Weekly round-up: No breaches but privacy news abounds
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| Beth Walsh, Editor, CMIO |
Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas faces a $1 million fine, the payment of which will let the Dallas institution off the hook for serious compliance failures that took place before May 31 of this year. In July 2011, surveyors from the Centers for the Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) made an unannounced weeklong visit and uncovered dangerous deficiencies in infection control, nursing services, medical records and other areas. CMS then notified the hospital that it was in jeopardy of losing its eligibility for reimbursement.
The hospital said in a news release that the terms of the agreement call for it to provide the state health department with monthly reports tracking its progress toward conditions set by the CMS last fall.
Also this week, Health Level Seven International (HL7), which develops interoperability standards for health IT, announced that it will make much of its intellectual property, including standards, freely available under licensing terms. The organization's decision "represents HL7’s commitment to the betterment of healthcare worldwide by ensuring that all stakeholders have equal access to its HIT standards," according to a release. The new policy is expected to take effect in the first quarter of 2013.
Another exciting development this week is our switch to Clinical Innovation + Technology. We're excited to bring you a broader range of topics and news as we expand to match the ever-increasing collaboration of CMIOs, CIOs, clinical technology managers and more. Successful innovation and technology will require hospital departments to work together with the ultimate goal of blurring and converging their boundaries.
Will free HL7 standards help with your facility's interoperability efforts? Please share your experiences.
Beth Walsh
CI+T Editor
bwalsh@trimedmedia.com
Beth Walsh,
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.