MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'general healthcare'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:48:06 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4294779&cid=t_99711_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2010%2F12%2F23%2Femail-is-not-hipaa-secure%2F An interesting discussion happened in the comments about HIPAA secure fax services in regards to the security of email. Being a tech person who formerly managed a few different corporate email systems, sometimes I forget that many people don’t understand some of the details about the security (or lack of security) that’s provided by email. The short story is: Email is NOT HIPAA Secure (at least in 99% of cases) There is a way to encrypt email sent between 2 email systems, but so far a standard and mechanism for encryption between all the vast number of email providers has not been established. I won’t go into the details of why this is the case (cost of encryption, standards for encryption, etc), but suffice it to say that almost none of the email systems send encrypted e... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4294779 Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:54:14 +0100 4294779 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4133905&cid=t_99711_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2010%2F10%2F27%2Fhospital-breach-by-job-applicant%2F During a bond hearing Thursday in Superior Court, Wheeler’s Macon attorney Reza Sedghi described his client’s actions as a job application gone awry with “no criminal intent or compromise of sensitive patient information.” Sedghi said Wheeler had obtained access to the database with a password and access codes obtained while working on a Macon physician’s connectivity problems with the hospital. The attorney said Wheeler uncovered seven flaws in the hospital’s system and sought to use the discovery to land a job with the countywide medical complex, spending several hours with Rhodes and David Griffin, the hospital’s security chief. “They asked for and received a copy of his resume and a written report of his findings,” Sedghi reported in court. “Then they walked out of ... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4133905 Wed, 27 Oct 2010 16:59:53 +0100 4133905 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3999074&cid=t_99711_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2Fkv2gKUn5zI4%2F I was recently sent an Information Week article on the “Steady Bleed: State of HealthCare Data Breaches.” The article basically tries to list out all of the data breaches that are happening in healthcare and how healthcare companies aren’t doing what they need to do to protect patient data. Now, I’ll be the first to acknowledge that more can always be done. I even agree that more can and needs to be done to protect patient information. However, I don’t agree with the article’s assertion that the use of an electronic health record (EHR) is the reason why health care providers are so poorly securing patient information. Many of you might remember my post on EMR and EHR about HIPAA Breaches related to EMR. In that post, I discuss how it’s unfair for s... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3999074 Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:19:53 +0100 3999074 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3737111&cid=t_99711_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2Foa_7zo0PHzE%2F Trent Peters from Umbrella Medical Systems added an interesting comment on my previous post about Domain Controlled Networks and HIPAA that I thought really added to my original post. Plus, Trent goes into a nice list of other benefits of having a “Management” server in an office. It gets a little technical for some of my readers I’m sure, but is valuable if you’re office is embarking on this adventure. Here’s Trent’s comment: This is an interesting question and can be argued either way, but again it comes down to what’s “reasonable and appropriate”. A little background, my company is a IT Consultant group that works specifically in the healthcare arena offering services to medium-sized and small healthcare organizations, we have plenty of EMR impl... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3737111 Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:16:09 +0100 3737111 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3703006&cid=t_99711_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Fadministrator%2F2010%2F06%2F22%2Femr-question-and-answer-domain-controlled-networks%2F I got the following question from Brandon about the need to have a domain controlled network in order to comply with HIPAA. I am currently trying to implement an EMR system in a small practice. I am trying to convince the parties involved that it is necessary to transition to a domain controlled network for security reasons even though this type of network is not required for our EMR system or its server. My understanding of HIPAA is that simply having a firewall does not qualify as a “secured network”. Am I right on this? Brandon, You are correct that just having a firewall does not likely qualify as a “secured network.” However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to have a domain controlled network to meet the HIPAA security standards. You could sti... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3703006 Tue, 22 Jun 2010 18:40:45 +0100 3703006 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3522698&cid=t_99711_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FHdoFXKsZeTY%2F Guest Post: Hayden Hartland works at Spearstone, makers of Spearstone’s DiskAgent offering which provides a multi-platform approach to smartphone security by allowing lock, data-wipe, and GPS-tracking from any web-browser along with online backup for your business. Breathtaking advances in smartphone capabilities are changing the ways we work and live. In their latest forms, phones such as the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Symbian, and Palm are beginning to rival, and in several areas (think GPS, camera and video) exceed the capabilities of laptops and desktops. Increasingly, we email, keep contacts, track tasks and appointments, browse the internet, capture family moments, connect with friends, shop, and even run powerful business apps from our hand-held do-it-alls. No won... