News From Around the Web
> The Care Connectivity Consortium announced last week at HIMSS14 in Orlando, Fla., that Portland, Ore.-based OCHIN--a multistate health information network--has become its newest member. The CCC was founded by Geisinger Health System, Group Health Cooperative, Intermountain Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente and Mayo clinic in April 2011 under the premise of "making health information exchange technologies more versatile and valuable for patients, caregivers and ... organizations." Announcement
> Carrollton, Ga.-based electronic health record vendor Greenway recently announced that it acquired Fort Meyers, Fla.-based PeopleLYNK, a developer of EHR-based patient engagement tools. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Announcement
Health Provider News
> Hospitalizations that involved an operating room procedure accounted for roughly $185 billion of the $387 billion in aggregate costs in 2011, according to a new statistical brief from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which updates a 2007 report. Nearly 29 percent of 38.6 million hospital stays included OR procedures, but accounted for approximately 48 percent of aggregate costs, according to the brief, which was based on data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project 2011 Nationwide Inpatient Sample. Article
> Technical failure and alarm fatigue continue to plague hospitals but three steps are all that organizations need to take to make alarms safer and more effective, according to an opinion piece published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Alarms are a vital feature of any hospital, but they can also threaten patient safety. Medical alarms are a "frequent and persistent" safety hazard, according to an alert from the Joint Commission, which named clinical alarm safety as one of its 2014 National Patient Safety Goals. Article
Medical Imaging News
> A low-dose CT lung screening program can be put into place pretty quickly in a community hospital setting, according to an article published online in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. Physicians from Elkhart (Ind.) General Hospital, led by Samir Patel, reported in JACR that they were able to implement all the important components of a screening program--such as defining eligibility criteria, performing a low-dose CT protocol, using standardized structured reporting and developing a group of experts for consulting and management. Article
And Finally... Guess they weren't so flushable after all. Article