From The Editor | Procrastination or Priority Pile Up?
It seems that waiting until the last minute is a universal problem. Take for example ICD-10. Despite the fact that the healthcare community has known about the Oct. 1, 2013, compliance deadline for years, survey results released by the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange recently revealed that most facilities are not ready. Only one-third of providers expected to begin external testing in 2013, and half did not know when their testing would occur. One-quarter of health plans are less than halfway through their assessment efforts and about half of vendors are less than halfway done with product development.
As of press time, the Department of Health and Human Services had announced plans to reconsider the ICD-10 implementation deadline but had yet to announce a new time frame. See the article on page 12 for varied opinions about this pending decision, including tips for taking advantage of the possible delay.
One argument in favor of the ICD-10 implementation delay is the many other initiatives competing for the time and resources of CMIOs and other healthcare executives. Providers haven’t necessarily procrastinated; they simply haven’t been able to squeeze ICD-10 efforts in with all of the other projects. For instance, based on the proposed rule for meaningful use Stage 2, the push toward accountable care marches on. More and more healthcare organizations are installing and optimizing health IT tools, such as electronic records, computerized physician order entry and clinical decision support.
This month’s article on patient engagement touches on several aspects of the anticipated Stage 2, such as the call for hospitals to provide a means for patients to view their records online, download or transfer those records and eventually prove that at least 10 percent of patients actually do so.
I interviewed Mary Griskewicz, senior director of health information systems for HIMSS, well before the Stage 2 proposed rule was announced in February and she seemed to be looking into a crystal ball. She described the patient engagement effort as a mountain and that our nation is just at the bottom of that mountain. “We’re only at the beginning of the evolution of technologies, such as social media, portals and mobile applications, and we’re going to begin to scale up,” she said. “It’s a matter of consumers and providers continuing to learn to use the technology and adapt to it.”
This issue includes articles on several other topics that most likely sit high atop your list of priorities—clinical decision support, accountable care and optimizing EHRs.
How are you managing all of these competing priorities? Please share your experiences.
As of press time, the Department of Health and Human Services had announced plans to reconsider the ICD-10 implementation deadline but had yet to announce a new time frame. See the article on page 12 for varied opinions about this pending decision, including tips for taking advantage of the possible delay.
One argument in favor of the ICD-10 implementation delay is the many other initiatives competing for the time and resources of CMIOs and other healthcare executives. Providers haven’t necessarily procrastinated; they simply haven’t been able to squeeze ICD-10 efforts in with all of the other projects. For instance, based on the proposed rule for meaningful use Stage 2, the push toward accountable care marches on. More and more healthcare organizations are installing and optimizing health IT tools, such as electronic records, computerized physician order entry and clinical decision support.
This month’s article on patient engagement touches on several aspects of the anticipated Stage 2, such as the call for hospitals to provide a means for patients to view their records online, download or transfer those records and eventually prove that at least 10 percent of patients actually do so.
I interviewed Mary Griskewicz, senior director of health information systems for HIMSS, well before the Stage 2 proposed rule was announced in February and she seemed to be looking into a crystal ball. She described the patient engagement effort as a mountain and that our nation is just at the bottom of that mountain. “We’re only at the beginning of the evolution of technologies, such as social media, portals and mobile applications, and we’re going to begin to scale up,” she said. “It’s a matter of consumers and providers continuing to learn to use the technology and adapt to it.”
This issue includes articles on several other topics that most likely sit high atop your list of priorities—clinical decision support, accountable care and optimizing EHRs.
How are you managing all of these competing priorities? Please share your experiences.
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.