Health Information Technology

Health information technology (Health IT) allows comprehensive management of medical information and its secure exchange between health care consumers and providers.

Broad use of health IT will:
Improve health care quality; Prevent medical errors; Reduce health care costs; Increase administrative efficiencies; Decrease paperwork; and expand access to affordable care.

Interoperable health IT will improve individual patient care, but it will also bring many public health benefits including:
Early detection of infectious disease outbreaks around the country; Improved tracking of chronic disease management; and Evaluation of health care based on value enabled by the collection of de-identified price and quality information that can be compared.

Making Health Information Technology:

Personal Health information technologies can be tools that help individuals maintain their health through better management of their health information. Health IT will help consumers gather all of their health information in one place so they can thoroughly understand it and share it securely with their health care providers so they get the care that best fits their individual needs.

Health IT can help to improve public health one individual at a time by building partnerships between health care consumers and providers across the country.

Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN):

Background-
The Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) is the critical portion of the health IT agenda intended to provide a secure, nationwide, interoperable health information infrastructure that will connect providers, consumers, and others involved in supporting health and healthcare. The NHIN will enable health information to follow the consumer, be available for clinical decision making, and support appropriate use of healthcare information beyond direct patient care so as to improve health.

The NHIN seeks to achieve these goals by:
Developing capabilities for standards-based, secure data exchange nationally; improving the coordination of care information among hospitals, laboratories, physicians offices, pharmacies, and other providers; ensuring appropriate information is available at the time and place of care; ensuring that consumers’ health information is secure and confidential; giving consumers new capabilities for managing and controlling their personal health records as well as providing access to their health information from EHRs and other sources; reducing risks from medical errors and supporting the delivery of appropriate, evidence-based medical care; lowering healthcare costs resulting from inefficiencies, medical errors, and incomplete patient information; promoting a more effective marketplace, greater competition, and increased choice through accessibility to accurate information on healthcare costs, quality, and outcomes.

The Office of the National Coordinator is advancing the NHIN as a ‘network of networks,” built out of state and regional health information exchanges (HIEs) and other networks so as to support the exchange of health information by connecting these networks and the systems they, in turn, connect.

MSO Solutions, LLC Network Consutling and IT Services can help your practice initiate and maximize your IT potential. Calls us today for a free practice evaluation!

315.701.5821

Technology Innovation

Exerpt From
"Leading People and Organizations in the 21st. Century"
By: Gary Dessler
Florida International University

"Technological innovations are changing the way companies are managed, and that's not just true for industry giants like Merrill Lynch. For instance, Inter-Design of Ohio sells plastic clocks, refrigerator magnets, soap dishes, and similar products. Its president explains the impact of information technology, which merges communications systems with computers, this way: "In the seventies we went to the post office to pick up our orders. In the early 80's, we put in an 800 number. In the late 80's, we got a fax machine. In 1991, pressured by Target (stores and customers), we added electronic datat interchange." Now, more than half of the Inter-Design's orders arrive via modem straight into company computers. Errors in order entry and shipping have all but disappeared, and both Target and Inter-Design have been able to slash finished inventories and therefore costs.

Information like this has been a boon to many companies, but a near disaster for others. Wal-Mart became the industry leader in the 1990's in part because its managers used information technology to link stores with suppliers: Levi Strauss, for instances, always knew exactly how many size 10, 501-style jeans were being sold and could replenish stores' supplies almost at once. But Wal-Mart's technology advantage almost ruined K-Mart, which struggled for years without the speed and cost-effectiveness of such a system.

The Internet is having similar effects. Without physical stores and staffs, many Internet sellers like Amazon.com can offer much lower prices than local stores. And the availability of easily accessible price information means that retailers of thousandss of products from books to boats must now drive down their costs in order to math Internet sellers' prices. The result is continuing pressure to drive down costs and to manage firms in the most efficient and flexible manner. That's one of the reasons more conventional computer makers like Apple and Compaq have their own work cut out for them in competing with the likes of Dell, which is super efficient at marketing its computers via the Internet."