Though a federal law requires hospitals to
report physicians who have had their admitting privileges revoked or
restricted for more than 30 days, a Public Citizen
report found that in addition to inadequate discipline
of physicians, hospitals routinely exploit loopholes to avoid
government requirements, with nearly half of all hospitals not
submitting a single doctor’s name to the NPDB in the more than 17 years it has existed.

Ten years ago, the Institute of Medicine (IOM)
sounded the alarm about the widespread toll of medical errors in a
groundbreaking report called “To Err is Human.” The report prompted a
rush of congressional hearings and promises of reform. But in the
decade since the report was published, little progress has been made
implementing key reforms recommended by the IOM to improve patient
safety, according to Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of
Consumer Reports.

GE today announced, as part of its healthymagination
initiative to increase access to technology and reduce cost, the launch
of a new program, Stimulus Simplicity, which offers doctors and
hospitals an easier path to electronic medical records (EMR) adoption.

The American Medical Association (AMA) announced
today it is working with Microsoft to better connect patients with
their physicians. Patients and their physicians will be able to
exchange vital health care information by connecting through
Microsoft’s HealthVault, a
platform developed by Microsoft to store and maintain health and
fitness information.

Initiate Systems, Inc., a leader in data
management solutions for the exchange of health information, announced
today a new partnership with Axolotl Corp., a premier provider of
Health Information Exchange (HIE) solutions and services. Following
successful product integration in Axolotl’s engineering labs, the two
healthcare technology industry leaders will deliver solutions that
enable interoperability between healthcare information systems in
hospitals, Integrated Delivery Networks (IDNs), Regional Healthcare
Information Organizations (RHIOs) and statewide healthcare exchanges.

Using McKesson’s Horizon Study Share™ reference
case solution, the American College of Radiology (ACR) has made its
entire library of ACR Learning File® images and content available
online as a Web-hosted archive to ACR members and others in the field.

With barcode-based error-proofing system
solutions from General Data Company, Inc. www.general-data.com, Henry Ford
Hospital in Detroit has made its Pathology laboratory workflow more
efficient and reduced the number of intralab identification errors by
85 percent.

Baxa Corporation, announces the release of
upgrades to its IntelliFlowRx workflow management system. IntelliFlowRx
is designed to improve safety and accuracy in pharmacy-based IV
admixture preparation.

As the outbreak of swine flu made headline news
this year, so did concerns about infection control. Preventing the
spread of this illness and others among hospital staff and patients is
critical, and the world is now paying close attention.

Amidst the swine flu outbreak and the occurrence
of 1.7 million infections among patients every year, Coastal
HealthTrain adds one more hand hygiene program, Hand Hygiene: The Best
Medicine, to an already comprehensive collection on the subject.