PHILADELPHIA, April 16, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the nation's first children's hospital, led by Chief Executive Officer Steven M. Altschuler, M.D., received the prestigious CEO IT Achievement Award from Modern Healthcare magazine in recognition of CHOP's 10-year effort to streamline and improve electronic health records, business systems and data centers.
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Dr. Altschuler established a vision for "one patient, one medical record" more than a decade ago and Children's Hospital has used the technology advances to design a unique model for pediatric care that is recognized nationally. Information technology advances allowed Children's Hospital to create the largest pediatric healthcare network in the country with a seamless flow of information between the main campus and more than 50 locations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
"More than 10 years ago, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia became an early adopter of the electronic health record," said Madeline Bell, president and chief operating officer at Children's Hospital. "The electronic medical record supports clinical practice throughout the hospital's main campus and the CHOP Care Network and allows us to provide state-of-the-art, evidence-based care for more than one million ambulatory visits, almost 150,000 in-patient days and 85,000 emergency department visits annually."
In the last five years alone, significant capital investments have been allocated to information systems projects including the electronic health record, clinical and business systems, analytic platforms, data centers and security. Since 2005, CHOP's Information Systems (IS) department has doubled in size to nearly 500 employees.
"Continually building, strengthening and integrating information systems in order to provide ideal patient care, helped to guide the information systems implementation within Children's Hospital and the CHOP Care Network," Dr. Altschuler said. "I'm honored to have our efforts to improve patient care through technology recognized by Modern Healthcare."
The CEO IT Achievement Award recognizes healthcare CEOs who demonstrate leadership and a commitment to using information technology to advance their organizations' goals. A five-judge panel -- two chief executive officers chosen by Modern Healthcare, and three chief information officers chosen by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society -- selected three recipients from a pool of 63 nominees. Twenty-six CEOs have received the award since it was created in 2003.
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country, ranking third in National Institutes of Health funding. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 516-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu.
Contact: Joey McCool Ryan
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SOURCE The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia