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.

Why are cars more important than people?

Have you ever noticed that when you take your car in for service, the person checking your car in looks it up in the computer, tells you what service has been performed in the past, and what needs to be done now based upon the car’s mileage and your description of what is wrong with it?

You do not have to remember anything that was done to your car, or when. You do not have to keep a detailed file at home with every problem your car has ever been diagnosed with, and what specific service was performed to fix each problem. You don’t even have to keep track of when your car is due for scheduled maintenance. Your car dealer or favorite garage will send you a reminder via mail or email!

We Have a Brainstorming Activity For You!

(If you are a doctor, don’t think like one – think like a patient). Imagine that you go to the doctor’s office and get a prescription for some sort of medicine you need within the next few days. A couple of days later you are getting ready to leave the house to fill your prescription… but you can’t find it.

You’ve looked everywhere, exhausted all possible places it could be hiding, but that little piece of paper has once again disappeared.

Now what do you do? You have to call your doctor’s office, talk to the receptionist, then maybe the nurse, and then, if you’re lucky, you may get a chance to speak with your doctor…and tell him/her that you lost your prescription. As the doctor… that's annoying, isn’t it? But of course you write a new prescription and have the patient notified that they can come pick it up.

Back to being the patient...  

EHR Incentive Program Timeline

Everyone involved in the EHR Incentive Program has been waiting for the day that the 2014 guidelines come out. That day has come and gone, but it has left many professionals still confused. Next week we will post a concrete document explaining very simply what the guidelines are for Meaningful Use Stage 2. But for now, we thought that you should take a look at this timeline to make sure you are on the right track…

And stay tuned for next week's blog post, it's going to be an important one! 

http://www.inforiainc.com/data/Unsorted/EHRIncentProgtimeline508V1-66073-1.pdf

 

EHR’s and Mother Nature

In the wake of the destruction left by Hurricane Sandy, we have been forcefully reminded of the value of web-based electronic health record systems (and not just because that is what we do). Thousands of homes and offices were flooded and while we do not know how many were doctor’s offices, we can assume that a portion were just that. Now imagine if those doctors had all their patients’ records in paper form… or even on a computer server in their office?

Not a good image, is it? 

Welcome to Inforia Inc.'s New Blog!

Healthcare is changing in this country every single day – that is a fact that no one can escape. Often, healthcare news gets complicated and too confusing for the average consumer to understand, and sometimes even for healthcare professionals.

So, we are here to help!

The mission of this new blog, “Insights from Inforia” is to take the complicated and make it simple (just like our simple-to-use, yet powerful electronic health records solution). We want everyone to understand what is going on in the healthcare and health IT world because it is such an important part of all of our lives. 

You’re probably thinking that “Inforia” is a funny name for a medical software company. But here is the simple breakdown: Information + Euphoria = Inforia. We work to make our clients euphoric about documenting and handling their patients' information electronically. We become true partners with each of our clients, and we want to do the same with our readers of this blog.  

Our staff members will be sharing our insights into the complicated world of healthcare and health IT. However, our insights are nothing without you! Just because the title of the blog is “Insights from Inforia,” it does not mean we are the only ones who get a chance to speak. We go first by writing a post, and then it’s your turn! We want to hear your insights too - whether you agree or disagree, have a question or a concern, or just want to add a quick comment!

By reading our blog, we hope that you learn more and stay informed about the healthcare and health IT worlds. But we also hope that you can teach us. Perspective is always important, but is hard to have. With this new blog, we are hoping that you will help us understand what you have to say so we can all better understand the ever-changing world of Healthcare.