I started talking to people last year about what's happening in the EMR/EHR
arena and saying RIM Professionals and ARMA needs to get involved because
it's like a snowball rolling downhill and gaining speed and size, and it's
unchecked... but no one wants to hear it.  Now, here we are in the first wek
of 2006 and it appears it's getting worse much faster than it's getting
better.

I read articles like this:

http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid5_gci1155487,00.html

and it makes me proud to be a RIM Professional and wonder again why it is I
should be trying to work with IT to increase their knowledge and ability to
meet the needs of developing compliant systems when they make comments like
this:

 "We're still working on the logging systems required by HIPAA," he said.
"The EqualLogic array probably won't even really come into play until next
year, when we get the logging issue straightened out."
Sudlow said he is also facing another regulatory headache in the form of the
Senate's recent passing of the "Wired for Health Care Quality Act" (S.
1418), the first major step toward a national electronic health system.

"We're not even sure what the full impact of HIPAA will be long term,"
Venable said. "It requires a massive amount of data be stored that's useful
for regulation and auditing, but has no business value. The costs raised can
be unbelievable."

So, they've deployed systems and failed to consider the requirements they
need to comply with, but they figure by sometime next year, they'll at least
get the "logging issue straightened out".  =)  Let's hear it for the early
adopters who embraced technology that instantly put them out of compliance
with HIPAA... and better yet, let's complain that the laws have "no business
value" and that the costs of compliance "can be unbelievable".

Somebody better make a wake-up call to the DHHS and let them know that S.
1418 might be a bit premature for the IT Industry!!!

Larry

--
Larry Medina
Danville, CA
RIM Professional since 1972

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