7/9/2014
PITTSBURGH, July 9, 2014 – For its efforts to improve patient care by changing the way clinicians access and view data from electronic medical records, the UPMC Technology Development Center has received the Innovator Award from Hospitals & Health Networks, the journal of the American Hospital Association (AHA). UPMC was also named one of the “Most Wired” health systems in the country for the 16th consecutive year, the only one in the nation to achieve that distinction.
Additionally, Kane Community Hospital, affiliated with UPMC Hamot in Erie, was recognized with the “Most Wired—Small and Rural” award for the seventh time.
Most Wired hospitals meet rigorous criteria across four operational categories : infrastructure, business and administrative management, clinical quality and safety, and clinical integration. The 2014 results are based on a survey completed by 680 participants, representing 1,900 hospitals, or more than 30 percent of all U.S. hospitals.
“As we strive to increase quality, lower costs and enhance value, technology is playing a bigger role in health care than ever before,” said UPMC Chief Information Officer Daniel Drawbaugh. “Through UPMC’s Technology Development Center (TDC), we are determined to lead the way in creating the innovative technologies that are necessary to transform not only UPMC but the entire health care system.”
“The Most Wired data show that shared health information allows clinicians and patients to have the information they need to promote health and make the most informed decisions about treatments,” said Rich Umbdenstock, president and chief executive officer of the AHA. “Hospitals, their clinicians and their communities are doing tremendous work to enhance their information technology systems in ways that support care and delivery improvement, and patient engagement goals.”
The TDC won the Innovator Award for its development of “Convergence,” a novel, tablet-based platform that extracts patient data from a variety of clinical information systems and presents them in an easy-to-use, visually compelling way. The platform allows clinicians to seamlessly move between existing legacy information systems and new applications, such as Clinical Pathways, which guide physicians through the most appropriate, evidence-based care. “Now, we can spend more time with patients and less time ‘playing detective’ and piecing together the patient’s story,” said Rasu Shrestha, M.D., vice president of medical information technology.
Over the past five years, UPMC has invested more than $1.5 billion in technology to support clinical excellence and administrative efficiency. UPMC is one of the nation’s earliest and most sophisticated users of electronic medical records (EMRs). More than a dozen UPMC hospitals, as well as UPMC outpatient facilities, are at the highest levels of EMR use, as measured by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics. UPMC has also committed $100 million to a multi-year effort to create advanced analytics capabilities across the health system.
The July H&HN cover story detailing Most Wired results is available at www.hhnmag.com.
