WARWICK, R.I.The [EHR] systems youre looking at all do pretty much all the same things, so lessons learned [from our end] is to pick your vendor carefully and spend time getting to know them, said Stephen DeRosa, MA, vice president of information systems and quality management, corporate compliance officer and HIPAA security officer at Gateway Healthcare, in Pawtucket, R.I.

WARWICK, R.I.Meaningful use is a vehicle to practice transformation," said Thomas Tsang, MD, MPH, medical director of meaningful use and quality at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). He also noted that 17 vendors represent 87 percent of providers live on EHRs, during his keynote address, titled Beyond Meaningful Use," at Rhode Island Quality Institutes second annual Health IT Expo on May 18.

Children's Hospital of Orange County has struck an agreement with MobileMD that will enable the Orange, Calif.-based pediatric facility to provide health information exchange (HIE) services to more than 800 physicians and 1,000 referring physicians.

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General has released two reports that question HHS agencies' efforts to secure electronic protected health information. An OIG audit cited the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT for its lackluster efforts in ensuring that patients' individually identifiable health information is secure and adequately protected for nationwide implementation of interoperable health IT. A second report criticized the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services lax enforcement of the HIPAA security rule prior to June 2009.

The first payments for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program will be sent out this week, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Providers that have successfully attested to having met meaningful use and all the other program requirements, can expect to receive their 2011 incentive payments soon, the agency stated.

Fast 4G wireless technologies will be a good fit for rural and developing parts of the world where landline internet service is scarce, claimed experts from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

CMIO presents a weekly update of the EHR products certified by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies (ONC-ATCBs). The following EHR certifications were announced recently:

CMIO presents a sample of organizations that have achieved attestation for the Medicare/Medicaid EHR incentive program.