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EHRs are Easy Prey, But All is Not Lost

September 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

According to an article on NetworkWorld.com, the EMR/EHR market in the US will reach $6 billion by 2015. And where there’s money, there is crime. In recent years there has been a surge in data breaches, and as medical practices move into the digitized world more and more of these cases will involve patient data.

Christopher Burgess, an expert on IT security, says that most of these breaches occur at a base level: stolen laptops or lost some drives. Some practices feel they can avoid any problems by using Web hosted EMR systems, but even this is not a sure bet. While companies that run their software in the cloud do have more sophisticated hardware and security measures, they are not invulnerable to attack. And as the covered entity, the medical practitioner has an obligation to understand just how safe his or her patient information is.

 

 

Can EMR Save You Money?

May 18, 2008 By Leave a Comment

A frequent discussion among colleagues, especially if they are in the same group, is whether or not a practice will ever realize a return on their investment in an EMR system. piggy-bank.jpg Of course, this is beside the point that the government is mandating the use of EMR by within the next ten years. While hospitals and larger clinics have already done the number crunching, and believe that EMR systems will more than pay for themselves, it may be more difficult for the average-sized practice to calculate their savings.

Nevertheless, an article on Software Advice offers some more reasons to consider making the switch to paperless, including

1. Savings on chart pulling costs. Several studies have calculated that it can cost as much as $4 to pull or create a paper chart. Beth Israel Hospital in [Read more...]

Corporate Agility

February 29, 2008 By 2 Comments

I recently read a book entitled Corporate Agility (Grantham et al, 2007 AMACOM). And although initially I thought it was just applicable to large corporations, I realized that in fact it could be very useful for the typical medical practice. It describes a process known as collaborative strategic management (CSM). This is a strategic approach to management that incorporates three main areas: human resources (HR), information technology (IT) and corporate real estate (CRT).
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The main principle of CSM is that, although these three areas may seem completely distinct, they need to be thought of as interdependent. Most of us are familiar with the terms HR and IT, but what does corporate real estate mean?

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Do You Need Your Own IT Department?

January 17, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Should your practice outsource IT (information technology) or hire your own in-house computer specialist? fixing-computer.jpg Whether you decide to implement an electronic medical records system now or five years down the road, the movement towards a practice management approach that makes more use of advanced technologies is already underway. At root, the practice of medicine is a business like any other, and today’s physicians must be prepared to embrace state-of-the-art tools or face the possibility of being edged out by more tech-savvy competitors.

[Read more...]