Healthcare IT Chatter

The FDA has been on a compliance roll lately. They’ve ordered Baxter to recall and destroy all Colleague Volumetric Infusion Pumps due to unresolved safety issues; Johnson & Johnson is making recall news again, this time for quality problems cited at its Fort Washington, PA plant. While J & J’s recall is voluntary, it covers a slew of products, and one has to wonder how many recalls the company can implement before consumer confidence takes a major hit.

IT news in healthcare this week has been a mixed bag. The industry is buzzing around Sebelius’ announcement of 15 communities chosen to participate in a $200 million IT program.

The medical community doesn’t seem as excited. Taking the position that now is the time to jump off of the EMR implementation fence, John at the EMR and HIPAA blog points out that EMR software has undergone improvement and can add significant value. Meanwhile, A Country Doctor, MD at the KevinMD blog zeros in an issue that hurts EMR practicality, and Rodger Pinto of Trusted.MD takes the position that cost is indeed a barrier to EMR adoption, both in terms of implementation and maintenance. Furthermore, a new study has cast a shadow over the expected cost savings associated with EMR.

For those of you who have already implemented EMR, what has been your experience?