CPOE AdOPtiOn: Tough for many, but making strides Page 64
Published in partnership with
tHE nEwS SOuRcE fOR HEALtHcARE infORMAtiOn tEcHnOLOGy n February 2011
Golden 50
HIMSS celebrates 50 years of service,
achievements. PAGE 38
nEWS
On to Stage 2
Federal officials are already
planning what’s meaningful for
2013 and 2015. PAGE 3
House vote
Would health reform repeal
affect health IT? PAGE 4
COMMEntARY
Progress every year
Nation’s IT chief reflects
on unprecedented health
IT progress. PAGE 25
HOSPitALS
Davies muster
Two hospitals recognized for effective
use of healthcare IT. PAGE 29
PHYSiCiAnS
Leap of faith
Nurse practitioner employs IT to help
Mississippi clinic succeed. PAGE 43
PAYERS
Analyze this
CMS turns to data – lots of it –
to fight fraud. PAGE 51
VEndORS
Looking forward
Analysts gauge what’s in
store for health IT in 2011 and
beyond. PAGE 57
PRODuct Spotlight
Hospital EMRs
Specs and functionality are key
concerns for buyers. PAGE 62
MAnAGEMEnt Solutions
cPOE anxiety
Change of workflow that
attends computerized order
entry often sparks physician
apprehension. PAGE 64
www.Healthcareitnews.com
Med Tech Media / Vol. 8 No. 2
Blumenthal
to step down
from ONC
this spring
By MOLLy MERRiLL, Associate Editor
WASHINGTON – David Blumenthal, MD, the
National Coordinator for Health Information
Technology, is stepping down this spring. Health
and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
said HHS would conduct a national search for
his successor.
Blumenthal told his staff in
a Feb. 3 memo that he would
be returning to Harvard,
as he had planned when
he accepted the position
of national coordinator in
March of 2009.
Prior to his role at the ONC
he was a practicing primary
care physician and Harvard
He cited the passage of the Health Information
Technology Economic and Clinical Health Act
(HITECH) of 2009 as a “rare opportunity” to
transcend obstacles that had stood in the way of
converting the nation’s health system from paper
to digital.
The HITECH Act provides as much as $27
billion in incentive payments to help support
adoption of EHRs.
While the HITECH Act is important, he said,
“the key factor for success has been, and will con-
tinue to be, the concept of meaningful use.”
“EHRs must be used to support a new kind of
information-rich healthcare,” he said. “Meaningful
use provides, for the first time ever, a consen-
sus goal on how information should be used to
enhance care. To realize its promise also requires
changes in the processes of care delivery.”
Sebelius said Blumenthal would leave his post
“having built a strong foundation, created real
momentum for HIT adoption, charted a course
for the meaningful use of EHRs and launched a
new phase of cooperative and supportive work
with the healthcare community, states and cities
across the nation.” n
David Blumenthal, MD
14,000 providers
registered for
EHR incentives
But many cite frustration
with costs, complications
By DiAnA MAnOS, Senior Editor
WASHINGTON – As Healthcare IT News went to
press, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services announced that some 14,000 providers have registered for meaningful use
incentives.
“We expect that number will continue
to increase daily,” said CMS spokesman
Joseph Kuchler.
Yet the numbers don’t tell the whole story.
At a hearing held Jan. 10-11 by the Health
IT Standards Committee Implementation
Workgroup in Washington D.C., providers
seeking incentives shared thoughts on their
struggles to attain meaningful use.
Lyle Berkowitz, MD, a practicing internal
medicine physician and the medical director
of clinical information for the Northwestern
Memorial Physicians Group, the largest primary care group in Chicago, said his group
incEntivES see page 20
