Top EMR and HIPAA Blog Posts of 2016

At the end of each year, it’s fun to pull up the stats and see which blog posts were the most popular blog posts and pages on EMR and HIPAA. What’s shocking to me is how many older posts on EMR and HIPAA are still generating a ton of traffic. Here’s a look at the top 10 blog posts and a bit of commentary on each.

1. Healthcare IT and EHR Conferences and Events – This page has gotten 10 times more traffic than pretty much all of the other posts on this list.  I’m biased, but it’s a great resource.  It also illustrates to me that I should spend more time creating these types of deep resources that are useful to readers.  It also illustrates that I traveled too much in 2016, but I’ve enjoyed every moment of those trips.

2. 6 Healthcare Incubators Growing the Future of HealthTech – This post probably needs to be updated with which incubators are still around and new healthcare incubators that have launched.  Might also be interesting to look at how well companies from the various incubators have done since being in the incubator.

3. Benefits of EMR or EHR Over Paper Charts – This was one of the first pages I ever created on EMR and HIPAA.  The sad part is that it looks like I still had plenty left to complete on that page.  However, it still highlights many of the benefits of EMR and EHR.  I’m glad it’s still getting visits since far too often we love to complain about EMR and EHR and take for granted all the benefits that an EHR provides.

4. 10 Ways Many Dental Offices Are Breaching HIPAA – This was a great guest post by Trevor James.  It was targeted at Dental Offices, but most of the items apply to any healthcare organization.  It’s amazing how many people still don’t understand HIPAA and what it requires.

5. Meaningful Use Is Going to Be Replaced – #JPM16 – This announcement was a bit of a surprise when it happened and I’m trying to understand why we didn’t know this was coming.  I also find it quite interesting that Andy Slavitt chose to make this announcement at JP Morgan’s annual healthcare conference and not at HIMSS or some other event.  Maybe it was just timing, but I think that says a lot about the JP Morgan event.

6. 2014 EHR Mandate – One of the top searches that refers traffic to EMR and HIPAA are related to the question of whether there’s an EHR mandate.  That’s likely why this post is so popular even though it was written back in 2011.  It’s amazing how well this content still applies almost 6 years later.  There is no EHR mandate and I don’t think there ever will be.  However, there are forces and reasons to use EHR.

7. Crazy and Funny ICD-10 Codes – These are still funny today.  Although, I’m a bit surprised that the post is still so popular.  It would be interesting to see a report from an EHR vendor or someone on how many of these funny codes actually get used in practice.  My guess is not very many times, but I’m open to being surprised.

8. The Impact of the 2016 Election on Healthcare IT – This was a prediction post.  We’ll need another year or two to see if my predictions were accurate.  I’m still pretty confident in them.

9. Examples of HIPAA Privacy Violations – More HIPAA Lawsuits Coming? – This post is amazing since it was written back in 2006.  That makes it almost 10 years old.  What can I say?  Concern over HIPAA lawsuits is a big deal and people can’t help to look when a wreck (ie. HIPAA violation) happens.

10. Has Electronic Health Record Replacement Failed? – Props to Justin Campbell from Galen Healthcare on this great piece.  I think we’re just at the beginning of the EHR replacement market.  So, I have a feeling this piece and others like it are going to continue in popularity.

11. Don’t Yell FHIR in a Hospital … Yet – I’m a little shocked to find this on the list since it was only posted a month ago. I guess the topic of FHIR is a good one and Richard’s post throwing some words of caution on the FHIR train was of interest to many.

12. EMR Templates – I think this was the only post on the list that I didn’t remember without looking.  No surprise, the post was from 2012.  I’m always a little scared to read some of my early blog posts.  However, this one was pretty good.  The challenge of template documentation in EHR software versus other methods is still an important discussion, but one that’s not really happening now.

13. Practice Fusion Violates Some Physicians’ Trust in Sending Millions of Emails to Their Patients – This post kind of needs no explanation.  I worked for probably a month writing it, so I’m glad that it’s still getting read.  It probably got an extra bump this year because the FTC finally closed the case against Practice Fusion that came out of this article.  It’s still an astounding story.

14. EMR Companies Holding Practice Data for “Ransom” – Wow!  Another post from 2011.  This is still a problem today, but the dynamics have changed for most companies.  Although, the challenge is likely to get even harder since many EHR vendors are now SaaS based EHR which make it even harder to get your data and easier for the EHR vendor to hold that data for “ransom.”

15. Securing Your HIPAA Controlled Computer Workstations – This post is from 2006.  My how things have changed in 10 years.  It’s an interesting look into where I started with this blog.  I’ve wondered lately if I should get back into more practical posts like this one.

16. Best Scanners for High Volume Scanning in a Doctor’s Office – A good scanner is still essential in every healthcare organization even if you have an EHR.  These Fujitsu’s are still good options, but I’ve also seen great success with the Ambir and Canon imageFormula scanners as well.

17. Don’t Blame HIPAA: It Didn’t Require Orlando Regional Medical Center To Call the President – This was a great reality check from Mike Semel on the salacious news that the President had got involved in the HIPAA issues related to the Orlando shootings.  Mike did this a number of times in 2016, so check out all his HIPAA blog posts.

18. HIPAA Cloud Bursts: New Guidance Proves Cloud Services Are Business Associates – Another great example of Mike Semel dropping HIPAA knowledge bombs.  It’s no surprise that his posts are on this list multiple times.

19. Quality Reporting: A Drain on Practice Resources, New Study Shows –  This chart from Steven’s post has really stuck with me.  The administrative bloat in healthcare is brutal.  The challenge is that I’m not sure how we get back to the more reasonable levels of the past.  Every doctor I know feels this and it’s an awful thing for patients.

20. Health Plans Need Your Records: Know What’s Driving Requests and How to Be Prepared – I’d known Craig Mercure for years and across multiple companies.  It was great to meet up with him again in 2016 at his new position at CIOX Health.  He certainly opened my eyes to the new world of health plan records requests.  CIOX has a great business doing this for health plans.

There’s a quick run down of the top blog posts on EMR and HIPAA for 2016.  Seeing all my old posts is fun and sometimes embarrassing.  I guess it does highlight the powerful long tail of great content.

Did you have a favorite EMR and HIPAA post?  We’d love to hear about it.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

2 Comments

  • Good list.

    And this list includes posts prior to 2016 so the title is a bit misleading. Wouldn’t ‘Top EMR and HIPAA Blog Posts of All Time” be more accurate?

  • I can see the misunderstanding, but I think it’s clear in the text. Plus, the title didn’t say Top EMR and HIPAA Blog Posts Created in 2016. I guess I could have phrased it “Most Popular EMR and HIPAA Blog Posts in 2016.” If I did the “all time” option like you mention, then this wouldn’t be the list. I’d have to include the stats since the very beginning. That might be an interesting thing to do actually. I’ll do that in the future.

Click here to post a comment
   

Categories