Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association this past week found that, while electronic health record vendors have demonstrated promising levels of advancement, EHR usability continues to be a major hurdle after implementation.
The paper – authored by MedStar Health s Dr. Aaron Z. Hettinger and Raj M. Ratwani, along with Yale School of Medicine s Dr. Edward R. Melnick – examined the usability practices of four unnamed EHR vendors. Implementation processes such as healthcare-facility configuration and customization choices, training and policy all impact usability of EHR technology, noted Hettinger, Melnick and Ratwani. The difference between EHR products pre- and post-implementation, called the EHR usability reality gap, continues to be a significant challenge, they continued.
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02:36 PM
The National Committee of Quality Assurance has issued a series of recommendations urging President Joe Biden to take steps to evolve the current quality measurement ecosystem. Though NCQA is a non-partisan organization, we believe that the new administration has a distinct opportunity to make revolutionary change – revolutionary improvements – to how care is delivered and how performance is measured, said NCQA director of communications Matt Brock in a blog post accompanying the recommendations.
The recommendations focus on a number of key themes, including:
Developing quality measurement to help stakeholders aim for health equity.
Moving to a digital quality measurement system that provides results and decision support more quickly.
11:00 AM
It s understandable if many hospital IT leaders view compliance with a pair of new rules from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT as chores that must be managed to stay on the right side of the law.
But the CMS Hospital Price Transparency Rule, which took effect on New Year s Day, and ONC s Cures Act rules around information blocking and patient access (which start to take effect in April) offer new growth opportunities for health systems that approach them in the spirit they were drafted, a new report from Deloitte shows.
Dive Brief:
During his first hours in office, President Joe Biden issued more than a dozen executive orders, including a mask mandate on federal property. He also said the U.S. would rejoin the World Health Organization and the global vaccine initiative COVAX.
The administration plans more efforts aimed at combating the novel coronavirus Thursday. Biden is expected to create a federal board to increase testing efforts and to begin the process of increasing healthcare supplies through use of the Defense Production Act. He also has a public address regarding COVID-19 on his schedule for the day.
Also Wednesday, the president named acting directors for several federal agencies. HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary of Budget Norris Cochran will lead the agency on a temporary basis while the nominee for secretary, Xavier Becerra, awaits confirmation hearings. CMS acting administrator will be Liz Richter, who has been with the agency for three decades.