Federal News
EHR Adoption in a Critical Access Hospital: Lessons Learned
Parmer Medical Center is a critical access hospital about 70 miles outside of Amarillo, Texas; and, prior to installing an EHR system, most of the patient documentation was done by hand and the hospital had no full-time IT professional. Now, Parmer has a hospital-wide EHR system with high levels of buy-in from the clinical staff. The 25-bed hospital learned many lessons during its EHR adoption process. This article shares several tips. (Source: Becker’s Hospital Review) [Read article]
National Women's Health Week
This infographic highlights the health care law and Marketplace. National Women’s Health Week runs from May 12-May 18, 2013. As a nation, we honor the women in our lives – our mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, cousins, friends, and colleagues – by encouraging them to make their health a priority and to take steps to live healthier, happier lives. (Source: HHS) [Read article]
HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
The Action Plan outlines goals and actions HHS will take to reduce health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities. With the Action Plan, the Department commits to continuously assessing the impact of all policies and programs on racial and ethnic health disparities. It will promote integrated approaches, evidence-based programs and best practices to reduce these disparities. The HHS Action Plan builds on the strong foundation of the Affordable Care Act and is aligned with programs and initiatives such as Healthy People 2020, the Let's Move initiative and the President's National HIV/AIDS Strategy. (Source: HHS) [Read article]
Pressure of Health Reform Threatens Patient Safety
In this article the incoming head of the National Patient Safety Foundation discusses key challenges facing safety experts. (Source: H&HN) [Read article]
NACHC Statement on Release of Fiscal Year 2013 Spending Plan for Health Centers
Community Health Centers will not experience reductions to their current operations. Existing health centers will receive an update to their base grants to assist in keeping up with growing patient populations and the rising costs of care. The plans also call for funding an estimated 25 new health centers from the total of over 400 applications recently submitted. (Source: Nat'l Assoc of Community Health Centers) [Read article]
Medicare Program; Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems for Acute Care Hospitals and the Long-Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System and Proposed FY 2014 Rates
Proposed Rule: HHS is proposing to revise the Medicare hospital inpatient prospective payment systems (IPPS) for operating and capital-related costs of acute care hospitals to implement changes arising from our continuing experience with these systems. Comment period deadline: June 25, 2013. (Source: Federal Register) [Read article]
The Value of Strong Primary Care
This article discusses a recent policy briefing on the potential of patient-centered medical homes to transform primary care. Strong primary care is essential to improved health outcomes, lower costs, and increased equity, and the patient-centered medical home is a potentially key strategy for transforming primary care. The medical home is a model of primary care that leverages a team of health care providers to offer comprehensive, coordinated care available around the clock. Private health plans in 49 states are testing this model and 19 states are involved in multipayer medical home pilots. (Source: Commonwealth Fund) [Read article]
What’s Possible for Health Care?
Infographic: Advances in health care can successfully treat and manage many diseases that were often fatal just a generation ago. Yet, our health care still fails far short of its potential and faces cost increases that are unsustainable. Infographic looks at some goals for the U.S. health care system and how they might be achieved by adopting practices already in use in other industries. (Source: IOM) [Read article]
