EHRs

The Department of Veterans Affairs' recent decision to further delay its Cerner EHR go-live indicates that the agency's feedback and review process is working, according to former VA secretary Anthony Principi.

As COVID-19, the infection caused by the novel coronavirus, continues to spread across the U.S., hospital and health systems' EHRs will be tested by evolving workflows, data demands and cyber threats, according to Erich Huang, MD, and Eric Perakslis, PhD.

United Community Family Services is implementing a $1.8 million Epic EHR, which will allow the Norwich, Conn.-based medical center to access health information from other Connecticut providers such as Hartford Hospital and Yale New-Haven Hospital, The Bulletin reports.

Despite increasing levels of electronic availability of patient medical records from outside sources, most hospitals still use physical methods such as mail and fax to share patient health information, according to ONC data.

Salesforce recently launched several new capabilities for its healthcare cloud platform, according to a March 9 news release.

Four of the top vendors hospitals use to participate in the Medicare EHR Incentive Program are Allscripts, Cerner, Epic and Meditech, according to 2018 ONC data.

HHS' interoperability rule, issued last year by CMS and finalized March 9, will require Medicare and Medicaid plans to adopt standard application programming interfaces that will help patients access their electronic health data more easily.

HHS on March 11 published a summary highlighting the changes made from its proposed interoperability rules to the final regulations, which were posted earlier this week.

Epic, Cerner, Google and Microsoft are just a handful of health IT companies speaking up about HHS' interoperability rules, which were finalized March 9.

HHS released its much-anticipated final rules on EHR interoperability, ruling against "information blocking" tactics by EHR vendors and giving patients more control over their medical records.