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3522698 Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:10:22 +0100 3522698 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2876141&cid=t_99711_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F10%2F02%2Farra-accounting-for-disclosures%2F I’ve been reading some things about ARRA’s changes to HIPAA. I’ve heard a number of times the phrase that “ARRA has now given teeth to HIPAA.” I’ve also heard grumblings about a change in the HIPAA requirement that an EMR account for disclosures. I’ve been trying to get a number of experts on HIPAA to do a guest post on these various changes with no success, but I’ll keep trying. However, I recently heard that the accounting for disclosures is even more stringent than I had thought about before. From what I’ve heard, the law will now require that you are storing and able to report on the disclosure of a patients health information to both internal and external sources. The external sources is something that we’ve done forever and ... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2876141 Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:08:59 +0100 2876141 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2553119&cid=t_99711_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F06%2F21%2Flost-laptop-with-patient-names-treatment-summaries-and-other-phi%2F This story coming out of Oregon came across my feeds today which tells of the Oregon Health and Science University contacting 1,000 patients after a physician’s laptop was stolen from a car parked at the doctor’s home. This story made me think of two things: 1. Why is PHI being stored on the laptop in the first place? I wish I could find out if there was an EMR involved. If there was, then the EMR should be storing all of the patient information on the server and none of that data should be stored on the laptop. So, if it gets stolen there’s no breach. That’s the beauty of an EMR these days. There should be no need for this to happen. 2. There’s some really cool technology that’s been coming out in recent laptops that will allow you to remotely wipe out ... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2553119 Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:05:03 +0100 2553119 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2405569&cid=t_99711_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F05%2F09%2Fnumber-of-people-who-can-screw-up-a-patient-chart%2F A company called FastComany (most notable for famous Microsoft blogger, Scoble having worked there-Yes, I’m showing my geek) wrote an article a while back on EMR and technologies impact on healthcare. It’s an interesting read since it’s kind of an outsider/tech magazine look at healthcare. One thing that really struck me in the article was the following quote: In the meantime, Geisinger continues to compile success stories, including that of CEO Steele, who became patient No. 86 in the ProvenCare CABG program. “I was in and out of the hospital in two-and-a-half days,” he says. Casale, who was Steele’s surgeon, says the case opened his eyes to how complex a routine operation really is: “Two weeks after, the head of our IT group called me and said, &... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2405569 Sun, 10 May 2009 03:45:19 +0100 2405569 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1845270&cid=t_99711_113_f&fid=36694&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.crossoverhealth.com%2F2008%2F10%2F01%2Fcapitalism-in-health-care-do-you-still-believe%2F Capitalism (kăp’ĭ-tl-ĭz’əm) 1. An economic system based on a free market, open competition, profit motive and private ownership of the means of production. 2. Descriptive of a system that encourages private investment and business, compared to a government-controlled economy where investment money is obtained from private sources (shareholders). I, along with everyone else, has been walking around hollow-eyed given the speed of the recent financial meltdown. 100 year old firms disappearing in a weekend, markets roiling with every bit of news, experts clamoring about the greatest calamity ever in the recorded history of finance, and politicians actually working weekends to attempt to rescue the largest and most important financial system in the world. This is serious busine... Crossover Healthcare blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1845270 Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:48:28 +0100 1845270 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1729324&cid=t_99711_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2008%2F08%2F23%2Fopen-source-software-for-finding-a-stolen-laptop%2F I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of software like Lo Jack that helps you find your laptop should it ever get stolen. The biggest problem of course is the cost associated with the software. Today I found an interesting Open Source system for tracking and recovering stolen laptops. I haven’t had time to try the software yet, but this is definitely going on my to do list of software to try out. How many times have we seen reports of a laptop stolen that had an entire database of personal or health information being stolen. Way too much. This could be an interesting and free solution. Even the best coded EMR software usually leaves at least some traces of PHI in Windows temp files for example. A free way to recover the laptop would be very beneficial. (Source: EMR and HIPAA) EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1729324 Sat, 23 Aug 2008 19:58:19 +0100 1729324 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1439427&cid=t_99711_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Fadministrator%2F2008%2F05%2F12%2Fusing-an-emr-for-business-intelligence-bi%2F We reported on appointments by date (this includes day, month, quarter, year, etc), provider, gender, birthdate, ethnicity, etc. We also uploaded the room number that an appointment used so that we could measure the utilization of our exam rooms. Luckily our EMR stored all the information about exam rooms. We also pulled in the data that described when a patient arrived at the clinic, when the nurse started the intake and when the provider finally saw them. We haven’t actually built any reports on that time study data, but it would be really interesting. That’s really just the beginning of what we were able to do with the EMR data, but I think you get the point. The real question at this point is what other EMR data could benefit from some quality BI analysis? Here’s a fe... