San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center Named 2007 Most Wired Hospital

2007 Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study - Briefing Sheet

For the ninth year, Hospitals & Health Networks has named the 100 Most Wired Hospitals and Health Systems. The list is based on the Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study, which asks hospitals to report on how they use information technology to address five key areas: safety and quality, customer service, business processes, workforce, and public health and safety.

From the July 2007 issue of H&HN: Ten Lessons from the Top Most Wired

1. Improve Patient Flow. The Most Wired hospitals use electronic bed boards to improve patient flow and, as such, are four and half times more likely to use inpatient electronic bed boards than the least wired and almost three times more likely to use bed boards in the emergency department.

2. Improve Workflow. IT is facilitating the elimination of waste and improving care in the Most Wired hospitals. Analyzing existing workflow is key, and clinicians and technologists are collaborating to identify where technology can and will be used to improve patient flow.

3. Process Improvement is a Discipline. Most Wired hospital executives are harnessing reserves of knowledge, talent, commitment and energy already available within their organizations. Formal process improvement programs are being utilized, through Six Sigma, Lean production principles, CQI or external consultants.

4. Measure Results. Qualitative feedback from clinicians is used not only to find potential problems but also to get a sense of IT’s value to clinicians. Of the Most Wired hospitals and health systems, 80 percent conduct pre-project cost/benefit assessments and establish baseline metrics for their top five strategic IT projects.

5. Medication Management Drives Quality to the Bedside. Ninety-eight percent of the Most Wired have an electronic system to produce a list of current medications, compared with 62 percent of the least wired; 89 percent of the Most Wired can compare current and prescribed medications lists electronically, compared with 48 percent of the least wired; and 91 percent of the Most Wired use IT to provide new medication lists targeted to caregivers and patients, compared with 59 percent of the least wired.

6. Smart Alerts Improve Care. Real-time monitoring helps to identify adverse events for early intervention. According to the survey results, 79 percent of Most Wired respondents have an electronic surveillance system tied to an alert system. And an automated review of the CMS key indicators to provide compliance alerts is being used by almost half of the Most Wired.

7. Provide Ubiquitous Access to Digital Images. The Most Wired are more often providing digital image access in a variety of settings, such as hospitals, clinics, physician offices and other remote locations. These images stem from several service areas, including but not limited to radiology, cardiology, and nuclear medicine.

8. Don’t Forget the Operating Room. OR and anesthesia are among the last frontiers for electronic clinical documentation. Of the Most Wired, 60 percent of physicians and 70 percent of nurses use online operating room documentation. The OR is an area where IT can assist in improving safety and quality.

9. Plan for the Worst. Nearly one-third of the 2007 Most Wired say that in the event of a complete loss of their primary data center they could restore clinical information system operations within four hours. A total of 55% of the Most Wired would be up and running within a day, compared with 27 percent of the least wired.

10. Infrastructure is Key to the Future. The 2007 Most Wired listed infrastructure investments as a majority priority this year and more than half say they are planning for infrastructure improvements in the next year.

2007 Awards

The results are the basis of several awards:

• Most Wired : The 100 organizations scoring highest on the survey
• Most Wireless : The 25 organizations scoring highest on the survey questions focused on wireless applications
• Most Improved : The 25 organizations not appearing on the Most Wired list whose score improved the most from 2004 to 2006
• Most Wired –Small and Rural: The 25 small and rural organizations not appearing on the Most Wired list that scored highest on the survey
• Most Wired International Citation of Merit: International organizations demonstrating Most Wired qualities

 The 2007 survey was made possible through a partnership among Accenture, AHA, CHIME, H&HN and McKesson.

Continued Coverage

 Additional results of the 2007 Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study can be found in the articles/publications listed below:

• 2007 Supply Chain Innovator Award winners, Materials Management in Health Care, July 2007
• Perspectives on the 2007 survey results, Most Wired OnLine, July 2007
• 2007 Innovator winners, H&HN’s Most Wired Magazine, August 2007
• Technology applications in the supply chain, Materials Management in Health Care, August 2007
• Quality issues, Trustee, October 2007

Last Modified: June 28, 2008