Medical professionals need to remain ever vigilant when it comes to screening for infectious diseases in order to preserve the health of their patients, staff, and the general population. This is particularly important in cases of predictable epidemics (such as during each flu season) as well as the emergence of diseases in other countries that are poised to make a leap to the United States. A case in point is Ebola, which has been all over the news in recent days. Americans are coming to terms with the reality that routine air travel makes it easier for infected people to spread a highly dangerous disease regardless of national borders. We have to face the fact that Ebola is here now, at least to some degree. For this reason, Electronic Health Record systems should be able to handle Ebola screening questions right now, and not years from now.

Even though the transition to ICD-10 from the International Classification of Diseases code set version 9 has had its deadline extended to October 1, 2015, by the U.S. government, healthcare organizations shouldn’t sit on their hands. With less than a year to get ready, prudent managers will want to move their troops into preparation for the switchover as soon as possible. With that in mind, here are five things that signal your organization is ready for ICD-10.

Now that the U.S. government has extended the deadline for healthcare organizations to switch over to ICD-10 from version 9 of the International Classification of Diseases code, we all breathed a sigh of relief. Too many organizations had signaled that they would not be able to make the transition in time, so the new deadline for the mandatory switch is October 1, 2015.

Your medical practice is perfect and will continue to run just fine without you and your staff ever having to consider potential deficiencies, right? Of course not. No organization can rest on its laurels and hope to continue to meet the high standards it initially established, as conditions continue to change over the years. In order to deliver the best possible service, savvy managers of medical practices will make an effort to keep evaluating how they do things and to make sure existing protocols are up to modern challenges. With this in mind, here are three ways to improve your patient care.

No medical practice manager likes to think of himself as living in the past. However, when you have been in business for a significant period, it’s possible that you may be holding onto old habits without realizing that there are more efficient ways of doing work. Here are three outdated medical habits and practices that you can stop doing today, thanks to new developments in software and technology.

How do your patients feel about the amenities you offer at your medical practice? If it’s been a while since you thought about the first impression your organization makes on current patients and potential new patients, your waiting room may be in need of an upgrade. After all, it’s the place where your patients and their family and friends spend most of their time during visits to the doctor. Accordingly, one big thing that every medical practice needs to do is evaluate the waiting room from the perspective of patients.

The following is an excerpt from an article on Forbes. It was written by Glenn Watt, the Corporate Information Security Officer at Medidata Solutions. What are we talking about when we talk about data security? We are really talking about how we maintain the confidentiality of data to make sure only approved people have access to see that data, as well as the integrity of the data to ensure only authorized people can modify the data if needed. The third area is to ensure data availability to its owner at a time and place of their choosing and that no one is blocking that availability. So data security boils down to confidentiality, integrity and availability.

The following is an excerpt from an article on Information Management. It was written by Bob Violino. Electronic health records (EHR) uptake in the U.S. has accelerated dramatically as a result of government initiatives and the considerable resources healthcare providers have invested over the past five years, says research firm Frost & Sullivan. Electronic health records have become the heart of health IT, the firm says, and U.S. clinicians use them on a daily basis.

The following is a sneak peek of our new ICD-10 infographic, ICD-10 Readiness: Is Your Practice Prepared? ICD-10 is back, and medical practices everywhere are racing to get ready for the big, upcoming change taking place on October 1, 2015. Although the new version of ICD will make a medical professional's job a lot easier, it is no doubt going to be tough to prepare for this advance. Our ICD-10 Readiness Infographic can help you prepare by showing you: Up-to-date, helpful statistics to see where you stand amongst others How to make a smooth transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 before the deadline The typical costs of the ICD-10 process

The following is an excerpt from an article on ICD10 Monitor. It was written by D'Arcy Guerin Gue. We all know that the official deadline for implementing ICD-10 has been moved to Oct. 1, 2015. Any healthcare organization that singles out that date as its primary focus, however, is placing itself at grave financial risk. While there are some portions of ICD-10 that simply cannot be implemented in production early, like sending ICD-10 codes on claims, there are others that can – and simply must – be implemented earlier.