Hundreds of thousands are injured, communications are scant and trauma centers are makeshift, at best. So how are medical records maintained? They're not, according to reports surfacing from Haiti. Eyewitness accounts tell of overrun hospitals resorting to rudimentary record-keeping processes--pieces of paper tacked to beds and bodies, listing ...

For the past 2 months, I've been collecting entries for our 2009 HIM Team of the Year contest, and it can be...inundating. (Not that I wouldn't love to see a dozen more entries!) A copy for each judge, plus one for our files-it's a whole bunch of printing and stapling, and it gives a computer junkie like myself a new appreciation for all you ...

An emergency department (ED) in a facility in Western Sydney, Australia, banned the use of its EHR, going back to paper and pen, after struggling with downtime on the system. While a North South Wales (NSW) opposition health spokeswoman claimed that government is ''putting lives at risk'' with the system, the NSW government denied the claim, with ...

By now, most of us have heard a few of the details in the economic stimulus package signed by the president Feb. 17. You'll have $13 extra stuffed in your paychecks each week starting April Fool's Day, and money will go toward green initiatives. Did you know that the stimulus will also affect HIPAA? The Wisconsin Technology Network offers up a ...

It's back to the drawing board, it seems, for President Obama. After The New York Times wrote an editorial calling for Former Sen. Tom Daschle to step aside as Obama's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Daschle announced today that he won't be seeking the spot any longer, and stated that he doesn't want to be a ''distraction.'' He ...

The American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) scored a victory yesterday when it was announced that ICD-10 implementation would be pushed back from 2011 to 2013. AAPC took an opposing view to that of the American Health Information Management Association, which advocated for an implementation sooner rather than later. AAPC made efforts to ...

The eagerly awaited Final Rules for adoption of ICD-10 will be published in the next few days, and the implementation date has been bumped from 2011 to 2013. The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) released a brief statement today applauding the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on approving the Final Rules for ...