It's December and I am excited. Sure, I am excited for the holidays, but I may be more excited to see the official ARRA "meaningful use" guidelines. The HIT Policy Committee's draft is simply not detailed enough to use to develop a good IT strategy.
Every good geek (and Google) knows that the answer to life and everything is 42. This is a famous line from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. But it seems like there is a more sensible magic answer: In order for things to go well, there needs to be a high level of specification.
Sometimes I see people cling to old habits, even though there are clearly easier ways to do things. I am not talking about something that would require a new computer system and a large IT project. Just day-to-day stuff. Here is one example...
As I mentioned in my last post I got a chance to meet with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. He started the meeting asking what we wanted to hear. The 5 CIOs went around the table asking for information on various technical topics.
My last post covered the opportunity I had to meet with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in a small group setting. He said a couple of things about healthcare that I though were noteworthy.
Last month I was asked by Microsoft to attend an event in Chicago that featured their CEO Steve Ballmer. I really didn’t understand the details, but Chicago is a convenient train ride from the land of cheese, so I agreed.
I love CCHIT. Having an independent body assess EHR functionality is a wonderful service for us buyers of that technology. CCHIT gives the seal of approval to those vendors that that have comprehensive EHR functionality requirement.
Let me be the first to announce the delay of the deadlines to qualify for EHR incentives. Actually, there is no official announcement or even open discussion - yet. But, I believe it is inevitable.
The EHR incentives in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will cause nearly every healthcare organization to tear up their IT strategy and plans.
I love traveling across the state of Wisconsin visiting the hospitals that I serve. But, I also appreciate those days when I get back to my desk. I tend to get a lot of deliverables completed on those days.
