There are many models and scopes of accountable care organizations (ACO), including those for employee wellness and health systems. Addressing standardization obstacles and working toward clinical integration are just two of the challenges standing in the way of success.

Effective use of EHRs goes far beyond implementation. Facilities can and should plan ahead for optimization of these significant investments.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a sole source contract for RIS to Carestream Health.

Of the more than 9,000 estimated urgent care centers, many reported plans to increase in size or location in the next 12 months. Of those, many need an EMR and are finding that their options include ambulatory EMRs, ED systems and best-of-breed urgent care EMRs, according to a report published by market researcher KLAS.

Widespread hospital support for health information exchange (HIE) and initial deployment only in emergency department (ED) settings can lower overall societal costs and reduce hospital admissions, according to a study published in the May edition of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association .

ConnectVirginia, the commonwealths statewide health information exchange (HIE), is now live with DIRECT Messaging.

Dell, to assist implementing an EMR system, is providing Dell Clinical Service Deskone continual point of contact for support.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has posted the full set of clinical quality measures included in the proposed rule for Stage 2 of meaningful use (MU) of EMRs on its website.