Vital Signs

A patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is a model of primary care that is comprehensive, patient-centered, coordinated, accessible, and focused on quality and safety. This post explains the five core functions, how practices achieve recognition, how payers support medical homes, what the evidence shows, and how health IT and nurses make team-based primary care work.

Long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC) includes the settings that provide ongoing or recovery care outside acute hospitals, such as skilled nursing facilities, home health, inpatient rehabilitation, long-term care hospitals, hospice, assisted living, and PACE. This post explains LTPAC settings, why interoperability has lagged, how the IMPACT Act standardized assessment data, the importance of care transitions, and nursing roles.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical devices that connect to the internet and exchange data with other systems. In healthcare, the Internet of Medical Things includes connected infusion pumps, monitors, beds, wearables, and building systems. This post explains common healthcare IoT uses, the benefits of device data, the security risks of a growing attack surface, and nursing roles.

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is the conscientious use of the best available research evidence, integrated with clinical expertise and patient values, to make decisions about individual care. This post explains the steps of EBM, how evidence is ranked and appraised, how evidence-based practice applies in nursing, and how health IT helps bring evidence to the point of care.

Clinical practice guidelines are systematically developed recommendations, usually based on scientific evidence, that help clinicians and patients make decisions about care in specific situations. This post explains how trustworthy guidelines are developed, how evidence is rated, how guidelines are translated into order sets and clinical decision support, the challenges of keeping them current, and nursing roles.

An anesthesia information management system (AIMS) is a specialized electronic record that captures and displays patient data throughout the perioperative period, especially during anesthesia care. This post explains how AIMS integrate with monitors and the EHR, their benefits for safety, billing, and quality, challenges such as data artifacts and alerting, and roles for CRNAs and perioperative nurses.

A zero-day attack exploits a software vulnerability before the vendor knows about it or has released a fix. This post explains how zero-day vulnerabilities are discovered and exploited, why they are especially concerning for hospitals with many vendors and medical devices, how they differ from known unpatched vulnerabilities, and the layered defenses that limit damage.

Social engineering is the manipulation of people into breaking security practices, revealing information, or granting access. This post explains common social engineering tactics, from phishing and phone pretexting to help desk scams and tailgating, why healthcare is an attractive target, how attackers exploit trust and urgency, and practical steps nurses and organizations can take.

Release of information (ROI) is the formal process for responding to requests to disclose health information to patients, other providers, and other authorized parties. This post explains how ROI works, the HIPAA right of access and its timelines, when authorization is required, how information blocking rules and patient portals have changed expectations, and what nurses should know.

The National Drug Code (NDC) is the FDA’s unique three-segment identifier for drug products, identifying the labeler, product, and package. This post explains how NDCs are structured, why 10- and 11-digit formats cause confusion, what the FDA’s final rule moving to a 12-digit NDC means, how NDCs relate to RxNorm, and how they support barcode medication safety.

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is the study and design of how people interact with computers, aiming to make technology effective, efficient, safe, and satisfying. This post explains HCI and human factors principles, how poor design contributes to errors in EHRs, user-centered design and usability testing methods, and why nurses’ input is essential to safer clinical technology.

Encryption transforms readable data into ciphertext that can be read only with the correct key. This post explains symmetric and public key encryption, protecting data at rest and in transit, how HIPAA treats encryption, why properly encrypted data can avoid breach notification, the importance of key management, and what post-quantum cryptography means for healthcare.

A covered entity is an organization or individual that must comply with HIPAA: health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and healthcare providers that conduct certain transactions electronically. This post explains the three types of covered entities, when providers are covered, how business associates and hybrid entities fit, where HIPAA does not apply, and what it means for nurses.

Average length of stay (ALOS) is the average number of days inpatients spend in the hospital, a widely used measure of efficiency, capacity, and cost. This post explains how ALOS is calculated, the difference between observed and expected length of stay, why it matters under DRG-based payment, its limits as a quality measure, and how nurses and data help reduce avoidable days.

Value stream mapping (VSM) is a Lean technique for documenting and analyzing every step, delay, and handoff involved in delivering a product or service, so that waste can be removed. This post explains how current and future state maps work, how hospitals apply VSM to patient flow and clinical workflows, how it supports health IT projects, and the role of frontline nurses.

A standards development organization (SDO) creates and maintains the technical standards that allow health information systems to exchange and use data consistently. This post explains the major health IT SDOs, how consensus standards are developed, the difference between standards, implementation guides, and profiles, how government adoption works, and why clinicians should participate.

A risk analysis is the process of understanding the nature of risk and determining its level. In healthcare, the HIPAA Security Rule requires an accurate and thorough analysis of risks to electronic protected health information. This post explains the steps of a security risk analysis, how it connects to risk management, why OCR emphasizes it in enforcement, and how clinicians contribute.

The National Provider Identifier (NPI) is the unique 10-digit number that identifies healthcare providers in HIPAA standard transactions. This post explains how NPIs are assigned through NPPES, the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 NPIs, how they are used in claims, prescriptions, and directories, why provider data quality matters, and what nurses should know.

The HIPAA Security Rule sets national standards for protecting electronic protected health information (ePHI) through administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. This post explains what the rule requires, how required and addressable specifications work, how it relates to the Privacy Rule, what the proposed update would change, and what it means for nurses.

A disease registry is an organized collection of data about patients with a particular condition, used to track care, outcomes, and quality. This post explains the difference between local EHR registries and national clinical registries, how registries support population health, quality reporting, and research, the data quality challenges involved, and how nurses use registries.