NEW ORLEANS—Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, in New Brunswick, N.J., survived a failed EMR implementation effort before it could experience a successful one, according to Nicole Martinez, BSN, RN, director of nursing informatics, who spoke during the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society annual convention.

NEW ORLEANS—“Everyone focuses on the increasing numbers of codes” that will come with the shift from ICD-9 to ICD-10, but the new coding system impacts everyone and everything from revenue cycle to patient access to health information management, said Tom Ormondroyd, MBA, vice president and general manager of elearning solutions for Precyse during an educational session at the Health Information Management and Systems Society annual convention.

Three out of four providers are still 25 percent or less completed in their ICD-10 implementation process and one-third of respondents have not yet started the process, according to a survey from consulting firm Aloft Group.


Meaningful Use Stage 2 puts more of an emphasis on mandating patient engagement with electronic healthcare data. Maureen Gaffney, MHS, RPAC, RN, CIO of Winthrop University Hospital, shares her organization's strategies for patient engagement.

NEW ORLEANS—“You all know that information technology and how we manage information technology is critical to an effective healthcare system in the 21st Century,” said Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, delivering a keynote address on March 6 at the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) annual convention. Clinton’s talk covered his foundation’s efforts to improve healthcare and education globally, his thoughts on the current political atmosphere and how information technology can improve the U.S. healthcare system.

NEW ORLEANS—Aside from the numerous technological and organizational challenges the transition to ICD-10 offers, there are potential strategic advantages as well, said speakers during a March 6 session at the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) annual convention.

NEW ORLEANS—Being the national coordinator of health IT is “not like being the CIO of an enterprise,” said Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM, during the March 4 Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) Town Hall Meeting during the Health Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) annual convention.

NEW ORLEANS—These “exciting times” of healthcare reform and IT overhaul have given birth to great technological changes in the provider setting, but improvements in interoperability and patient engagement still present challenges, said Judy Murphy, RN, deputy national coordinator for programs and policy at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT during her March 3 lecture at the 2013 CIO Forum.