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1439427 Tue, 13 May 2008 07:14:34 +0100 1439427 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1320507&cid=t_99711_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Fadministrator%2F2008%2F03%2F21%2Fdischarge-summaries-by-email-from-an-emr%2F Think about how wonderful the ability to send a discharge summary by email to a patient straight from your EMR. I think it’s pretty easy to see the tremendous benefits of this type of communication. Send the patient information to one place they probably visit every day and where they can read and process the information away from the hustle and bustle of the clinic. Certainly many doctors have been doing this with little pamphlets or handout sheets with clinical information. Unfortunately, too many of these sheets never get read. Certainly that same thing could happen with an email, but at least the next generation of patients are going to want this information in their email box. Of course, the problem with sending this information in an email is that email is not secure. Email enc... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1320507 Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:26:03 +0100 1320507 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1248862&cid=t_99711_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2008%2F02%2F22%2Fmore-google-health-fodder-cleveland-hospital-starting-first%2F The AP had a story today that told about a pilot project using a Cleveland Hospital to test out the anticipated Google Health. Here’s an excerpt from the story: The pilot project announced Thursday will involve 1,500 to 10,000 patients at the Cleveland Clinic who volunteered to an electronic transfer of their personal health records so they can be retrieved through Google’s new service, which won’t be open to the general public. I’ve covered Google Health a number of times on this blog and I still wonder what Eric Schmidt is going to say at HIMSS next week. I can’t imagine him not speaking about Google Health at that time. The question is how much will he actually say. Many people are afraid of what it means for Google to have our Health information. It looks ... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1248862 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 08:22:17 +0100 1248862 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=477011&cid=t_99711_113_f&fid=34650&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcalyxllc.typepad.com%2Fit_for_healthcare%2F2007%2F03%2Fsermo_physician.html Buzz is growing for Sermo, an online information sharing community "developed by physicians, for physicians."  Check it out.Welcome to the only online community where physicians around the nation exchange the latest medical insights with each other and improve patient outcomes - 24/7.Link (Source: IT for Healthcare) IT for Healthcare blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=477011 Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:39:43 +0100 477011 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=473106&cid=t_99711_113_f&fid=34650&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcalyxllc.typepad.com%2Fit_for_healthcare%2F2007%2F03%2Fmedtab_reviewed.html Tim Gee at Medical Connectivity Consulting reviews the latest entry on the medical tablet scene.Did I mention it has a 12 hour battery life? Wow, I'm impressed. We have yet to reach perfection, but this device comes close for a clinician carried use model. This is a very, dare I say, sexy device. Unfortunately the target market is physicians. There are several large institutions that could spring for a device like this, but nothing like a majority of the hospital market. Another bit of a miss is targeting EMR applications - actual EMR adoption is quite a bit behind all the hype - although the early adopters will probably be the large institutions who might actually buy something like this for their physicians (places like Kaiser, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo and large university teaching hospita... IT for Healthcare blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=473106 Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:45:54 +0100 473106 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=462503&cid=t_99711_113_f&fid=34650&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcalyxllc.typepad.com%2Fit_for_healthcare%2F2007%2F03%2Fshould_insuranc.html Not a big fan of folks that make $125 million in a single year while others have no access to healthcare due to high costs, but Jason Shafrin at Healthcare Economist makes a sound point.On its website, UnitedHealth Group states that it “serves more than 50 million Americans.”  Thus the amount of cost savings per person enrolled in UnitedHealth Group would be less than $3.Link (Source: IT for Healthcare) IT for Healthcare blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=462503 Thu, 08 Mar 2007 01:41:36 +0100 462503 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=462511&cid=t_99711_113_f&fid=34650&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcalyxllc.typepad.com%2Fit_for_healthcare%2F2007%2F02%2Fdoctors_buck_ag.html On the heels of today's earlier post re: P4P and how many doctors feel it's a push by insurance companies to drive down costs with little regard to quality, I ran across this article on UnitedHealth's mandates for lab tests and procedures. One concern voiced is over a "facility fee" that UH dropped which paid gastroenterologists to do certain procedures in hospital or ambulatory surgery centers:Edward Cattau, chairman of the national affairs committee for American College of Gastroenterology, says that while some procedures can be safely performed in offices, there is far less state oversight compared with hospitals or surgery centers. Doctors should decide, he says, where to do procedures. Connecticut doctors say the move amounts to a 30% pay cut because most doctors prefer to ... IT for Healthcare blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=462511 Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:47:10 +0100 462511