HIMSS Analytics Honors Florida Hospital Flagler with Stage 6 Recognition

July 28, 2011 - PRLog -- July 21, 2011 - HIMSS Analytics, a wholly-owned, not-for-profit subsidiary of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), announced Florida Hospital Flagler has achieved Stage 6 on the Electronic Medical Record Adoption ModelSM (EMRAM). Florida Hospital Flagler is the first Adventist Health System (AHS) hospital to obtain this designation.

HIMSS Analytics developed the EMRAM in 2005 as a methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of electronic medical record (EMR) systems for hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics™ Database. By tracking their progress in completing eight stages (0-7) of EMR, hospitals can review the implementation and utilization of information technology applications with the intent of reaching Stage 7, which represents an advanced electronic patient record environment.

Stage 6 hospitals:
•   Have made significant executive commitments and investments to reach this stage.
•   Appear to have a significant advantage over competitors for patient safety, clinician support, clinician recruitment, and competitive marketing for both consumers and nurse recruitment.
•   Have almost fully automated/paperless medical records when they have implemented their IT applications across most of the inpatient care settings.
•   Evaluate their data for care delivery process improvements.  
•   Recognize the strategic value of improving patient care with EMR.
•   Have begun to create strategic alignments with their medical staff to effectively utilize information technology to improve patient safety.
•   Are well-positioned to provide data to key stakeholders, such as payers, the government, physicians, consumers, and employers, to support electronic health record environments and health information exchanges.

Stage 6 hospitals also have achieved a significant advancement in their IT capabilities that positions them to successfully address many of the current industry transformations, such as meaningful-use criteria in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, claims attachments for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, pay for performance, and government quality reporting programs.

The deployment in mid-June of Closed Loop Medication Administration, an order entry and medication administration workflow that uses bar code scanning to ensure patients receive the correct medication, coupled with the implementation of Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) with Decision Support in October 2010, propelled Florida Hospital Flagler to reach Stage 6 on the EMR Adoption Model. These advancements are linked to better patient care outcomes, as well as reduction of health care costs and waste.
“This designation is a reflection of our employees’ continued focus on improving processes and providing the safest and highest quality care for our patients,” said Florida Hospital Flagler President and CEO David Ottati.  
The achievement also marks significant progress toward the realization of the first statement in Adventist Health System’s 2015 Vision: The clinical process is completely paperless and demonstrates measurable improvement in patient care across the continuum.

As Adventist Health System hospitals deploy Closed Loop Medication Administration over the next year, other AHS facilities will join Florida Hospital Flagler at Level 6.  

“HIMSS Analytics congratulates Florida Hospital Flagler for leading the way toward health IT adoption,” said John Hoyt, FACHE, FHIMSS, Executive Vice President, Organizational Services, for HIMSS.  “Stage 6 represents a level of sophistication that only 217 US hospitals have reached to date.”

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Florida Hospital Volusia/Flagler is a nonprofit hospital system with a mission to extend the healing ministry of Christ. With five hospitals in Volusia & Flagler County, it is the largest hospital system in the area, caring for 650,000 patients annually.