Client News Coverage

Lexicomp, part of Wolters Kluwer Health, is a major medical information resource for clinicians. While they have a large support network of clinical information available via the computer, they have been making gains on mobile products via apps.

iMedicalApps»

With the rollout of CMS' Value-based Purchasing (VBP) Program and the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP) in 2012, hospitals are under the gun to attain higher quality standards or face the fallout of financial penalties. Many hospitals, including those that believe they were performing at high levels, were caught off guard to learn that their initial CMS performance reports pointed to penalty levels weighty enough to turn heads.

Drug Topics»

There are two fundamental objectives driving trends on the national healthcare stage today — the need to increase quality and decrease costs. From meaningful use (MU) to new pay-for-performance initiatives, all efforts are aimed to work synergistically to deliver better outcomes through more accountable and efficient care delivery.

Government Health IT»

Accurate patient data matching is integral not only to the provision of safe and effective healthcare, but also to the success of accountable care organizations (ACOs), health information exchanges (HIEs) and other emerging care models. Yet healthcare organizations continue to struggle against the growing volume of duplicate and overlaid records that clogs their systems and compromises the integrity of the patient data upon which internal and, increasingly, external care decisions are based.

Government Health IT»

Despite the myriad and often complex ways of attempting to achieve it, the goal of healthcare reform is to improve care while decreasing cost. Incentives put in place as part of the HITECH Act give reimbursements to physicians who convert from paper-based records to electronic medical records (EMRs) – although the ultimate cost savings of EMRs is still being disputed.

Health Management Technology»

Hospital readmissions are costly and often preventable events. Yet intense efforts to decrease readmissions rates and avoid penalties under the 2010 federal healthcare reform law have yet to have a significant impact, as one in five hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries are still being readmitted within 30 days of discharge.

Government Health IT»

An Accountable Care Organization (ACO) is only as successful as the sum of its fundamental parts. Failure by just one participating provider to achieve a successful outcome on any of the 33 required quality measures could ultimately stand between the ACO and its eligibility for incentives under the Medicare Fee-for-Service Shared Savings Program.

HISTalk»

Allison Errickson, CPC-H, director of coding compliance for ProVation Medical, part of Wolters Kluwer Health, discusses the biggest challenges for ambulatory surgery centers with quality reporting for The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and what to watch for in the future.

Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control»

s healthcare organizations plan their ICD-10 transition strategy, many are discovering that the effort will touch nearly every area of operations. It’s an overwhelming proposition for many providers in light of the sheer number of regulatory initiatives vying for staff resources and budget line items.

For the Record»

The recent death of 12-year-old Rory Stauton generated a firestorm of media coverage that thrust sepsis and the challenges it presents to the healthcare system into the national spotlight. The missed diagnosis in the emergency department that resulted in a fatal treatment delay served as a devastating reminder of the often tragic – and usually preventable – outcome of sepsis.

Health Management Technology»

When hospitals are sharing information internally or externally, accurately linking patient records from multiple disparate databases and information systems is critical to ensuring clinicians are making decisions based on the correct and accurate patient records and avoiding the creation of system-clogging duplicates and overlays.

HealthData Management»

From the Medicare/Medicaid EHR incentive program to ACOs and HIEs, information exchange is the centerpiece of nearly every initiative designed to bend the health care quality and cost curves. The ability to access real-time clinical data wherever a patient encounter takes place drives these improvements by informing care decisions, avoiding preventable adverse events, eliminating diagnostic and therapeutic duplications and shortening lengths of stay.

HealthData Management»

Here are four best practices to improve efficiency at ASCs.

Becker's ASC Review»

Fierce competition ahead. That’s what hospitals can expect in the pay-for-performance landscape that is already unfolding on the national regulatory scene. Medicare’s Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) and Readmissions Reduction programs officially began on October 1, while the Hospital-Acquired Conditions program will follow in a few short years. Similar programs are already being launched by commercial payers.

Government Health IT»

The data integrity summary report is one of the most powerful – yet underutilized – tools hospitals have at their disposal for maintaining the integrity of the data within their MPI. Digging deeper into the statistics provided in these reports reveals far more than the volume of overlaid or duplicate records within the system. It can also reveal areas of weaknesses that, left unchecked, could threaten the long-term integrity of the MPI, limit its usefulness in achieving quality and safety goals and Meaningful Use, and hamper participation in ACOs and HIEs.

HISTalk»