Cooper University Hospital has quietly redefined the hospital IT business model. Toward the end of 2009, the Camden, N.J.based academic medical center chose a new model that pairs VMware vSphere server virtualization with a robust McKesson cardiovascular information system (CVIS) architecture as well as a solid partnership with both vendors to deliver profound clinical and IT benefits.

Three community hospitals have chosen McKessons Practice Partner Patient Records EHR and practice management tool for their employed/affiliated physicians.

Practice reporting has had a tumultuous history. Specifically in the U.S., mammography reporting has suffered from a lack of uniformity and standardization, which changed with the implementation of the American College of Radiologys (ACR) Breast Imaging and Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS).  While limitations still remain for breast imaging, emerging technologies and software applications are finessing the mammography reporting technique, and paving the way for further homogeny and an overall improved patient experience.

Spectrum Health, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based nonprofit integrated health system, will deploy health IT company Wolters Kluwer Healths ProVation MD software for cardiology procedure documentation and coding in the cardiac cath labs at Blodgett Hospital and Butterworth Hospital.

Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System, an 11-hospital and four-clinic system serving California, Colorado, Kansas and Montana, has renewed its supply chain management agreement with health IT company Broadlane.

By encouraging more clinician hands-on use of its radiology order entry system, Massachusetts General Hospital has been able to reduce the number of low-yield imaging exams, according to a study published in the June issue of Radiology.

The medical home model is at risk of becoming the latest fad in a long history of unrealistic expectations and failed health reform efforts, authors Charles M. Kilo, MD, and John H. Wasson, MD, wrote in the May issue of Health Affairs.

San Antonio-based Baptist Health System has implemented an eICU program from Philips VISICU, eGuardian.