Electronic health and medical records (EHRs) enhance the patient experience and improve care coordination, but they can also put patients and providers at risk if they are not protected. Security vulnerabilities can arise from communicating via unsecured channels such as email and can result in data breaches, compromised patient records, and even identity theft. As medical records contain personal information such as social security numbers and insurance ID numbers, they are often even more
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Medical Records | Health Information Management | Revenue Cycle Management
DrFirst Integrates With Imprivata to Enable Single Sign-On Secure Messaging
DrFirst announced today their collaboration to deliver single sign-on (SSO) access to HIPAA compliant messaging. Using DrFirst Backline and Imprivata Mobile Device Access, users can now securely communicate in real-time across care team members and patients without the burden of manual logins to access Backline.Impact of Single Sign-On for CliniciansResearchers have found that single sign-on improves productivity among providers, increases HIPAA compliance, decreases errors, and significantly
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Interoperability: Why Health Systems Need to Integrate Their Digital Stack
Several years ago, Thomas Friedman, the best-selling New York Times columnist, began pointing out how application programming interfaces (APIs) and the resultant connectivity was enabling one-touch consumer engagement with a broad range of services. We now take it for granted that we can call a car service from our phone, watch the driver approach on a map, and then pay for our ride without leaving a single application.
Similarly, we can scroll through dozens of different brands of olive oil
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FCC Strengthens Rural Telehealth Program: 5 Things to Know
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday took action to promote telehealth in rural America through reforms to the Rural Health Care Program that ensure limited program funds are disbursed efficiently and equitably, promote transparency and predictability in the program’s administration, and strengthen safeguards against waste, fraud, and abuse.
The announcement revises the rules governing the Telecom Program to simplify calculation of the urban rate—the amount health care
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VA Transfers 23.5 Million Patient Health Records to Cerner’s Data Center
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently transferred the health records of 23.5 million Veterans to a Cerner's data center, setting the stage for the records to be processed this summer in support of VA’s and Department of Defense’s (DoD) common electronic health record (EHR) solution.Data Migration PhaseThis initial data migration phase of VA’s Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM), which began in late spring, is an important milestone reflecting the decision to replace
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Reducing Preventable Medication Errors and Adverse Drug Events
Using a Health Information Exchange (HIE), clinicians across multidisciplinary care teams can access a patient’s medications, reconcile the list and monitor their progress, thereby reducing medication errors and future costs from preventable hospital admissions.
Multiple factors combine to make the prescribing, supplying and taking of medications a perilous and costly issue for patients and the healthcare sector. Prescription medication use is by far the most common health intervention.
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Referential Matching—What It Is and Why It Matters for Providers
Clean patient data is the critical first step for any successful health IT integration, EHR conversion, interoperability initiative or electronic information exchange. According to a recent Pew Charitable Trusts report, most hospital executives and administrators believe the accuracy of patient matching when information is exchanged between organizations with different EHR systems is subpar.
Further, as health systems continue to consolidate and add more data to their networks, the importance of
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3 Ways On-Demand Care Can Improve the Patient Experience
In the increasingly competitive healthcare space, establishing loyalty and improving the patient experience has become a priority for providers. In no area is this truer than the highly competitive, consumer-driven on-demand care space. In fact, a recent survey revealed that patients are five times more likely to select a practice because they’ve had a positive experience there rather than traditional marketing tools, highlighting a key driver of patient loyalty.
Patients are increasingly
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Paperless Beyond EMRs: 3 Reasons Why Healthcare Should Switch to Online Forms
Electronic medical records (EMRs) introduced a new era of healthcare management. Should healthcare operators want to venture farther, they may need to consider digitizing their internal operations, as well.Hospitals and clinics present extremely complex environments to manage. There is little wonder that manual and piecemeal approaches to everyday operations are no longer sufficient. Many healthcare operators are therefore turning to modern technologies. They can be optimized to make healthcare
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University of Arkansas Launches Statewide Digital Health Spine Clinic
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has launched a new statewide digital health spine clinic that will allow patients with spinal disorders, and spinal cord tumors to see a specialist at the closest location to their homes without visiting Little Rock. The UAMS Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the UAMS Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute recently held the first digital spine clinic consultations in Arkansas in April. The virtual spine
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