Three hospitals to be honored for advanced EHR integration

Two academic medical centers and one rural hospital will be recognized with Stage 7 awards, representing attainment of the highest level of electronic health record (EHR) adoption as judged by HIMSS Analytics, at the 2010 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) annual meeting in March in Atlanta. HIMSS Analytics is a wholly owned, not-for-profit subsidiary of HIMSS.

Citizens Memorial Hospital, Boliver, Missouri; Stanford Hospital & Clinics, Palo Alto, California; and the University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics, Madison, Wisconsin, are the honorees. The former institution is the first rural hospital to receive the honor.

In 2005, HIMSS Analytics developed a methodology to evaluate the progress and effects of EHR systems for hospitals in the HIMSS Analyticsdatabase. Tracking their progress in completing eight stages (0 to 7), hospitals can review the implementation and use of information technology applications with the intent of reaching Stage 7, which represents an advanced patient record environment.

According to HIMSS Analytics, Stage 7 hospitals:

Deliver patient care without the use of paper charts.

Are able to share patient information by sending secure, standardized summary record transactions to other care providers.

Use their databases of clinical information to drive improved care delivery performance, patient safety clinical decision support, and outcomes using business intelligence solutions.

Are best-practice examples of how to implement sophisticated EHR environments that fully engage their clinicians.