- Florida: Florida Hospital Carrollwood will open its new 100,000-square-foot, $71 million surgical tower later this month. Florida Hospital CEO Joe Johnson said surgeons played a key role in designing the new building and ORs. "We created a special room and mocked it up like a surgery room with table, ceiling mounted lights, and more," he explained. "Then we invited [surgeons] to give us their impression." Later stages of the project will add an endoscopy suite, cystoscopy suite, and an expanded and renovated pharmacy (Lake, Tampa Bay Times, 1/3).
- Michigan: Wright Lassiter III became the new president and CEO of Henry Ford Health System on Jan. 1. He previously served as president of the health system; he replaces Nancy Schlichting, who worked at Henry Ford for 18 years. Lassiter said in a release, "I believe that health care institutions should be true partners in their customers' health and well-being, and, that the right to a healthy life should be accessible to all. Under my leadership, we will continue to spread our roots deep in the community to improve the quality of life for all citizens" (Greene, Modern Healthcare, 1/4; Henry Ford release, 1/4).
- North Carolina: Gov. Roy Cooper (D) on Wednesday announced plans to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) via executive action, in defiance of a state law. The law bars the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services as well as the Department of Insurance from taking any executive action to expand Medicaid under the ACA. Further, the law requires that any proposals to expand Medicaid be approved by the state General Assembly. Cooper, however, has said the law violates the governor's "core executive authority" to accept federal funding and look out for the public's health. At an economic forum, Cooper said he intends to expand Medicaid by filing an amendment asking the federal government to revise a reform waiver request that was submitted in June 2016. According to Cooper, about 650,000 residents could gain coverage if the state were to expand the program (Robertson, AP/Sacramento Bee, 1/4; Ohnesorge, Triangle Business Journal, 1/5; Burns et al., "@NCCapitol," WRAL, 1/4; Craver, Winston-Salem Journal, 1/4).
Your guide to demystify health care IT jargon
Health care is full of acronyms and jargon—the world of health IT even more so. How does a data mart differ from an enterprise data warehouse? Do you know about FHIR? Can you describe an API?
Here, we have assembled a collection of the most frequently referenced health IT terms, including IT-related professional organizations, regulatory mandates, infrastructure components, concepts, and major IT topics. While this list is certainly not comprehensive, it defines many of the major terms to help you decode health IT jargon.