Getting legislation through Congress—often a monumental battle, as demonstrated by recent efforts to pass the American Health Care Act—is one thing. But implementing new laws may be a greater challenge simply because they require so much sustained energy and attention.
Take mental health parity laws, for example.
The focus of federal efforts to incentivize healthcare IT adoption has primarily been on electronic health records (EHRs), which are oriented around hospitals and physician offices. Moving forward, EHRs will remain the anchor technology as data from other devices and applications flows in and becomes both available and comparable.
Are you old enough to remember the pre-concert security searches for recording devices that were once part of every live music experience? Yes, musicians once had some semblance of control over bootleg audio and video.
But the proliferation of tiny hand-held computers that happen to also make phone calls ended all that. Now, tossing music-lovers who pull out a phone to record would empty entire arenas save a few luddites with flip phones and mullets.
Earlier this year, Monmouth University conducted a survey to determine which issues were most important as the country transitions to a new presidential administration. Among all the potential concerns Americans now face, the issue that rises to the top is healthcare costs.
Let’s face it, there will always be a segment of your patient population that just isn't interested in using a patient portal. But with so much of life now conducted online, the good news is that robust design and usefulness will engage most patients.
Over time, a portal should become the foundation for more extensive electronic communications between patient and provider—a tiny seedling that will hopefully blossom into a collaborative relationship. So, what functionalities should patient portal tools have to succeed?
Not every patient admitted to your hospital will know that healthcare promises to be the most frequent target of hacking efforts in 2017.
But many will. They may be among the 21 percent of patients who withhold information from their doctor for fear of data breaches.
There wasn’t just one cause of the 2008 Great Recession, but certainly a major factor was the creative lending instruments banks used to qualify prospective home buyers. As is now well known, massive mortgage defaults among those homeowners undermined the integrity of mortgage-backed securities and came within a hair’s breadth of tanking both the American and global economies.
Choice can be a double-edged sword—we all want more of it, but with too many choices paralysis can set in. Choosing a physician or hospital, for example, in an urban or suburban area without some kind of recommendation can truly be a daunting task.
But it beats having few or no choices. Increasingly, that’s the situation rural Americans find themselves in as the number of hospitals decreases and specialists stay in the cities.
With January barely behind us and new occupants in the White House, perhaps it’s a good time to set aside what might change for a moment and focus on what must. Interoperability is a more urgent concern in 2017 due to goals established last year by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONCHIT) and the passage of the 21st Century Cures Act, which legally requires healthcare IT interoperability by the end of the current calendar year.
When people in healthcare use the phrase ‘patient engagement,’ they mean involving patients more in their own care, perhaps urging them to be more responsible for their own health.
The new Medsphere …
inspired IT solutions for every healthcare provider
1903 Wright Place, Suite 120
Carlsbad, CA 92008
Ph: 760-692-3700
Fx: 760-683-3701
contact@medsphere.com