By Susannah Fox – How many times have we heard people say, “If we could put a man on the moon, we can fix XYZ health care problem”? Or: “Hey, it’s not rocket science, right?” So, when I met Dava Newman, the Deputy Administrator at NASA, and began a conversation with her about innovation at our agencies, I was eager to learn how to apply their famous “horizon mission” spirit to health and human services.
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By Jason Stanaland – Last year was the worst year in history for healthcare data breaches. According to the National Cybersecurity Institute, healthcare breaches surpassed 112 million records during 2015—100 times more than the previous year. Eight out of 10 of the largest hacks in 2015 were aimed directly at healthcare.
By Lisa Gouin – The number of recognized Patient Centered Medical Home practices has grown significantly over the past few years. But there are a number of practices that are still undecided about pursuing PCMH recognition, practices that have no intention of making the transformation, and practices still unaware of what Patient Centered Medical Home actually entails.
By Amit Gupta MD – Many primary care physicians no longer go to the hospital. Let’s pause for a moment to consider that. It felt like a relatively minor workflow shift as it was happening, but it has major implications for patient care.
By Kate Goodrich, MD, MHS – On December 18, 2015, we posted our draft Quality Measure Development Plan, a strategic framework for clinician quality measurement development to support the new Merit-based Incentive Payment System and advanced alternative payment models.
By Aparna Bala – Much of how we approach healthcare improvements today is focused on physicians. At first blush, this makes sense since traditionally they are perceived as key decision makers. But, it is important to remember that patient care is delivered by collaborative clinical team – including nurses.
By John Halamka MD – As promised, I’ve read and taken detailed notes on the entire 962 page MACRA NPRM so that you will not have to. Although this post is long, it is better than the 20 hours of reading I had to do! Here is everything you need to know from an IT perspective about the MACRA NPRM.
By Matt Fisher – The Office for Civil Rights announced a $750,000 settlement with Raleigh Orthopaedic Clinic, P.A. of NC on 4/20/16, resulting from a breach involving an “undocumented” business associate. The settlement comes only weeks before desk audits are expected to begin and focuses on a perceived area of weakness, BA agreements.
By Shefali Luthra – Medical errors are estimated to be the third-highest cause of death in the country. Experts and patient safety advocates are trying to change that. But at least one of the tools that’s been considered a fix isn’t yet working as well as it should, suggests a report released on April 7, 2016.