The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has announced up to $13.2 million in grants to support the expansion of health IT in settings that serve people with mental and substance use disorders.

At Midwest Heart Specialists, implementing quality improvement and investing in EHRs go hand in hand. Its EHR system has allowed Midwest Heart to design and meet internal benchmarks and participate in quality-focused federal incentive programs that offset some of the costs of EHRs. Most importantly, EHRs have helped Midwest Heart caregivers effectively serve patients.

Telestroke is a cost-effective strategy for treating ischemic stroke patients in rural hospitals that lack stroke expertise, according to a study published Sept. 14 in Neurology. While there are significant upfront costs in developing the two-way audiovisual technology, the lifetime savings of improved stroke care outweigh the initial costs, the study found.

A telehealth tool may help manage care and cut expenses in the treatment for chronically ill Medicare beneficiaries, according to a recent study that looked at two clinics in the Northwest that were exposed to the intervention.

Despite challenges in data transmission, continued use of EHRs to track population health is important in demonstrating the value of health IT adoption and improving the quality of care in the primary care setting, based on a commentary published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, posted online Aug. 19.

Applying a collaborative filtering methodology to medication reconciliation lists can better predict drugs that patients could take, but may miss complete patient medication lists which can negatively affect patient outcomes, researchers found.

Implementing health IT in the community setting is a national priority designed to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare. However, community-based organizations who are implementing health IT often lack the expertise to effectively evaluate the systems, according to a perspective published Aug. 1 in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

McKesson has reported a 4 percent dip in net income, despite a 9 percent increase in revenues for the fiscal first quarter of 2011, compared with the year-prior results.