The following is a release from EvergreenHealth:
EvergreenHealth received Stage 6 designation of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Adoption Model, recognizing the two-hospital healthcare system’s efforts to put in place technology solutions with the ability to improve patient safety and quality of care. With this achievement, EvergreenHealth joins 22 percent of hospitals in the U.S. that carry a Stage 6 distinction from HIMSS Analytics, a nonprofit leader in health information technology (IT) implementation.
The HIMSS Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model is an eight-stage process that tracks the level of EMR adoption within healthcare organizations. Each stage, 0-7, is measured by cumulative capabilities that must be reached before moving to the next stage. Stage 6 hospitals, like EvergreenHealth, operate a near paperless system with an EMR that integrates computerized nursing and clinical documentation, medication administration, physician documentation and order entry, clinical decision support and digital radiologic imaging capabilities.
“This truly represents an enterprise-wide achievement that reflects our commitment, now spanning over decade, to adopt widespread use of healthcare technology,” said EvergreenHealth CEO Bob Malte. “Thanks to the efforts of many across the full spectrum of EvergreenHealth to implement this technology, we are setting the foundation for tangible improvements in patient care for years to come.”
EvergreenHealth started its path toward this accomplishment when it first brought its Cerner healthcare IT system online in 2002 with the goals of achieving stronger provider-to-provider communication, increased patient care safeguards, higher patient engagement and ultimately better patient outcomes. Hospital leaders plan to reach Stage 7 over the next few years by incorporating the remaining requirements into ongoing organizational IT priorities. This will include establishing capabilities for Data Warehousing to standardize and store data from many sources, Breast Milk Scanning for tracking purposes and data continuity between the EvergreenHealth hospital campus in Kirkland and its network of a second full-service hospital in Monroe, two urgent care clinics, three emergency rooms, 10 primary care locations, 25 specialty care practices and a 250-member physician group serving northern King and southern Snohomish counties.
As part of efforts to advance value-based care, EvergreenHealth also achieved Meaningful Use Stage 2, a Medicare and Medicaid incentive program for the meaningful use of EMR technology to improve patient care. In 2015, EvergreenHealth earned six designations among the top five percent of hospitals nationwide as a Distinguished Hospital of Clinical Excellence from Healthgrades®, ranks as the top community, non-teaching hospital in the Seattle area by U.S. News & World Report and was named 425 Magazine’s best hospital and health system.
