Jennifer Garces de Marcilla
Healthcare Cybersecurity: Securing Your Digital ...

Cyberattacks targeting the supply chain are an increasingly prevalent threat in the healthcare industry, especially as the modern healthcare supply chain contains significant digital elements, such as the patient engagement vendors that provide public-facing digital tools. These third-party apps and patient-facing tools process sensitive patient data and connect with a healthcare organization’s source systems on the supply chain. As such, they are tempting targets for cybercriminals, who can sell this data on the black market or lock it up with ransomware until they are paid.

Healthcare Cybersecurity: Securing Your Digital Supply Chain & Patient-Facing Tech
Jennifer Garces de Marcilla
The Role of mHealth Solutions In Patient ...

Patient education is about more than simply spreading knowledge about the disease. It can also empower patients to better live with their condition and avoid complications–an approach known as therapeutic patient education[¹]

The Role of mHealth Solutions In Patient Education
Guest Post
How to Increase Patient Adoption of Digital ...

Digital technology can do wonders when it comes to streamlining the work of delivering efficient quality care to patients. The use of patient portals, EHRs, mhealth apps, and wearable tech can all empower patients to be more active in their healthcare, get faster treatment, and access preventative care earlier on. But with all the capabilities of modern technology, we find that many patients are slow to adopt digital tools. If this is the case for your healthcare organization, we recommend the following tips to increase adoption.

How to Increase Patient Adoption of Digital Tools
Guest Post
Technology Integration Challenges in Connected ...

Technology has a lot of potential to improve efficiency and health outcomes in the complex practice of healthcare, from time-sensitive interventions in the hospital environment to long-term preventative measures among patient populations. Diagnostics, data management, patient engagement, and personalized medicine all stand to benefit from greater technology integration in a holistic, connected care model. Despite this, there are many hurdles that prevent technology from being adopted as quickly or effectively as it could be. Let’s take a look at the challenges contemporary healthcare organizations face.

Technology Integration Challenges in Connected Care
Guest Post
The 7 Essentials Steps For a Secure Patient ...

Healthcare services are meeting patient demand by becoming increasingly digitized. These digital healthcare services are often developed by third parties and access electronic health records (EHR), revenue cycle management (RCM) systems, and other databases that include sensitive and legally protected information. While these electronic services are beneficial to both patients and providers, they create an increasingly complex software supply chain, with more potential vulnerabilities that are being targeted by hackers[¹]. Healthcare providers can find it difficult to manage effective oversight of these supply chains - including the relationships between different software tools, who has access to what data, and where there might be potential weaknesses.

The 7 Essentials Steps For a Secure Patient Portal

Claims Clearinghouse - Did You Know You Have a Choice?

Claims Clearinghouse - Did You Know You Have a Choice?

It seems like just yesterday, as the CEO of a multi-provider ophthalmology center and ambulatory surgery center, I was faced with the challenges of finding a new practice management system and implementing electronic medical records into our organization's processes. Though there were many decisions and choices to be made, the one decision I didn’t make was the claims clearinghouse we would use. At the time, no one told me I had a choice and because of that decision many hours of lost productivity and revenue cycle management issues were encountered. 

Follow YOUR Yellow Brick Road

Follow YOUR Yellow Brick Road

Recently I had the pleasure of attending sessions at the HR Florida Annual Conference in Orlando, where the speakers referenced following their yellow brick road and how that allowed them to attain their personal and organizational goals. I have worked with several health centers and watched how leaders, including me, often know what they want at the end of their yellow brick road but allow their wicked witch to prevent movement that detours them from reaching Oz.

How Your Health Center Can Help with ACA Outreach and Enrollment Efforts

How Your Health Center Can Help with ACA Outreach and Enrollment Efforts

Open Enrollment for the Health Insurance Marketplace began on November 15, 2014.  After the first Affordable Care Act enrollment period, a Commonwealth Fund report (http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2014/jul/health-coverage-access-aca) found that the uninsured rate dropped from 20% to 15%.  

Developing a Strategic Plan for Your FQHC that Doesn't Sit on a Shelf

Developing a Strategic Plan for Your FQHC that Doesn't Sit on a Shelf

Before joining FQHC Associates, each of our team members had participated in the development of strategic plans for their respective employers. Although we had some positive experiences related to this process, many of our experiences were not so great. The common thread of these negative experiences was the development of an unrealistic strategic plan that did nothing but “sit on a shelf.” 

OSHA Injury and Illness Reporting Rules are Changing - Is Your Health Center Ready?

OSHA Injury and Illness Reporting Rules are Changing - Is Your Health Center Ready?

Many community health care centers have been exempt from certain reporting requirements under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), but that rule is changing effective January 1, 2015. It is important to review the OSHA changes and make sure you are compliant with all state level and federal regulations. 

Preventing EHR-Related Medical Errors at Your Health Center

Preventing EHR-Related Medical Errors at Your Health Center

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past week (and if you have been, no judgment here), you know that an Ebola-infected patient is currently being treated in a Dallas, Texas hospital. (Update: Patient died on Wednesday, October 8th.)

Last Thursday, news was released that the patient was not diagnosed correctly during his initial contact with Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital because of a workflow flaw in the health system’s EHR. The flaw involved the travel history section of the patient record. The patient had mentioned that he had been in Liberia, but this information was only viewable in the section that the nurses accessed, not the physician-accessible section of the record.

Increased mental health funding for FQHCs makes forming partnerships with Community Mental Health Centers more important than ever

Increased mental health funding for FQHCs makes forming partnerships with Community Mental Health Centers more important than ever

HHS has recently awarded $54.6 million dollars in Affordable Care Act mental health services funding to 221 health centers nationwide. The ability to increase service capacity is welcome news since it is widely acknowledged that primary care has become the nation’s de facto mental health provider.

 
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