HIMSS Analytics Honors Three Hospitals with Stage 7 Award

CHICAGO (January 22, 2010) - HIMSS Analytics has recognized two academic medical centers and the first rural hospital with its Stage 7 Award. The hospitals are: 

  • Citizens Memorial Hospital, Boliver, Mo. 
  • Stanford Hospital & Clinics, Palo Alto, Calif.
  • University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics, Madison, Wis.

These Stage 7 hospitals will be recognized at the 2010 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition in February 2010 in Atlanta, Ga. HIMSS Analytics developed the EMR Adoption Model in 2005 as a methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of electronic medical record systems for hospitals in the HIMSS AnalyticsTM Database. Tracking their progress in completing eight stages (0-7), hospitals can review the implementation and utilization of information technology applications with the intent of reaching Stage 7, which represents an advanced patient record environment.

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 vast database 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 EMR environments that fully engage their clinicians

Following is information on each of the three hospitals receiving the award.
    

Citizens Memorial Healthcare is a fully-integrated healthcare system devoted to exceptional patient care provided by leading physicians and caring staff. Citizens Memorial Hospital is located in Bolivar, Mo., and serves Cedar, Dade, Dallas, Hickory, northern Greene, Polk and St. Clair Counties. In addition to hospital services, CMH consists of 23 primary care and specialty care physician clinics, five long-term care facilities, one residential care facility, five independent living communities, Senior Health Center, home health, hospice, homemaker plus, health transit services, home medical equipment and rehabilitation services. The hospital received the 2007 HIMSS Organizational Davies Award of Excellence and has been recognized for its innovative efforts associated with its EMR system. It is exciting for CMH to be the first rural hospital to achieve Stage 7 on the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model. Doing so validates that our systems not only have advanced functionality, but that we are utilizing that functionality to provide safe, efficient and effective care for our patients," said Denni McColm, CIO of Citizens Memorial Hospital. "As an added bonus, our systems are integrated. We share data across the hospital, home care, hospice, long term care, residential care and physician practices. This type of success would not be possible without active support and effort from across the organization. The result is a system of care that is supported by a health information technology infrastructure providing seamless care across the continuum for our patients."

Stanford Hospital & Clinics is known worldwide for advanced treatment of complex disorders in areas such as cardiovascular care, cancer treatment, neurosciences, surgery, and organ transplants. Consistently ranked among the top institutions in the U.S. News & World Report annual list of "America's Best Hospitals," Stanford Hospital & Clinics is internationally recognized for translating medical breakthroughs into the care of patients. It is part of the Stanford University Medical Center, along with the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. We are pleased to achieve this level of accomplishment. For the first time in Stanford's history, we're all using the same holistic set of tools that allow virtually the entire patient experience to be organized, documented and managed from a single integrated system. At this moment my overwhelming feeling is one of thanks to the entire organization, for extraordinary efforts by a multidisciplinary team for whom superlatives such as "extraordinary' sound almost like an understatement," said Carolyn D. Byerly, Chief Information Officer, Stanford Hospital & Clinics.

University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics
is a 493-bed tertiary care hospital and regional referral center with major programs in organ transplant, heart and vascular care, cancer care, neurology and neurosurgery, pediatrics and orthopedics. It includes American Family Children's Hospital (AFCH), a 61-bed state-of-the-art pediatric facility located adjacent to the main hospital. The hospital's community clinic locations offer both primary and specialty care to patients throughout the Madison area. Both the hospital and clinics are staffed by the UW Health faculty physicians of the UW Medical Foundation. In addition to pediatric care at AFCH, it offers cancer care in conjunction with the UW Carbone Cancer Center, and Level One trauma care for both adults and pediatric patients, including a verified burn center and UW Med Flight critical care air transport. The investment we made in the electronic health record is an investment in patient safety and quality. To be recognized by HIMSS for reaching this level of implementation is an added bonus. This recognition also acknowledges the enormous and integrated team effort it took to reach this level. This same team effort and commitment to patient safety will lead us through the post-implementation era as we continue to refine our system and fully realize all the benefits that an electronic health record supports, said Donna Katen-Bahensky, President and CEO, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics

Validating Stage 7 Hospitals: The validation process, which confirms that the hospital has reached Stage 7, includes a site visit conducted by an executive from HIMSS Analytics and two, independent current, or former, chief information officers to ensure an unbiased evaluation of the Stage 7 environments. This team visits a representative hospital that has the same EMR applications and clinical utilization of those EMR applications running in all facilities. Visit the HIMSS Analytics Web site for more information on the Stage 7 award.

About HIMSS Analytics HIMSS Analytics is a wholly owned not-for-profit subsidiary of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). The company collects and analyzes healthcare information related to IT processes and environments, products, IS department composition and costs, IS department management metrics, healthcare trends and purchase-related decisions. HIMSS Analytics delivers high quality products, services and analytical expertise to healthcare delivery organizations, healthcare IT companies, state governments, financial companies, pharmaceutical companies, and consulting firms. Visit www.himssanalytics.org for more information.