Healthcare consumers considering a physician at University of Utah Health Care now have online access to the system’s patient satisfaction scores and comments. The rankings are based on more than 40,000 patient surveys and evaluate physicians on nine questions.

This month brings, of course, a wealth of reports from the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual convention. Journal studies also noted several developments on the advanced visualization front. 

Meeting Meaningful Use requirements and a desire to improve patient experiences drove practice transformation and standardization at the Emory Clinic, said its CMO and Chief Quality Officer Penny Z. Castellano, MD, during a Dec. 11 webinar hosted by the Institute for Health Technology Transformation.

AFrame Digital has received FDA 510(k) clearance to market its flagship MobileCare Monitor system as a Class II device. Since 2009, MobileCare Monitor has been cleared as a Class I device.

Overcrowded emergency departments (EDs) put patients’ lives at risk, increasing the likelihood of inpatient mortality by 5 percent, according to research published December by the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

This week brought some interesting information about the state of privacy and security in the U.S. healthcare industry.  Since 2009, the industry has experienced 495 breaches involving 21 million records at an estimated cost of $4 billion, according to the Health Information Trust Alliance's (HITRUST) analysis of healthcare data breaches since 2009.

The Verizon Foundation gave the Rhode Island Quality Institute a $15,000 grant to implement electronic provider alerts in a program that aims to coordinate care for preterm infants. 

Pressures to meet Meaningful Use (MU) requirements and cut costs are driving growth in revenue cycle services throughout the U.S., according to the recent KLAS report, "Revenue Cycle Services: Which Firms Deliver Big Returns?" ICD-10 preparation and reduced reimbursements also have added to demand for outside revenue cycle assistance to improve cash collections, reduce A/R days and deal with legacy claims.