How Happy is Your Physician?

A recent article in HeathData Management reported that EHRs have a big influence on physician satisfaction.  As quoted, "Physicians believing they provide or facilitate high-quality care have higher professional satisfaction and how they feel about their electronic health records system plays a big role in that satisfaction."

RAND Corporation did a study of 220 clinicians and administrators in 30 practices across 6 states.  They reported that physicians approved the concept of electronic health record systems especially when it comes to remotely accessing patient information and seeing improvements in the quality of care.  

However not all physicians agreed.  Some stated that "Poor EHR usability, time-consuming data entry, interference with face-to-face patient care, inefficient and less fulfilling work content, inability to exchange health information between EHR products, and degradation of clinical documentation were prominent sources of professional dissatisfaction.”

So how happy is your physician?  Is he or she able to spend time talking with you like they want, or is their head buried in a paper chart or computer?  Are they furiously clicking away on a keyboard with a scowl on their face because they know all this work will only churn out irrelevant information that they'll need to fix later - most likely on their own time?  Are there still mounds of paperwork that have to be sent to other offices or medical facilities, when it should be as easy as pushing a button?

Maybe take a closer look the next time you go in for a visit.  Ask them "how happy are you?" and see what they say.  You might be surprised!  Oh, and if they aren't happy, mention us here at Inforia.  We have a simple solution that might be exactly what they need ... after all, it might give them more time to spend with you!

HealthData Management article written by Joseph Goedert, OCT 14, 2013 4:10pm ET

NYS I-STOP Prescription Monitoring Program

In 2012, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the I-STOP or "Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing" act into law and it is now mandatory for 2013.  The law requires all prescribers to consult the Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) prior to prescribing and Schedule II, III and IV controlled substances.  Each prescriber must have an individual Health Commerce System Account (HCS) to gain access to the PMP registry.   This may lead to more electronic prescribing for controlled substances down the road.

In the New York State Office of the Attorney General's proposal, they cite:

"Prescription drug diversion involves channeling legitimately produced controlled substances from their lawful purpose into illicit drug traffic. Abuse of diverted drugs comprises the nation’s fastest growing drug problem, and in recent years has reached epidemic proportions. It affects every sector of society, straining our healthcare and criminal justice systems, and endangering the future of our younger generations.

Why are Many EHR Users Unhappy?

A survey finds vendors often failing to meet provider needs.

Erin McCann, Associate Editor at Healthcare IT News

NEW YORK | February 19, 2013

With more electronic health record systems continuing to fall short of providers' expectations, a new report by Black Book Rankings suggests that 2013 may indeed be the "year of the great EHR vendor switch."   After polling some 17,000 active EHR adopters, report officials found that as many as 17 percent of medical practices could be switching out their first choice EHR by the end of the year. 

“The high performance vendors emerging as viable past 2015 are those dedicating responsive teams to address customers’ current demands,” said Black Book’s managing partner Doug Brown, in a news release.   [See also: EHR adoption could exceed 80 percent by end of 2013, new study finds.]

And in light of Stage 2, officials say provider demands are only increasing. EHR users polled cited numerous cases of software firms underperforming badly enough to lose crucial market share as the industry evolves, with vendor solutions often struggling to keep pace.

Click here to see why providers are switching to Inforia, Inc. and our 

CaregiverDesktop EHR !

What would John Smith Say About Universal Patient Identifiers?

According to White Pages, there are currently about 25,255 people who are named John Smith in the United Sates. That’s a lot of John’s that could get mixed up with each other in all kinds of different systems, from their education history to their medical history. But mixing up one John Smith with another in terms of their medical history could potentially risk the lives of both John’s involved. So does that mean we should seriously consider implementing universal patient identifiers (UPIs)?

A recent Wall Street Journal Article outlines some of the arguments for and against UPIs so we want to sum it up for you.

www.names.whitepages.com

New HIPPA/HHS Privacy Final Rule

On January 17, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the long-awaited omnibus final rule on HIPAA regulations. This Final Rule modifies certain aspects of the Privacy Rule, the Security Rule, and the Enforcement Rule under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Breach Notification for Unsecured Protected Health Information Rule (Breach Notification Rule) under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act).

Phew. We know that's a lot to process. You probably need to read over that information a couple of times before you even understand what it means. But then, we haven’t even said what it means yet. Why? Because we are not yet entirely sure of that ourselves either. The Final Rule document is about 600 pages of complex information. So bear with us – we can’t give you a one-page summary yet. But we want to tell you not to worry; not that much has changed.