HIMSS demands a lot of attention from our marketing department, and for good reason; the annual conference is unquestionably the premier event in the healthcare IT industry. I’ve been the lead writer for MEDITECH’s branding for several years, and I can attest that we begin preparing for the next HIMSS mere days after the conference concludes. This year was no different, save for one exciting detail — I would be attending the conference for the first time.

We’ve all sat through meetings where important tasks are discussed, but when it comes time to delegate the work or follow-up afterward, things get lost in the shuffle. This is especially common for those of us working in a hectic Emergency Department.

Blow out the candles: our blog turns one today.

When we first created this vehicle, it was because we truly believed it was MEDITECH’s responsibility as a healthcare leader to help providers drive important conversations. Our company has always been willing to knock down barriers for the sake of patients, and also for the sake of leading the industry forward.

Improving stroke outcomes is all about recognizing stroke symptoms FAST and cutting the time between symptom onset and treatment. Ischemic strokes, which account for 88% of all stroke cases, leave patients with only a small three-to-four-and-a-half hour window in which they can receive medication, without suffering potentially permanent disability. When it comes to these patients, there is literally no time to lose.

A hot topic of conversation in the last few months has been the Annals of Family Medicine study observing that primary care physicians spend an average of 86 minutes of “pajama time” each night catching up on work from the day.

This study was co-written by researchers from the AMA, which brought to mind their 8 EHR Usability Principles that were published in 2014. At the time these principles were published, MEDITECH was delivering Expanse to our first early adopters, having had the foresight to see what was coming and redesign our software at a time when others were continuing to just add functionality on top of existing workflows.

Whether a hospital has 6 or 600 beds, clinicians require the right tools to provide quality patient care. If only it were that simple, right?

Procuring a modern EHR can be complex and costly, pulling on an organization’s resources from all angles — not to mention having to navigate numerous third party products in order to meet all their needs. For smaller healthcare organizations, this can become an especially daunting experience.

Each of us, at one time or another, has seen healthcare through the eyes of a patient. We've had family members experience medical issues, or we've gone through them ourselves. That's why as healthcare IT professionals, we are always looking for ways to improve the patient experience. In this video, some members of our MEDITECH team share their personal stories.

It’s no secret that one of the biggest challenges for doctors in healthcare today is physician burnout. A study by the Mayo Clinic found that 54.4 percent of responding doctors reported having at least one symptom of burnout and The Physicians Foundation found that nearly half, 49 percent, of the doctors surveyed said they “often or always experience feelings of burnout.” EHRs can be a contributing factor to this. According to a 2017 study, on average, physicians spent only 50 percent of their time on face-to-face interaction with patients, committing the rest of their time and energy to “desktop medicine.”

In early May, the Advisory Board released its Annual CEO Survey of 183 CEO’s about their top concerns for 2017. Interestingly, many of the concerns were related to the subject of Population Health and the healthcare industry’s movement from volume to value. Do any of these results or  concerns sound familiar to you or your organization?

While cancer continues to be on the rise worldwide, the American Cancer Society projects an estimated 1.7 million new cancer cases within the US in 2017. Thankfully, despite this very large statistic, death rates are dropping as a result of shifts in lifestyle, early detection, and new treatment options. With more people living with cancer, care delivery often involves managing complex treatment regimens with additional co-morbidities — creating a greater need to bridge gaps across care settings and provide simplified care while maintaining patient safety.