Lawyers have reached a $400,000 settlement in a Kansas City case in which records tossed into a dumpster were blown across a neighborhood, reports The Kansas City Star.

The need to share patient information with other providers and the use of financial incentives are key drivers for providers adopting and using health IT tools like EHRs, according a data brief from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.

In what is being hailed as a victory for the Meaningful Use program and care quality efforts, the big news this week was the report that health IT is working when it comes to reducing medical errors.

While one can approach innovation in healthcare from many different angles, “the transformative use of technology in an appropriate, timely way is real,” said Sen. Bill Frist, MD, former Senator majority leader, senior fellow and co-chair, Health Project, speaking Dec. 3 at the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Health Innovation Initiative policy forum.

Despite few successful attestations for Meaningful Use Stage 2, several organizations have been recognized by HIMSS Analytics for achieving Stage 7 on the EMR Adoption Model, which evaluates the progress and impact of EMR systems for hospitals. Stage 7 represents an advanced patient record environment.

A more informed, educated and engaged consumer will help us transform the delivery system, said John Hammergren, chairman, president and CEO of McKesson, speaking Dec. 3 at the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Health Innovation Initiative policy forum.

The data of 25,000 Highland-Cashiers Hospital patients was inadvertently left accessible online but the facility isn't calling it a data breach becuase "there's no evidence that the information was accessed or used in any way," hospital president Craig James, told WLOS.

Medical device cybersecurity should be the responsibility of device makers, according to the American Hospital Association in its submitted comments on the FDA's Collaborative Approaches for Medical Device and Healthcare Cybersecurity, published in the Federal Register on Sept. 23.