Local Health Care Providers Embrace New Technology

For some of the area's largest healthcare providers, patient care is going to be impacted the most by what goes on behind the scenes rather than on the operating table in 2012. Information technology is an ever-evolving science that hospitals, physicians and nurses must interact with on a daily basis. Bronson Battle Creek, Oaklawn Hospital in Marshall, the Battle Creek VA Medical Center and Southwest Regional Rehabilitation Center are all either working to upgrade their systems or have recently done so.

That, they say, will make patient care more efficient as doctors and other medical professionals are able to share information easily with other facilities, as well as better track medications. It's also an advancement backed by the federal government. According to the Office of the National Coordinator of Information Health Technology, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act allows hospitals to get bonus Medicare and Medicaid payments for adopting certified health information technologies...