government health

Americans like the idea of electronic health records. They are worried, however, about the privacy implications of the technology, especially when it comes to employers and insurance companies. Those are two conclusions highlighted by a recent study funded by the Markle Foundation and conducted by polling group Public Opinion Strategies, which found that more than 60 percent favored personal health records. The group says emphasis must be placed on ensuring consumer confidence in privacy …

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid announced that a plan to distribute VistA, the open-source EMR system originally developed by the Department of Veteran's Affairs, has been put on "indefinite hold." The news does not appear to mean that the project has been canceled -- at least not yet. Quality Improvement Group director Dr. Karen Bell said the Department of Health and Human Services plans to move forward with the initiative, which is intended to boost EHR adoption among small …

Advocates of electronic medical records continued to point at the chaos in New Orleans as evidence of how important it is for hospitals to make the transition to digital records. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt told an audience in Washington, DC, that EMR technology would have avoided many of the problems now being experienced by the healthcare system on the Gulf Coast. "If there was ever a case for (electronic health records), this disaster underscores the need," Leavitt …

A new journal article published this month becomes the latest to examine the potential pitfalls of IT in the healthcare system, examining a serious prescription error at New York Presbyterian. The authors reconstruct a series of mistakes affecting treatment of an elderly male patient experiencing kidney failure. Human error, poorly designed screens and a lack of warnings led to the mistake, which resulted in the patient receiving more than three times the maximum allowed dose of …

Despite all of the recent interest in Washington in promoting information technology in healthcare, that enthusiasm is clearly not universal. The Senate Appropriations Committee created waves on Friday when it proposed cutting funding for the Office for the National Coordinator of Information Technology. The Bush administration has asked for $75 million for David Brailer's office. The committee said it is willing to part with $45 million. Dr. Brailer's budget woes are becoming a …

Government Health IT reports that a Montana organization has joined forces with a North Carolina consulting group, Physicians EHR, to bid on one of the eight prototype National Health Information Network (NHIN) contracts recently announced by the Department of Health and Human Services. The National Center for Health Care Informatics at Montana Tech argues Montana is a good location for a test network because of its distance from Washington and the needs of its largely rural population.

- see this story from Government Health IT

The state of Tennessee officially agreed to allow the state's Medicaid patients to participate in an ambitious electronic medical records project. The project, which is being sponsored by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, would create what is believed to be the largest network in the nation. The addition of 700,000 TennCare members is a key milestone in the project.

Officially headed by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee subsidiary SharedHealth, the network is considered a major …