MEDITECH's 2011 Nurse Leader Conference
(7/8/11)

As ARRA and health care reform present new challenges for our industry, new working partnerships among caregivers are just beginning to take shape. We're now seeing more incentives for clinicians from different areas and specialties to pool their expertise, in order to ensure that patients receive higher quality, lower cost care across the continuum.

This collaborative spirit was certainly evident when nurses, informaticists, CNEs, and home care clinicians recently joined forces for MEDITECH's 2011 Nurse Leader Conference. The event featured guest speakers from throughout our industry, as well as users from MEDITECH customer sites--who discussed the importance of bringing the entire diversity of nursing experience to the table, in order to tackle today's health care challenges.

Highlights included a session led by nurse activist Kathleen Bartholomew, who addressed the importance of nurse leadership in maintaining a culture where patient safety thrives. A customer panel discussion on Meaningful Use was introduced by ARRA expert Rosemary Kennedy, who explained how important the EHR will be for nurses to deliver their best care. Also, Patricia Kelleher, executive director of the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts, outlined some of the specific challenges that home care agencies are now facing, while Associate Professor of Nursing Debra Wolf suggested that social media would be an important tool for all nurses to explore in the future.

Conference attendees also had the opportunity to attend a variety of MEDITECH and customer-led education summits, where they could gather in smaller groups to exchange ideas and explore topics in greater detail. In these breakouts, nurses were able to learn more about effective change management strategies, quality reporting tools, and MEDITECH's upcoming Patient and Consumer Health Portal. MEDITECH executives were also on-hand to network and answer questions about our strategic direction for the coming year.

For more information about our Nurse Leader Conference, check out the feature stories in this month's MEDITECH Magazine, as well as the presentations on MEDITECH.com!

MEDITECH
Medical Information Technology, Inc.
MEDITECH Circle
Westwood, MA 02090
781-821-3000
www.meditech.com