Healthcare IT Update

Image copyright Apple

We noted last week that there’s a lot of hype swirling around Apple’s release of the iPad — an electronic tablet device that many in the health care technology field see as a revolutionary new tool that will speed the adoption of electronic health records.

But other writers and experts are not so sure, and there will certainly be a period of testing and caution before the health care industry embraces new EHR tools of which the iPad is just one example.

Read on to find out whether the iPad will actually live up to the hype or just be another fancy toy that will give health care workers and patients a bigger screen to play Tetris on.

Here are some key specs of the iPad:

• Price: For WiFi only (no cellular connectivity), expect to pay $499 for a 16GB hard drive; $599 for 32GB; and $699 for 64GB. Add access to AT&T’s 3G network, and you’re looking at adding another $130 to each of those amounts. (more…)

Tip: You’re not off the hook if the breach is your vendor’s fault.

Using electronic health records may cut costs and reduce errors, but they also can increase your compliance risks — and scrutiny from the feds.

Wake-up call: You are accountable for compliance even if a third party installs and maintains your records system. Providers will still be responsible for ensuring the same privacy protections as if they did have their own IT department, points out Jim Sheldon-Dean with Lewis Creek Systems in Charlotte, Vt. (more…)

The feds are pouring billions into the EHR implementation, but the majority of Americans — 80 percent — feel their electronic medical records are at risk when they’re in the hands of private industry or the government, Forbes reports. (Thanks to Fierce Healthcare’s Neil Versel for the heads up.)

The Ponemon Institute survey found that for 71 percent of respondents, it is okay for hospitals, clinics or physicians to store their health records. Likewise 99 percent believe a patient’s doctor should have access to his or her digital health records stored in a national system.

However only 38 percent said that a federal government agency should be able to access those records, and only 11 percent thought that private businesses should have access.

It may be a good thing that the U.S. Department of Health is not keen on centralizing health records in a single database but will farm them out to a network of databases at hospitals, insurance companies and web portals such as Google, General Electric or Microsoft.

AUDIO: New HIPAA enforcement penalties & audit rules.

Question: Our facility is going to offer psychiatric services to certain residents with mental health issues or psychiatric diagnoses.These services will be provided by outside psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners, and will include individual counseling and group therapy. Do we need to have more HIPAA privacy safeguards related specifically to the psychiatric services? If so, what might they be?

Answer: As a first step, decide in consultation with the psychiatric professionals involved what records the facility will maintain, and what records only the psychiatric professional will maintain, advises Heather O. Berchem, an attorney with Murtha Cullina LLP, in New Haven, Conn. The distinction is important because the facility is responsible under HIPAA only for those records maintained by the facility. And the psychiatric professionals will be responsible for complying with HIPAA regarding records they maintain, she says.

Important … (more…)