The Department of Health and Human Services has issued two new proposed rules designed to enhance interoperability across the health system, facilitate health data sharing and increase patient access to their health information. The long-awaited proposals were announced this week as the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) launched...

The amount of time that clinicians and healthcare organizations are required to spend fulfilling federal documentation requirements regarding patient care is often cited as a major cause of burnout and stress among healthcare professionals. In an effort to simplify these requirements and relieve the strain, the Office of the National Coordinator fo...

Soaring drug prices and persistent drug shortages during 2015-2017 led one-fourth of United States hospitals to reduce staff to cope with the financial pressure, according to a study commissioned by the American Hospital Association (AHA), the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP).In thi...

Physician burnout in a hospital, health system or medical practice is not a problem in and of itself, but should be seen as a red flag of other problems in the organization, according to social psychologist Christina Maslach, PhD, developer of the highly regarded and widely used Maslach Burnout Inventory™ (MBI).At a recent medical meeting, Dr. Masl...

Healthcare organizations and medical practices that have been working for years to comply with the privacy and security rules of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) undoubtedly have valuable thoughts and insights regarding how the rules could be tweaked and improved to reflect changes in the delivery of care since they w...