The recent discovery of a case of Ebola in the U.S. made me wonder: since the patient was seen twice, why was it missed the first time? The symptoms as listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) can include fever (>38.6o C), severe headache, muscle pain, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, and unexplained hemorrhage.…
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What’s the Most Important Solution to Making EHRs Usable for Physicians?
I’ve written before about my use of EMR, and what I’ve heard from some of you. I tend to place blame for a lot of the problems physicians tell me they have with their EMR on the unintended consequence of Meaningful Use (MU) requirements. In their rush to put the requirements into place and remain…
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Paving the Path to Pennsylvania’s Health Care Information Highway
What if you are seeing a patient for a follow-up from the ER, and with a click or two, you could find out what happened, what tests they had, and what you needed to know as you saw them the next day? A patient recently discharged from the hospital? A new patient you’ve never seen…
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Billing in Medicine: Getting Paid for What Matters
Cutting and pasting in electronic health records as evidence of fraud and audits for Meaningful Use are hot topics in medical news these days. That prompted me to think about the move from volume to value in health care payment systems. When I started as a resident, we documented so those who read our notes…
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