The Veterans Health Administration said it hopes to have emergency room triage software up and running by August, Fierce Mobile Healthcare reports. Orlando, Fla.-based DSHI Systems has provided the VHA with a call-center based triage service for 12 years. The VHA selected DHSI to develop triage software ER nurses can access on tablets. According to [...]
The Department of Veterans Affairs will move its electronic health records to data centers operated by the Defense Information Systems Agency, VA Chief Information Officer Roger Baker said according to NextGov. The move is scheduled for March and is expected to be completed in a little more than a year, according to the report. According [...]
Looking back at 2011, besides government gridlock, government-wide budget cuts have been a recurring theme. From the Pentagon to NASA, government agencies and entities have felt the constraints and have had to rethink their strategies in order to adapt for the future. A looming question for some is how budget cuts will affect the nation’s [...]
Among the many areas fully funded in the omnibus spending package is the Military Health System‘s information technology systems, with $1.4 billion allotted for fiscal year 2012. At the same time, the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2012 limits the Pentagon’s power to spend that money. The Act restricts the Pentagon from spending funds [...]
Government Executive recently reported that the Department of Health and Human Services has announced a $1 billion grant program to identify innovations that both improve medical care and create jobs. In a press conference, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the Health Care Innovation Challenge and said that “in recent weeks, Congress has failed to act [...]
A new watchdog agency to monitor health information technology safety problems? That’s what the Institute of Medicine has proposed so that safety incidents tied to health IT tools including health records and health information exchanges can be effectively investigated. The IOM, in a report commissioned by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health, said [...]
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently released its final standards for creating more measurements of race, ethnicity, sex, disability status and primary language in order to pinpoint and treat health status disparities. The standards were made effective Monday. The standards were redefined as a result of the Affordable Care Act, and will better identify [...]
The Health Information Technology Policy Committee has said regulations differentiating which data constitutes research and which constitutes operations on the issue of electronic health records will need clarification, FiercegovernmentIT.com reports. In a letter to National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Farzad Mostashari, the committee recalled a notice of proposed rulemaking for secondary uses of EHR [...]
The Food and Drug Administration has today awarded $2 million to support two regional Centers of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation. The centers will be based at the University of Maryland and Georgetown University, and will focus on science and training needed to modernize and improve the way drugs and medical devices are reviewed [...]
The Department of Veterans Affairs is amending a department rule to remove a restriction on sharing of information about treatment for certain types of medical conditions with the Defense Department. The VA says the rule change will make it easier for the VA and Pentagon to exchange information on treatments for drug abuse, alcoholism or [...]