How to Prepare for the API Requirements of the Cures Act

A man pressing on a screen

As of April 5, 2021, the U.S. ONC Cures Act Final Rule Compliance Timeframe is in effect. Healthcare providers, Health IT developers, Health Information Exchanges (HIEs), and Health Information Networks (HINs) will have until October 6, 2022, to provide patients with access to all their Electronic Health Information (EHI). There are several requirements that providers, developers, and…

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The Importance of a Nursing Data Framework

Doctors rushing a patient

By Dr. Luann Whittenburg, RN, PMP, FHIMSS   A Nursing Data Framework can give healthcare providers a way to garner business intelligence to save money and reduce risk by improving workflows, load leveling personnel schedules, and improving patient safety.  With more than 4 million nurses in the U.S., nurses are the largest clinical segment of the U.S. healthcare…

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The Terminology You Use to Describe Healthcare Data Matters

A word pool

 An Argument for Standardized Reference Terminologies One hundred and forty, 140 – that’s how many different ways there are to describe arterial hypertension, more frequently known as high blood pressure. It may seem like a small number, but if we have 140 different hospitals using 140 different terms for arterial hypertension, we suddenly have 140 hospitals…

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Data Has to Move at the Speed of Care!

A doctor looking at an X-ray result

In Healthcare IT, clinical data needs to move!  Electronic Health Record systems (EHRs) need to send data both internally, such as other domain-focused applications like the Blood Bank, PACS System, Nurse Staffing, Sepsis Management, Respiratory, Wound Care, and Fetal Monitoring and and externally to another provider or the CDC. If your EHR can’t effectively exchange data within…

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Introduction to Interoperability 101

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by Jackie Mulrooney, President, J P Systems, Inc.   What is meant by the interoperability of clinical data? Interoperability (IOP) is a multifaceted IT architectural capability which harmoniously orchestrates the exchange of clinical data.  In Healthcare IT (HIT), according to HIMSS: “interoperability is the ability of different information technology systems and software applications to communicate, exchange data, and…

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The Strengths and Weaknesses of the HL7 FHIR Messaging Standard

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Healthcare IT Data Standards: FHIR  Health Level Seven’s (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) is a new interoperability standard that has rapidly captured the mind-share of the Health Information Technology (HIT) standards community. FHIR is a standard that enables healthcare data sharing between systems in a manner that is more easily implemented and more expressive…

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A Brief Review of CMS and ONC Rulings

People listening to the man in the screen

By David C. Kibbe, MD MBA, Healthcare IT Subject Matter Expert Having scanned the ONC and CMS Final Rules, two things pop out right away in regard to requirements for provider notifications, interoperability and Direct Secure Messaging for clinical data. The first is that ONC decided NOT to remove the “secure messaging” criterion from its…

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Reduce Risk & Fiduciary Exposure using Electronic Data Exchange

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The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that patient harm is the 14th leading cause of global disease burden, comparable to malaria and tuberculosis, with 42.7 million adverse events occurring during hospitalizations. It is unsettling to learn that according to a scientific study in 2018, incoming Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture (C-CDA) data had a 100% error rate. Are the…

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Who is the Healthcare Services Platform Consortium?

HSPC logo

The Healthcare Services Platform Consortium (HSPC) was founded in 2013 by Intermountain Healthcare, Louisiana State University and the Veterans Administration to refocus how healthcare applications are   developed. Since HSPC launched, more than 270 contributors have joined their cause – including leading healthcare and government organizations, healthcare technology vendors and a venture-led group of investors supporting…

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HL7 Da Vinci Project: Industry Analysis of Communications

Healthcare and Health icons  

by Jackie Mulrooney, President, J P Systems, Inc.  Healthcare IT Industry Analysis Payer and Provider Collaboration: What it Could Mean for Your Hospital Mining Payer Data for Better Patient Care Coordination  Clinical information must move to best serve the needs of patients and providers. In all the Healthcare IT ecosystem, it is often the payers…

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