient populations and care teams using the
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Patient Navigation: 5 Steps for Fixing the Most Dangerous Communication Problem in Hospitals
A recent study documented what healthcare professionals have suspected for years: that communication breaks down somewhere between hospital discharge and outpatient follow-up. At best, it was unclear who was responsible for post-discharge testing or home healthcare. At worst, primary care physicians didn’t know their patients had been admitted at all.
With nearly 80 percent of serious medical errors involving miscommunication during patient transfers, it’s time to close this dangerous
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Practice Fusion Lays Off 75 Employees To Become Cash Flow Positive
Cloud-based EHR platform Practice Fusion has laid off about 75 employees, including people in engineering, marketing, practice sales in an effort to become fiscally responsible, Techcrunch confirms. The layoffs were announced on Wednesday during an all-hands meeting and represents about a quarter of the San Francisco-based EHR provider’s workforce.
Despite its efforts to become cash-flow positive, Practice Fusion reported 70% year-over-year growth with $26.9M in 2014 and is expected to reach
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Premier Granted Access to CMS Medicare Data To Drive Healthcare Transformation
Healthcare improvement leader Premiere Inc. is the first organization to be approved by CMS to access its Virtual Research Data Center (VRDC) to develop innovations that drive healthcare transformation. By tapping into CMS's VRDC, a virtual research environment, Premier will derive insights from privacy-protected Medicare data that are expected to result in the development of solutions to benefit patients and the healthcare system overall.
As part of its approved research, Premier Insights,
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HITRUST Appoints Epic President Carl Dvorak to Board of Directors
The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) has appointed Epic President Carol Dvorak to its Board of Directors in a move to strengthen its industry EHR engagement. He joins a board comprised of CISOs and CPOs representing many of the nation’s largest insurers and hospitals.
As the original developer of several Epic applications, Mr. Dvorak is responsible for all technical and service areas and brings unique perspective and extensive skills in developing and supporting EHRs to HITRUST.
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Huron Consulting Group Acquires Patient Rounding & Survey App MyRounding
Management consulting firm Huron Consulting Group has acquired mobile patient rounding platform MyRounding for an undisclosed sum. MyRounding's robust app allows healthcare professionals to standardize, automate and track your rounding activity. More importantly, it allows nurses and staff to be proactive and improves the care and experience of patients in real-time.
The acquisition of MyRounding will help strengthen Huron's existing transformation services for providers as it
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Cumberland Consulting Group Launches Performance Improvement Practice
Cumberland Consulting Group, a leading healthcare strategic advisory, technology implementation and support services firm, has launch a performance improvement practice as part of the firm’s provider services portfolio. The practice will provide results-driven solutions to help healthcare providers improve margins, bend the cost curve and increase operating efficiencies.
The practice’s comprehensive services will range from process redesign and workflow improvement to denial management and
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40% of Providers Report IT Budgets are Still Growing
40% of providers reported their IT budgets are still growing with only 25% of providers with growing budgets attribute the growth to EHRs, according to a new IDC Health Insights report. The new survey specifically examines technology spending and planned technology spending by U.S. acute care hospitals with more than 200 beds.
Key findings indicate that the post-EHR era is upon us as providers turn to optimizing the business for accountable care, adding analytics and care management, and away
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