From the Desk of Ghen Sugimoto

Although, trusting a cloud based electronic health records system with sensitive health data can seem a little unnerving, investigation by industry experts and regulatory agencies that credential EHR systems against Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The same data security requirements are in place whether the data and application are housed on premise or in a virtual cloud based server. According to Gerard Nussbaum, director of technology services at management consultancy Kurt Salmon Associates at the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) Legal EHR Summit in Chicago earlier this month, HIPAA privacy and security rules do not specify whether a provider using a cloud-based EHR owns data in the medical records or if the information belongs to the service host as posted in Physicians Practice online publication. One of the points that has been expressed, is that data house in cloud is more likely to be encrypted than on-site systems and therefore m...

According to the independent IT research firm Gartner Group, Texas taxpayers have saved $1B over the past 10 years by implementing an electronic health records (EHR) system in its state correctional system. The EHR is reported to have improved clinical outcomes for patients and includes a telemedicine component developed through the University of Texas Medical Branch and Texas Tech University.  The use of EHR's and telemedicine as a improvement to patient care and substantial cost reduction tool has led to the deployment of similar systems in correctional systems across the country, including: Georgia Department of Corrections, the city of Philadelphia , Maricopa County, Ariz. , and Los Angeles County approved $17 million for an EMR system for its juvenile detention facilities. Such action is a move in the right direction. The key will be how well all of these systems derived from a multitude of suppliers can integrate with each other to establish continuity of care ...