Alarm issues have ranked as the top
health technology hazard for 2015 on ECRI Institute's annual top-10
report. The authors recommend that facilities address alarm issues
through staff training and by limiting the number of people who
establish default settings. MedCity News et al. 
CMS continues
to expand coverage for telehealth services, and now includes annual
wellness visits, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and prolonged evaluation
and management services. This another step in aligning Medicare
coverage in ways that promote cost saving strategies like ACOs and
bundled payments.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services (CMS) issued the 2015 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (Medicare
PFS) on October 31, 2014.
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Consumers who
are actively tracking their own wellness are truly the “low-hanging
fruit” for healthcare providers looking to engage patients.
At the Department of Veterans Affairs, technology director William
Cerniuk said in his role he is responsible for the latest push to give healthcare providers iPads across the VA.
In the last six months, he said, the VA has delivered 12,000 iPads to
clinicians across the agency. The agency also is developing a series of
100 applications to be used on the iPads, which boast remote desktop
capabilities.
Infographic created by Wolters Kluwer Health highlights nurses' digital and social habits at work as nurses are increasingly relying on mobile devices.
Choo, in a commentary
for Quartz, warns that while email and text messaging can be helpful for
engaging patients, there are a number of challenges associated with
using such tools.
Figure.
Data from WebMD/Medscape Digital Technology Survey.
Topol notes that digital health tools can help the patient "come alive" "The mantra should be 'nothing about me without me'. You are your data
and you need to control and own your data. And there are new tools now
that we didn't even hear of four years ago that can help," he said. "I
believe technology can actually enhance the intmacy of the
doctor/patient relationship," Topol concluded. "When we're giving the
patient the data in real time that they're entitled to, it puts the
doctor and patient on equal footing. The patient has come alive, to a
much higher degree." Read More
An in-depth outline of the telemental health reimbursement codes the CMS recently approved for 2015. Read More
The Office of the National Coordinator
for Health IT has released a 10-year vision report for using health IT
to achieve a fully interoperable quality improvement ecosystem. The
report complements ONC's roadmap for achieving interoperability. Health Data Management et al.
Telemedicine reimbursement is gradually gaining steam. Just this month CMS released a final rulethat will expand the range of telehealth services that can be reimbursed under Medicare starting in 2015. In July a House bill was proposed that would also expand reimbursement by Medicare; it’s currently in committee.
Standardized handoffs reduce patient harm modernhealthcare.com
