Contents
FEATURES
11 Health Information Technology Basics
Hospitals and other healthcare institutions are fast adopting
a plethora of health information technology systems purported
to cut costs, reduce medical errors, and modernize healthcare.
But is all this hardware and software really a panacea? As patient
advocates, RNs must think critically about these technologies,
and this primer will help you learn the basics.
DEPARTMENTS
4 News Briefs
CNA/NNOC's 2009 national convention preps RNs for national
movement; After three-year struggle, Fremont-Rideout
RNs win first contract; Florida RNs prepare to submit ratio bill; Maine
RNs exercise technology language; Ohio RNs lobby for national staffing
ratio bill and vet candidates for Senate; Wilkes-Barre General Hospital
RNs wage major public campaign for contract under new owner while
Pennsylvania RNs move toward state ratio bill; Texas RNs enforce
direct-care RN requirement in new staffing law.
11
9 A Shot in the Arm
How our win of a single-payer resolution at the AFL-CIO signifies that
healthcare change is coming. By Rose Ann DeMoro
Listen to a podcast interview
about health IT with Linette Davis,
an educator with the Institute
for Health and Socio-Economic
Policy, on the Nurse Talk website:
www.nursetalksite.com/podcast.rss
4
correction: The July-August 2009 issue erroneously reported on page 17 the year in which CNA/NNOC
fought against California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's
attempted rollback of the ratio law. The correct year was
2005.
on the cover: Photos by William Whitehurst/Corbis
and thomasd007/istockphoto.com.
SEPTEMBER 2009
W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G
REGISTERED NURSE
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