Emergency Room privacy violations

From iNews880:

Alberta’s Office of the Information and Privacy Commisioner says a doctor in a Covenant Health hospital emergency room in the province has accessed electronic health records of his girlfriend nurse’s ex-husband and people close to him.

After the nurse’s lawyer asked her ex during divorce proceedings about a personal medical issue, he asked for a log of those who had accessed his records.  They found 12 doctors’ names, with neither the first doctor or nurse, having appeared to access that man’s records, his new partner’s and his mother’s.

The names sounded familiar to the man, and further investigation brought out that his ex’s new partner, the doctor, had used other people’s accounts, left open in the busy E-R, to check out the records.  The doctor says the nurse was not aware of him doing it, that it is not uncommon for computers to be left logged on by a number of busy physicians.

HHS extends Meaningful Use deadline by one year

From Fierce Healthcare:

To the relief of many providers, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has announced its intent to delay the start of Stage 2 of the Meaningful Use requirements of electronic health records (EHR) from 2013 to 2014, reports FierceEMR.

Under current rules in the Medicare EHR Incentive Programs, providers that participate in the program this year would have to satisfy Stage 2 standards in 2013, whereas providers who waited until 2012 to participate wouldn’t have to satisfy requirements until 2014–a prime reason for some providers to hold off attesting in Stage 1 until 2012. Therefore, with the HHS postponement, the regulatory agency encourages providers to adopt EHRs faster. Under the proposed delay, providers who attest to Stage 1 of Meaningful Use this year will not have to meet Stage 2 criteria until 2014, a welcome change to many healthcare organizations and professionals.

The move to delay the start of Meaningful Use isn’t all that surprising. National Coordinator of Health IT Farzad Mostashari in July had endorsed the one-year postponement in the criteria for receiving government EHR incentives.

Branson Hospital Implements ER Charge to Fight Debt

From KSPR:

An Ozarks hospital is determined to pay its way out of more than a million dollars in debt and you’re going to help.

Starting Thursday, December 1, Skaggs Regional Medical Center in Branson will charge patients to get a prescription filled from the emergency department.

Typically emergency rooms render care for no cost at the time of treatment.

But now if you’re insured Skaggs wants your co-pay for those scripts; if you’re uninsured it will be $40.

Hospitals say bad debt is a bad problem that’s only getting worse in the Ozarks.

ER doctor to put in at least a year

(Loved the headline) From the Sun Times:

Another emergency room doctor is coming to work in Southampton’s ER next August — welcome news for the busy facility awaiting expansion.

Dr. Steven MacKinnon has agreed to work for one year in the ER then assess his options, said Peggy Zeppieri, the physician recruiter for Saugeen Shores and Kincardine.

She said she met him while he worked for a month in the Kincardine hospital under a rural family medicine elective. There are no guarantees that he’ll remain after the year is up, she said.

Campaign for Nursing’s Future – Emergency Room Nurses

From Johnson & Johnson on YouTube, via GruntDoc:

“Charm” Nursing commercial highlighting emergency room nurses on behalf of The Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing’s Future. To find out more about becoming a nurse visit. http://www.DiscoverNursing.com