News: Medical Malpractice Insurance and Physician Practices

SUZANNE ULBRICH
http://www.jdnews.com
When two area doctors recently closed their practice without notice, it not only left their patients in need of a new physician, but also of their personal medical information.
When The Heart Center of Eastern North Carolina closed its doors earlier this month, patients learned of the closing either a few days prior to scheduled [...]

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com
SEATTLE — The Seattle-based Providence healthcare company has agreed to pay a $100,000 fine and improve its patient information security to settle privacy complaints from 2005 and 2006.
Federal officials say the home and community health care company failed to properly secure backup tapes, disks and laptops with electronic patient information several times during [...]

http://www.marketwatch.com
BOSTON, July 10, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ — New MHQP report features online comparison of survey results for 400 primary care practices.
Patients in Massachusetts give their primary care physicians high marks for communicating effectively and for showing them respect, according to the results of a statewide survey released today by Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP). [...]

By Bette Warn
http://www.crmbuyer.com
When executives at a critical care/pulmonary practice and an emergency medicine group realized that they had similar problems with their billing systems, they put their heads together and created ATD Resources to address their issues. Later, they turned to Navicure for its Web-based claims
When two medical practices in Lakewood, Colo., began comparing notes [...]

http://www.redorbit.com
Hyland Software has announced that UW Health (including University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics) has selected OnBase, its enterprise content management software, to use as part of the academic medical center’s electronic medical record by integrating with its current applications.
OnBase will be used in clinical care through integration with current applications. A patient’s complete medical [...]

By SANDEEP JAUHAR, M.D.
http://www.nytimes.com
“I love being a doctor but I hate practicing medicine,� a friend, Saeed Siddiqui, told me recently. We were sitting in his office amid his many framed medical certificates and a poster of an illuminated lighthouse that read: “Success doesn’t come to you. You go to it.�
A doctor in his late 30s, [...]

By OLYMPIA MEOLA
http://www.inrich.com
Virginia will participate in a project that provides incentive money to doctors to use electronic health records, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael O. Leavitt announced yesterday in Richmond.
The national effort is aimed at improving patients’ quality of care and reducing medical errors.
“Building and improving the health information technology infrastructure in [...]

By  Emily Proffitt
http://www.spokanejournal.com
Sacred Heart Medical Center & Children’s Hospital says the recent launch of Providence Heart & Vascular Institute of Spokane and acquisition of a big cardiovascular practice here are part of an effort to make sure it stays on the cutting edge of cardiac care.
With the opening of the institute, the hospital now has a [...]