Almost every day, developments around quality or pricing transparency in healthcare are announced. Driven by consumerism and P4P programs, purchasers and payers are requiring documentation of patient care quality for higher reimbursement, along with a more rational and transparent approach to pricing. In short, they are driving providers toward value-based healthcare purchasing. In our cover story, “Pulling Back the Curtains,” page 38, we take a look at quality and pricing transparency initiatives across the country — and show you what it takes to make them work.
For many hospitals, the emergency department is the point of entry for a majority of patients, so an effective EDIS can really impact the bottom line. Often, an initial EDIS has not met the needs of many hospitals, and a good number are already on their second or third round. How to ensure they get it right? Read “Next Generation EDIS,” page 12 to see how the classic “best of breed vs. enterprise” discussion takes on new meaning for next-generation EDIS — and why connectivity is key.
2008 Resource Guide
This year, hundreds of companies shared information on thousands of products and services available to the healthcare market. The HCI Resource Guide is comprehensive, covering issues such as ambulatory IT, document imaging, managed care IT, messaging, radiology information systems, supply chain management and wireless networking. And it also includes consulting firms. Although all companies, products and services are represented here, you can find more granularity online at http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/directory. Our thanks go to all the companies that participated in this year's annual Resource Guide. For those wishing to add their company to our database or update a company profile, the online survey is available throughout the year.
Correction:In the October feature article “Inside Job,” it should be noted that UPMC, not Tenet Health, uses TriCipher's Armored Credential System.
