Viewpoint

With the recent opening of the "Hospital Compare" Web site (www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) may be leading the race to transparency in healthcare and, consequently, to consumerism.

The Task Force On The Funding Of The Health System (The Task Force) released its final report in February titled "Getting Our Money's Worth," in which it concludes that if the Quebec public healthcare system is to avoid going broke in the near future it must move toward privatization. This is significant for two reasons: 1) Claude Castonguay, Quebec's former health minister, the father of the modern Canadian healthcare industry, is The Task Force's chairman and, 2) Canada's socialized medical industry is mostly based on the Quebec model.

Healthcare professionals prepare for all types of disaster. ED physicians and first responders plan for mass-casualty events. IT directors plan for network recovery after system failure and data loss. Operations directors consider how to keep hospitals going when Internet access, supplies and power become limited or non-existent. C-level executives examine the overall repercussions and ensure continuity of the business during disaster and its aftermath.

According to the 2007 HIMSS Leadership Survey, which every year asks CIOs and IT directors to specify which IT technologies are most important to their healthcare organizations now and in the future, 54 percent of respondents indicated that "implementing technology to reduce medical errors and increase patient safety," such as EMRs, is their organization's top priority today.