Dear Healthcare IT Insider,
Summer vacations are over and now comes the time to hunker down and drive full speed ahead into those healthcare IT projects.
The state of Rhode Island has an ambitious project under way to create a statewide health information exchange (HIE). Rhode Island may be the smallest state in the union, but its initiative bears monitoring to see how the Ocean State's HIE can be expanded to larger regions to better serve patient populations.
Details on Rhode Island's plans are outlined in this Healthcare IT Insider Exclusive.
Also in this edition, see how hospitals are creating their own information matrix to assess internal performance and determine areas for improvement using a so-called "dashboard." The computer program gathers information about a department's operations and shapes it into a useful, relevant report. AuntMinnie staff writer Kate Madden Yee has the details in an article you can reach by clicking here.
Healthcare facilities also are taking concerted steps to ensure their employees follow HIPAA privacy rules to the letter. A clinic in Minnesota earlier this year sanctioned more than 100 workers for accessing patient files without authorization. Is this case an exception or the rule when it comes to snooping? Click here to read how hospitals are enforcing the laws and punishing employees who venture into forbidden files.
As always, thank you for relying on AuntMinnie.com for the latest news and perspectives from the Healthcare IT Digital Community. Feel free to drop me a line anytime with any ideas and issues for future coverage and discussion on these pages.
