Healthcare : The Healthcare Industry

One of the challenges of health information exchange is privacy and security. Even though having electronic health information exchange reduces a lot of privacy and security issues, it raises new issues as well. A breach that formerly affected a single paper record now can expose an entire database of patient records. At the same time, health information exchange presents powerful new ways to improve the privacy and security of patients ' data, including encryption, authentication and authorization controls, and electronic audit trails. Two of the biggest challenges we’ve encountered are patient matching/master patient index synchronization issues and the vendors’ variable use of interoperability standards. The biggest issues we’ve experienced, so far are relate to the MPI synchronization of patients across all the entities. Public HIEs, as well as the private HIE vendors, should focus on this challenge. Technically, interoperable platforms, EHR’s, are often hindered by the inability to determine an exact patient match, because the eMPI solutions aren’t robust enough. This also potentially creates data integrity and patient safety issues, if the clinical data goes across multiple records. There also some struggles with the variable use of the interoperability standards between the EHR vendors. One of

Universities stemmed some of the biggest medical advances in the health care industry amongst the world. The educational platform for the United States spells long term success for health care, by growing the next generation of top health care providers. In comparison Germany and Canada also are represented amongst the top 50 medical schools in the world, but lack any representation of the top 10 prestige rankings. On top of that, both other countries lack volume and opportunity to receive a valued medical education when compared to the United States.

Regulation placed upon the healthcare system only seek to improve safety and security of the patients we care for. The enactment of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) and the enactment of Meaningful Use Act the United States government has set strict regulations on the security of health information and has allotted for stricter penalties for non-compliance. The advancement of electronic health record (EHR) systems has brought greater fluidity and compliance with healthcare but has also brought greater security risk of protected information. In order to ensure compliance with government standards organizations must adapt

Continuous and life-long learning- Unlike other professions in healthcare field one has to keep in pace with the updates going on, know the new technology,

Health Information Exchange (HIE) supports both transferring and sharing of health related information that is usually stored in multiple organizations, while maintaining the context and integrity of the information being exchanged (HIE, 2014). The goal of health information exchange is to expedite access to and retrieve clinical data to provide safe efficient, effective, equitable, timelier patient-centered care (HIE, 2014). HIE “provides access and retrieval of patient information to authorized users in order to provide safe, efficient, effective, and timely patient care” (HIE, 2014).

As more healthcare information is stored and transmitted digitally, ensuring that your organization complies with the myriad of federal and state regulations is becoming increasingly difficult. As part of this digital transformation, healthcare organizations are partnering with cloud companies, data processors, and other organizations that must also comply with HIPAA business associate requirements. This has resulted in an increase in the scope of security challenges for healthcare providers and their business associates.

Healthcare-Outline The United States is faced with a myriad of social and economic issues every day. Among these issues, The Affordable Healthcare Act (more popularly known as Obamacare) is a recent policy that has caused a lot of controversy. The Affordable Healthcare Act is a federal,

Medical errors can be a significant threat to the the health of Americans and can lead to the downfall of a health care system. These errors can be anything from a data entry error or simply a patient’s information getting into the wrong hands. The importance of a health care system is to provide extraordinary care all while protecting the rights and information of their patient. A new generation of federal efforts emerged in order to address these concerns, in part through the effective use of information technology. Thus, the Health Information Exchange was born. The Health Information Exchange (HIE) is a system that allows health care information to be appropriately and securely shared electronically across organizations within a region,

Health Information Exchange is the electronic movement of healthcare information amongst organizations according to the national standards. HIE as it is widely known, serves the purpose of providing a safe, timely, and efficient way of accessing or retrieving patient clinical data. Health Information Exchange allows for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other vital healthcare professionals to have appropriate access and securely share vital medical information regarding patient care. Health Information Exchange has been in efforts of developing for over 20 years in the United States. In 1990 the Community Health Management Information Systems (CHMIS) program was formed by the Hartford Foundation to foster a development of a centralized data repository in seven different geographically defined communities. Many of the communities struggled in securing a cost-effective technology with interoperable data sources and gaining political support. In the mid-1990s a similar initiative began known as the Community Health Information Networks (CHINs) with the intention of sharing data between providers in a more cost-effective manner. In 2004, the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research Health Information Technology Portfolio was funded $166 million in grants and contracts to improve the quality and safety to support more patient-centered care. This was the beginning of the progress we have seen in HIE today. Health Information Exchange devolvement serves the purpose of improving

Health information technology (HIT) involves trading of health information in an electronic format to advance health care, reduce health expenditures, improve work efficiency, decrease medication errors, and make health care more accessible. Maintaining privacy and security of health information is crucial when technology is involved. Health information exchange plays an important role in improving the quality and delivery of health care and cost-effectiveness. “There is very little electronic information sharing among clinicians, hospitals, and other providers, despite considerable investments in health information technology (IT) over the past five years” (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2014, p. 1).

