Technology in Healthcare

An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital version of what used to be a patient’s paper chart. EHRs have made it easier for a doctor to keep track of their patient’s medical history and care plan in one place and share that information with a patient’s specialists and hospital if needed. EHRs have also made it easier for patients to access portions of their medical record via desktops, tablets and even mobile apps on smartphones.

Opioid addiction in Massachusetts has become a serious problem with more than 1,000 residents dying of opioid overdoses in 2014. At the same time, pain management is an essential part of every medical practice, requiring clinicians and care teams to carefully consider the best treatment for patients who are suffering. Opioid medications can play an important role in managing pain, though misuse or abuse of opioids can also lead to significant patient and societal consequences.

When implementing health information technology into clinician workflows, it is crucial that the technology aides rather than interrupts the physicians’ treatment of patients. Recently, Atrius Health Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joe Kimura spoke with Gabriel Perna of Healthcare Informatics to discuss this topic. During their conversation, Dr. Kimura outlined the work Atrius Health is doing at the intersection of technology and clinical workflows:

“From my perspective of using generic HIT elements in the clinical workflow,

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced plans to consider altering their requirements for Meaningful Use, including potentially shortening the reporting period from a full year to a 90-day period. This is part of a CMS initiative to lessen the burden on healthcare providers in response to concerns providers have raised about software implementation and information exchange readiness in 2015. These proposed changes are independent from the new Stage 3 Meaningful Use rules which are expected to be announced in early March but will not take effect until 2017.

As Charlie Baker takes over as Governor on January 8th, there are a myriad of issues the new administration will be tackling, many of them related to healthcare. Atrius Health has assembled our own top 10 healthcare “wish list” for the administration to consider.

1. Increase Medicaid funding for all providers, including home health (who have not seen rate increases in nearly seven years), primary care providers and behavioral health providers,

Meaningful Use, a program launched by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2011, was first created as part of the Electronic Health Record Incentive Program, to provide financial incentives to encourage physician and hospitals to use electronic health records (EHR) to improve patient care. Meaningful Use is made up of three stages of performance for use of electronic health records: Stage 1 focuses on data capturing and sharing; Stage 2 focuses on advanced clinical processes;

Electronic medical records (EMR) dramatically advance patient care. At Atrius Health, we fervently support the intent of Meaningful Use, a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) program, which started in 2011 and provides financial incentives to organizations that use EMRs to improve patient care and penalties for those who don’t.

We have watched with anticipation as this program has helped move the majority of US physicians to electronic patient records. However, as the program has progressed,

This week, Congress voted on a bill to delay physician Medicare reimbursement cuts under the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula for another year. But the bill also included language that will delay implementation of ICD-10, a new diagnostic code set that will be used by all healthcare organizations across the country, by one year to October 1, 2015. This news has been met with mixed reactions from the healthcare industry. While all providers,

As health information technology (HIT) becomes more prevalent in healthcare settings some have begun to question the ability of these tools to effectively improve care delivery. Recently, a number of studies have found that electronic health records (EHRs) have the potential to “interfere” with patient care. One such study from Northwestern University found that doctors who used EHRs during a patient visit spent a third of the appointment looking at a computer screen instead of interacting with their patients.

We are delighted to announce that HIMSS Analytics has recognized Atrius Health and also separately its affiliate, Reliant Medical Group, with a Stage 7 Ambulatory Award.

Atrius Health fully deployed two linked electronic health record (EHR) installations – one for the original five Atrius Health groups and one for Reliant Medical Group that joined Atrius Health in 2011 – along with a data warehouse and other tools to drive impressive quality and efficiency improvements.