Health privacy investigation at Wellington Hospital after complaint

A Wellington hospital worker is under investigation for improperly accessing a patient’s medical records.

The Capital & Coast District Health Board confirmed an investigation had been underway for months, and was only sparked after the alleged victim complained in July.

“[The complaint] was made by a person that was concerned their record may have been looked it,” chief operating officer Chris Lowry said.

An audit of the staff’s access to electronic health records since 2012 revealed a single potential breach, although Lowry was unable to confirm whether it occurred years or months ago.

“When we do the audit we look at the role of the person assessing the record and look at whether it is appropriate.”

Both the Privacy Commissioner and the complainant had been informed but Lowry refused to discussed further details while the four-month investigation was ongoing.

She would not comment on what private medical records had been accessed, where in the hospital the staff member had worked and whether the staff member was still working at the DHB. For the full article click here 

from health IT caucus http://ift.tt/1HCvfKF
via IFTTT

Australian health system faces ‘triple whammy’, says KPMG health expert Mark Britnell

Global health expert Mark Britnell says Australia’s world class healthcare system could be at risk of failing to care for ever older and sicker patients because of a “triple whammy” of structural problems.

Britain-based Mr Britnell warned that although Australia’s healthcare system has “served it well”, political blame games had thwarted real rejuvenation.

More importantly, he stressed, the split between federal and state governments, which sees the Commonwealth fund and manage primary care like doctor visits and blood tests, while the states run and fund hospital care, is not suited to the needs of modern healthcare.  For the full article click here 

from health IT caucus http://ift.tt/1HCvcyG
via IFTTT

Rise of Centralized Decision Making in Health IT

“Merger fever” and the prevalence of employed physicians has led to a predictable but significant shift inhealthcare IT: centralized decisionmaking. Slowly disappearing are the days when departments in the same hospital or health system could select their own vendors to provide various services. Large health systems are now centralizing their purchasing and rolling the implementations out system-wide.

It’s a simple strategy, but the implications are far-reaching. CIOs, CMIOs and CNIOs are now being assembled from multiple hospitals within a system to demo, pilot and make product decisions for the entire network. They say streamlining vendor relationships is facilitating interoperability, combating the inefficiency caused by duplication of efforts, and leveraging scale to cut costs.

Some technologies lend themselves more easily to system-wide deployments. EHR systems, for example, are an obvious choice because of their promise of interoperability. As a result, EHR implementations by companies such as Cerner, Epic and VistA are leading the trend. For the full article click here 

from health IT caucus http://ift.tt/1HCvcyA
via IFTTT

Letter: Misguided notions on mental health issues

I disagree with the argument posed in Chad Simon’s ’16 Nov. 23 op-ed “Depressed? Who isn’t?” It comes across as misinformed, contrived and utterly pointless on the state of mental health issues.

Firstly, Simon describes Counseling and Psychological Services as the “most inefficient and unqualified” service offered at Brown — a remark extended from an egocentric viewpoint. Yes, CAPS has its issues, most of which are institutional. But to downplay the work that the psychologists, psychiatrists and administrative personnel do is very inconsiderate.

CAPS is understaffed, and taking into account that the staff members attend to more than 350 students a week, we should remember to acknowledge their hard work. It is wrong to direct our anger at the CAPS personnel, who work very hard to help the Brown community. The source of the inefficiency is the administration, which has been unrelenting in making CAPS more accessible to Brown students. For the full article click here 

from health IT caucus http://ift.tt/1Iz9JkU
via IFTTT

Campaign urges voters to make mental health a general election priority

The meeting in the Metropole Hotel, to be attended by Minister of State Kathleen Lynch, will be an opportunity for the public to hear where political parties stand on mental health.

The coalition body, Mental Health Reform — which represents 51 groups — said the event will also permit the public to share any concerns about the issue with candidates.

Along with the junior minister, all political parties and candidates in both the Cork North Central and Cork South Central constituencies are expected to attend.

Dr Shari McDaid, director of Mental Health Reform, said: “The one thing that all parties and candidates agree on is the need to improve our mental health services.

“The ‘Our State of Mind’ campaign is asking voters to remind every candidate to make mental health a priority and to seek five key improvements: For the full article click here 

from health IT caucus http://ift.tt/1MZbDgz
via IFTTT

Batesville nurse finds calling in home health

When a friend encouraged Susie Smart to apply for a nursing position at Approve Home Health Services Inc., she never imagined it would be the first step of a 20-year career or that she would become a co-owner in the company.

“I just fell in love with home health. I went to school to be a hands-on nurse and never dreamed I would be in management or be in an administration role. I miss seeing the patients on a regular basis, but I know I have a wonderful staff that is providing that hands-on care,” Smart said.

A native of the Cord-Charlotte area, Smart earned her licensed practical nursing certification at Gateway Technical College, now the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville. She went on to complete her registered-nursing degree at North Arkansas Community College and is pursuing a Master of Nursing Science degree at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. For the full article click here 

from health IT caucus http://ift.tt/1Rgj20n
via IFTTT

Health expert helps you battle holiday stress

After a long weekend of cooking, shopping and holiday decorating, you may already be feeling the holiday stress and we still have 25 days until Christmas.

“Whether it’s because of financial stress, whether it’s just the cooking and everything they have to do that’s associated with the holiday, the fun seems to get sucked out of it,” said internal medicine physician Dr. Karen Russell.

She sees patients with high levels of stress this time of year.

“Their blood pressure is up. You can see that they’re distracted during the visit. They haven’t slept very well,” she said. For the full article click here 

from health IT caucus http://ift.tt/1MZbDgx
via IFTTT