News, Analysis, Trends, Management Innovations for
Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups

Hosted by Robert Michel

News, Analysis, Trends, Management Innovations for
Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups

Hosted by Robert Michel
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Many Physicians Deciding not to Proceed with EHR Adoption in a Development that Could Affect Clinical Laboratories Offering LIS-to-EHR Interfaces to Doctors

One problem for physicians is that many EHR products that earned Meaningful Use Stage 1 certification have not gained Stage 2 certification

Growing numbers of physicians are deciding that continuing in the federal government’s electronic health records (EHRs) incentive program is not a winning proposition. This is not an auspicious development for the nation’s clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups.

After all, every medical laboratory in the United States is spending time and money to interface their laboratory information systems with physician clients’ EHR systems to enable electronic lab test ordering and reporting. Thus, if substantial numbers of physicians decide to opt out the federal EHR incentive program, this will create a variety of problems for clinical laboratories providing lab-testing services to these physicians. (more…)

Physician Adoption of EHRs Accelerates, but Rural Providers Slow to Embrace EHRs

Adoption of EHR systems by small practices, small hospitals, and rural health providers lags behind the pace of urban-based hospitals and physician groups

As larger numbers of physicians implement electronic health record (EHR) systems, clinical laboratories are faced with the task of building interfaces that connect their laboratory information systems (LIS) to those EHRs.

Recent numbers indicate that hundreds of thousands of physicians are now enrolled in the federal EHR incentive program. This puts medical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups squarely in the midst of the drive to encourage physicians to both implement an EHR in their clinical practice and use that EHR in ways that meet “Meaningful Use” requirements.

Some 225,765 providers are participating in the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) report that almost $4.5 billion in financial incentives have been paid to hospitals and physicians for implementation of electronic health record (EHR).

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Banner Health Has 17 Hospitals Recognized for Achieving Stage 7 of the HIMSS EMR Development Model

Clinical Laboratory leaders can expect increasing demand for LIS-physician EHR integration

Hospitals are adopting electronic health records (EHR) at an accelerating rate. That’s the good news. But many hospitals lack the resources to acquire an EHR and implement it in a fast and robust manner, as many pathologists and clinical laboratory managers know from experience.

That makes the accomplishment of Banner Health all the more impressive. Last week, it was announced that 17 of Banner’s 22 hospitals have achieved Stage 7 of the EMR Adoption Model (EMRAM) developed by HIMSS Analytics, which is part of the Health Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS).

Banner Hospitals Reach Higher EHR Functionality

InformationWeek Healthcare published a story about this news. It stated that those 17 Banner hospitals “have developed a comprehensive EHR that includes everything from computerized physician order entry and electronic documentation to a data warehouse, closed-loop medication administration, and health information exchange capability.”
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Clinical Lab Industry Should Prepare for Many Marketplace Changes, Predict Experts at Yesterday’s Executive War College

Labs are facing new threats as managed care plans cut reimbursement levels and new companies are coming between labs and their physician clients

*** Revised Version – Original Version Misstated: The previous version had statements attributed to Ignis Systems that were incorrect. The corrected version is below.

DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA—It was a big opening for the 17th annual Executive War College (EWC) on Laboratory and Pathology Management yesterday. A record crowd of about 700 enthusiastic clinical laboratory managers and pathologists heard lab industry leaders predict a fast-changing future for the medical laboratory testing industry.

The editorial team from The Dark Report and Dark Daily are all here to cover the sessions and provide you with useful intelligence and insights about market trends and innovations in the management and operations of clinical laboratories. That was true of yesterday’s opening general session, followed by an afternoon of clinical laboratory management case studies.
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