Minnesota-based HealthPartners has chosen to implement the iConnect vendor neutral archive from Merge Healthcare.

States, caught between the approaching expiration of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding and implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), are balancing cost-cutting and cost-containment strategies with healthcare reform initiatives, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundations Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. The 11th annual survey provides a snapshot of Medicaid spending, enrollment and policy initiatives in each state based on data for fiscal year (FY) 2011 and FY 2012.

SAN ANTONIOA facility-wide effort to improve systems and processes began at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New London, Conn., back in 2007, which led to the creation of a project management office, said Kimberly Kalajainen, vice president and CIO, during a presentation last week at CHIME11, the Fall CIO Forum. We had a cultural change with a lot of technological change. It boiled down to a lot of risk and we turned that risk into great benefit. I cannot tell you the value we get from the project management office on a daily basis.

SAN ANTONIORepresentatives from two facilities discussed the magnitude of ICD-10 implementation during an Oct. 27 town meeting session at CHIME11, the Fall CIO Forum.

Philips Healthcare is combining its Ambient Experience with its Gemini TF Big Bore PET/CT at Sparks Regional Medical Center, an Arkansas hospital serving more than 350,000 in the Fort Smith area.

Reps. Pete Olson (R-Texas) and Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) introduced H.R. 3269 in the U.S. House of Representatives on Oct. 27. Co-sponsored by 31 House Members, the Diagnostic Imaging Services Protection Act would prohibit any multiple procedure payment reduction to the professional component of CT, MRI and ultrasound exams received by the same patient, on the same day, in the same setting in 2012.

SAN ANTONIO--Global economic dispassion is a force that has injected itself into the healthcare debate in a powerful way, said the Honorable Micheal O. Leavitt, founder and chairman of Leavitt Partners, former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and three-time elected governor of Utah, during his speech at CHIME11, the Fall CIO Forum.

Genuine process improvement is data-driven, sustained and measurable. Process improvement success stories are flush with metrics and rely on a solid grasp of data, committed leadership, organizational coherence and consistency, staff engagement and assessment to obtain their objectives.