Today, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH’s) main focus is to transfer healthcare records from a paper format to a digital format known as Electronic Health Records (EHR). Due to the sensitivity of the transferal of this data; the possibility of hackers and breaches, the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) alongside HITECH recommend that health care entities employ multiple approved governing standards to aid in the facility remaining compliant with current local and federal regulations for safety and privacy of said data (Oracle.com, 2011). These regulations govern both the local and federal hardware/software vendors and users now known as business associates under the Mega

When I was a child I used to pretend I was a nurse in a hospital, practicing medicine and medical billing. I am older know and here I am taking one step at a time to fulfill my childhood dream. However for healthcare systems to be considered stable in their continuous cycle, they must charge for the procedures and care that is given. If these charges aren’t properly written, the payments may affect the income, causing the system to get less then what it is owed. Clearly, without any service being provided, there is no revenue to begin with, but if the charges are not captured, a service can be provided and not billed for (Cleverley &ump; Cameron 2007). If the bills are not gathered or properly stated, the service given would then go unpaid or free of charge. To bill a member or patient, the health care organizations have come up with codes for each type of procedure given. Do to the fact the healthcare industry is so complicated, as well as securing the charges, most all charges are to be broken down so there is no complicated bills. The charges are broken into codes for the services concluded. Every procedure and care has its own extraordinary code as well as a given price, making the billing cycle less complex. Coding also allows health care systems to document each procedure in order to prevent payment denials or delays from the payer (Thompson &ump; Barrett 1993).

The patient population is mostly affected by the healthcare industry (Su et al., 2009). There are many aspects of the healthcare industry that can affect the patient, but the cost is probably the biggest concern of consumers. When consumers talk about health care cost, they mean how much will cost them. Therefore, consumers' use of health care has a direct relation to the out of pocket expenses. The less the out of pocket the more the consumer will use the health care services. This can drive to higher costs to the payer (health care insurance) which can raise then the health care premium. The same expectation of paying the least possible drives the consumer to search for the insurances that are more appealing in this respect. Employers as

The present challenges for the healthcare industry are significant. With a population that is forever aging, escalating costs, and the unsure impact of the Affordable Care Act, healthcare providers are under tremendous pressure to meet the needs of their patients while maintaining or even reducing costs. One such organization feeling this pressure is BayCare which is a leading not-for-profit health care system that connects individuals and families to a wide range of services at 13 hospitals and hundreds of other convenient locations throughout the Tampa Bay and central Florida regions. Inpatient and outpatient services include acute care, primary care, imaging, laboratory, behavioral health, home care, and wellness. With over 3,100 practicing physicians and more than 58,500 surgeries performed annually, their budget for operating room supplies exceeds $80 million annually across all facilities. Morton Plant Hospital is faced with the challenge of reducing overall operating costs without sacrificing their high standards of patient care and safety. The hospital realized that surgical waste represented a huge opportunity to address. By providing visibility to information that was otherwise hidden, a case cart system would be able to track surgical materials issued, used, and returned; including between doctors, procedures, and locations. This could help the hospital to achieve a number of objectives including: guarantying that all material issued to the OR was accounted for

The world of healthcare has been revolutionized ever since the end of World War II from the passage of Medicare to the introduction of the Affordable Care Act in most recent years. It seems lately, though, that the biggest changes have happened in the last ten years. Along with changes in policy, hospitals have taken on themselves to change what a hospital should have. There is a whole meaning of amenities and what a hospital should offer its patients. In my opinion, these changes that bring more offer of amenities, transforming hospitals by becoming more patient-oriented, are crucial to making the whole patient experience more valuable. But what exactly are amenities in a hospital setting? Although one might confuse them with concierge services, they simply included luxury services at no extra cost for patients and guests. For example, they can range from a lobby seen at a five-star hotel to complimentary valet parking, premium television channel, wireless internet services, and private rooms for patients.