Quality Assurance, Standards, Interoperability

By coincidence Steve Beller, PhD in his recent blog on trusted.md posted some information relevant to health information transparency, and health information exchange. The RHIO monitor has attempted to keep interested readers somewhat current with these developments in the past two years. Readers may go to http://healthtrain.blogspot.com to read more about RHIO attempts in Southern California and elsewhere.A group of standards for interoperability have been established for electronic medical records by the CCHIT (Commission for Certification of Health Information Technology. These vendors can be found at CCHIT's web site, and also at CALRHIO www.calrhio.org These are standards for electronic interoperability and functionality of an EMR. They however do not standardize nomenclature for...

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Before you buy that EMR

CCHIT, or the Certification Committee for Health Information TechnologyThis is the latest compilation of electronic medical records that meet the standards regarding functionality, and interoperabilityCCHIT’s inspection process is a rigorous test of electronic health record (EHR) products using two methods: jury-observed demonstration and inspection of self-attestation materials.To complete this testing, CCHIT empanels a team of three clinical jurors, one of whom must be a practicing physician, and an IT security evaluator to assess a product’s conformance to the CCHIT certification criteria. The inspection occurs by observing the performance of the applicant’s product in executing a series of test scripts and reviewing required materials supplied by the applicant.Provider JurorsLee Barnhart,...

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in Memoriam--Ron Bassanger M.D.

Prominent doctor dies at 57Redlands Daily Facts - 05/05/2007, 06:41 am: Dr. Ron Bangasser, a physician known locally and nationally for his compassion for patients and his zeal to improve the quality of health care, died of cancer May 2 in Redlands. He was 57... "Ron's death is a tremendous loss to all of us - his family, his patients, his friends and colleagues and all of medicine," said Dr. Anmol S. Mahal, president of the California Medical Association. "Ron was always an example of what a doctor should be, operating his wound care clinic, his practice, treating patients in the hospital, all the while serving his patients and colleagues through his advocacy for the California Medical Association."Dr Bassanger was on the charter committee of the Inland Empire RHIO. He was a visionary in...

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Will Patients select their MD according to Who Has an EMR??

Although I was unable to attend the Consumer Directed Health Care Conference in Las Vegas t his past week (CDHCC) I have been able to follow some important information published on their web site.Another Reason to Adopt Electronic Medical Recordsby Scott MacStravicApril 30, 2007 at 9:40 pm · Filed under Health ITA recent Accenture survey found that two-thirds of consumers responding indicated that having an EMR system or not played a role in their selection of a physician. Moreover, a little over half of these consumers said that they would be willing to pay a reasonable extra amount to cover the costs of such a system. Despite this consumer preference, only about 10% of practices and 25% of doctors have EMR systems in place. The cost of implementing and maintaining the system is the overwhelming...

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