efficiency

The ER at Hudson Valley Hospital Center is usually empty. That, however, does not mean that times are tough at the hospital. In fact, just the opposite is true. The empty beds in the emergency department are a result of a series of charges intended to improve efficiency. Patients are moved directly to private rooms. Registration information is taken at bedside. Nurse practitioners provide care to non-critical cases. Similar upgrades are underway at other local hospitals. Neighboring White …

Palm Beach County plans an electronic medical record network that will track the area's uninsured. Supporters say the system will save healthcare providers and the local government millions of dollars by improving the efficiency of care for patients who often move from provider to provider. No word on any reaction from privacy groups who may not be happy about a system designed to monitor the poor and the unemployed.

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Cain Medical CEO Nicholas Cain gives a quick run down of the advantages of connecting medical devices to electronic medical records systems and CPOE systems in a guest Op-Ed on the Health Care IT Guy's blog. His list of advantages for doing this in the ICU setting includes increased efficiency, reduced transcription errors during the data collection process, improved diagnosis support and the ability to remotely monitor patients. As Cain points out, there is no need to wait for these …

Johns Hopkins will use software developed by ForHealth Technologies to automatically prepare injectable medications. The IntelliFill system uses robots to precisely measure drug ingredients and prepare syringes, improving efficiency. Some critics are not entirely sold on the worth of robots. Supporters argue that, in theory, the technology will also cut down on medication errors. Robots are becoming increasingly common in the automatic filling of drugs in pill form in hospitals and pharmacies. Article

> Accenture has put out a survey highly critical of customer relationship management systems. The consultancy, which has had a strong relationship with Siebel Systems for years, now says that despite heavy investment by many companies, "CRM is not improving the user experience." Story

> In a case likely to be closely followed by industry observers, a chain of Florida imaging centers is under investigation for allegedly offering …

BCBS of Tennessee says it plans to experiment with an online system which will let doctors participating in TennCare to access patient medical records from databases across the organization using a web-based system. BCBS of Tennessee says a secure web portal will allow doctors to increase efficiency and eliminate cases of potential fraud and abuse. A limited trial in Memphis and Chattanooga has shown the system to work. The company says it will expand the pilot to include all 700,000 of …