Unsafe medication practices and medication errors are a leading cause of harm around the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the cost associated with medication errors is around $42 billion USD annually. Likewise, the Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI) has documented over $140 million Canadian dollars in direct and indirect healthcare expenditures due to preventable medication hospitalizations, with lost productivity (including time off work) adding an additional $12 million in costs.

I flew out of Logan Airport in Boston at 5:30 a.m. last Monday, and was eager to head to sunny Orlando as a first time HIMSS attendee. The next three days were a whirlwind of innovation, shared ideas, and excitement about the future of health IT.

Let me tell you why I’m really excited to be attending my first HIMSS.

First and foremost is the evolution of healthcare IT. The strides we’ve made in the past few years have been phenomenal. Leading technology providers and app developers are now embracing healthcare IT and connecting new innovative technologies to leading EHR platforms, making HIMSS a great opportunity to see what the future holds.

Reaching 50 years is an outstanding achievement, and all of us at MEDITECH couldn’t be prouder. To celebrate this milestone, we’ve put together a video to give you a sense of who we are — a diverse group of innovators who share a personal investment in caring for others.

At a time when financial pressures could lead to more hospital closures, it’s no surprise that the Becker's Hospital Review 4th Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle Conference drew a full audience, to explore how our industry is responding to the growing demands of the patient as consumer.

Currently, one of the most important goals in the health IT industry is making data truly interoperable.

In pursuit of that goal, healthcare organizations are seeking ways to match patient data and locate records in a fragmented digital environment where technology and processes simply aren’t set up to allow efficient data exchange and access. On top of that, regulatory requirements are putting additional pressure on healthcare organizations to meet benchmarks and reporting mandates.

Our thought leader podcast series continues with a very special guest: the 2017 CHIME-HIMSS John E. Gall, Jr. CIO of the Year Randy McCleese. Randy currently serves as the CIO at Methodist Hospital, a 192-bed acute care hospital, 25-bed critical access hospital, and 19-practice physician network based in Henderson, Kentucky.

The challenges faced by rural healthcare organizations today — Critical Access Hospitals in particular — are truly daunting. Many never fully recovered from the economic downturn and most continue to experience provider shortages while caring for an increasingly older and more chronically ill population.

Clinician burnout is a topic we’ve covered in detail here on the MEDITECH blog, and for good reason. Long nights of excessive documentation are taking time away from clinicians, interfering with their relationships with patients.

We’ve compiled some recommendations from clinicians and industry leaders on how to address staff burnout. 

Think of where your hospital’s IT department was six years ago. Now, consider where it is today — and how you see it evolving in the future.

In the past six years, Halifax Health has undergone a total transformation in how we approach IT, from having experienced a number of challenges, to being named the Best Place to Work in IT in midsized organizations for three straight years by Computerworld.