El Centro Regional Medical Center and the Childrens Institute of Pittsburgh have contracted to implement Siemens Soarian web-based health information systems (HIS), and Soarian recently went live at Faith Regional Health Services.

The American College of Radiology (ACR) has introduced an online accreditation program, the ACRedit application system, which offers CT accreditation in about 63 days, half the previous time required for accreditation.

Healthcare IT company Sectra is adapting its secure voice communication products to the Secure Communications Interoperability Protocol (SCIP) standard and by spring 2011, its Tiger and Panthon telephony products will support SCIP.

A vendors ability to integrate labor and delivery (L&D) to the EMR, tailor the system to the needs of the facility and provide quality support are what set a tool apart from the rest of the pack, according to a report from the research firm KLAS.

Addus Healthcare, a medical and social services provider, has implemented CellTrak Technologies telephony product in 19 of its home and community services branch offices.

Enterprise content management vendor Hyland Software has purchased privately held Computer Systems Company (CSC), a developer of business and clinical healthcare software and document conversion services. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Medicare beneficiaries dually eligible for Medicaid accounted for about one-third of all Medicare hospital stays in 2008, with a principal diagnosis of pressure ulcers (36 percent), asthma (32 percent) and diabetes (32 percent); and roughly one-quarter of stays for urinary tract infection, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease  and bacterial pneumonia, according to a Statistical Brief from the AHRQs Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, released Sept. 24.

Just in time for election season comes a CMS report that offers fodder to both sides of the healthcare reform debate. After implementation of the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the healthcare share of gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to reach 19.6 percent in 2019, according to research published online in Health Affairs.