That Time Again…

Another new year already? Time sure flies when you’re engrossed in Meaningful Use, decision support, EHR implementation and other efforts geared to improving outcomes and reducing costs.

There’s no doubt that healthcare stakeholders are looking to the future. In this month’s cover story on clinical quality measures (page 8), thought leaders put the Meaningful Use program under a microscope. Are the measures producing meaningful data? Are they based on care logic that isn’t obsolete? Can vendors improve EHR systems so they can better be integrated into a physicians’ clinical workflow? These are just a few of the questions that the experts detail in this article. And although the Meaningful Use program marches onward, the science of clinical quality measurement is in its infancy.

However, there is evidence of positive strides within healthcare as well. Two years after Banner Health, a system of eight facilities based in Phoenix, implemented the Door-to-Doc toolkit, its emergency department waiting times went from an average of almost two hours to 49 minutes (page 20). This improvement was achieved despite the fact that Banner experienced increased patient volume of approximately 12,000 patients.

Also in this issue, Luke Gale explains the federal efforts to improve clinical decision support (page 16), Justine Cadet tackles the range of issues stifling cardiovascular innovation in the U.S. (page 24), and I spoke with several leaders about the technology concerns that are keeping them up at night, including privacy and security, managing the use of mobile devices and staffing (page 30).
Cheers to all of our readers and best wishes for a productive and successful 2013. Once the champagne, noisemakers and streamers are cleared away, it’s time to dig in for another busy and meaningful year.