Clinical decision support could help reduce the inappropriate use of antibiotics to treat acute respiratory infections, according to research published online Nov. 2 by the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

This month’s news includes coverage from the annual AHIMA convention, a substantial grant aimed at reducing medical errors associated with EHRs and new studies pointing out the benefits and flaws of current EHR systems.

Healthcare added 30,500 jobs in October and the overall U.S. economy gained 171,000 new jobs, according to preliminary figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has unveiled the Pharmacy Survey on Patient Safety Culture, the latest in a series of risk assessment toolkits for providers.

Primary care physicians (PCP) serving Medicaid beneficiaries will start receiving higher payments in January 2013 thanks to a final rule published on Nov. 1.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has made available the medications at transitions and clinical hand-offs toolkit to assist providers developing or revising medication reconciliation programs.

A new generation of providers is likely to deliver the same variations in healthcare as the old unless residency programs and students commit to changing hospitals’ bad habits, according to an Oct. 31 report published by the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice.

Connected healthcare, from remote monitoring to greater connectivity among providers, encompasses a wide range of topics and it seemed that most of those topics were covered during last week’s ninth annual Connected Health Symposium in Boston. Hopefully, you were able to read our coverage of the very energetic conference, which had a multitude of passionate speakers.