Industry Spotlight: Nine Validated Stage 6 Hospitals Recognized at HIMSS08

Reprinted from: http://www.himss.org/

Editor's Note: Two of these nine facilities were MEDITECH customers. I've highlighted information related to the two MEDITECH hospitals with red text.

ORLANDO, Fla. — The pin reads “HIMSS Analytics Stage 6 Hospital EMR Adoption Model.” Not many attendees will have them, so if you see someone wearing the rectangular pin, congratulate them on a major achievement.

A “Stage 6 Hospital” designation means that organization has implemented healthcare IT to support higher levels of automated patient care delivery.

HIMSS Analytics developed an Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM), which evaluates the progress and impact of EMR systems in acute-care delivery environments. The methodology was outlined in a white paper, “Stage 6 Hospitals: The Journey and the Accomplishments,” by author Mike Davis, executive vice president of HIMSS Analytics.

To date, nine hospitals have attained Stage 6 status.

Davis noted that these hospitals have positioned themselves – by virtue of their IT capabilities – to be at the forefront of near-future “industry transformations.”

For now, however, Stage 6 hospitals are reaping such benefits as reductions in medication errors, nursing overtime, length of stay, billing, coding, claims and denial, to name a few.

According to the white paper, one institution’s CFO reported to its board a savings of between $7 million to $10 million annually – exceeding the cost of IT to support the EMR. “This is a significant financial statement for investing in EMRs,” Davis said, although he emphasized that the path to Stage 6 was arduous.

Such was the case for St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, which spent eight years implementing integrated clinical systems. While the ROI is certainly required after such a journey, the vision for all the hospitals is patient-centered. “This designation is consistent with St Agnes’ Information Services vision of providing accurate and reliable clinical information to enhance the delivery of quality patient care,” said William Greskovich, vice president of operations and CIO of St. Agnes.

“The Stage 6 study is vitally important research,” said Richard Schaeffer, CIO of St. Clair Citizens Memorial Hospital in Pittsburgh. “For the broad healthcare market, it validates the correlation between EMR progress and the quality of care. For St. Clair Hospital, it demonstrates our ability to be just as high tech as we are high touch, and confirms that our approach to technology is delivering improved outcomes to our patients.”

Todd Cipriani, vice president of professional and support services for Newport Hospital in Rhode Island, noted that improved communication and flow of information throughout the organization from its healthcare IT systems helped the hospital work toward its most important strategic objectives - patient safety, quality of care and costs.

Evanston Northwestern Healthcare in Illinois - with 858 licensed beds - is the largest system to receive the recognition. What made it successful from the beginning was support throughout the organization. “Receiving the Stage 6 designation validates our Administration’s and Professional Staff’s plans for clinical IT systems and it gives recognition to our staff that has worked hard to install and use our systems,” said CIO Thomas Smith.

Citizens Memorial Healthcare in Bolivar, Mo., is the smallest system with 74 beds, making its achievement particularly significant. “Size doesn’t need to be a factor,” said Amy Bergau, marketing manager for HIMSS Analytics. “The Stage 6 hospitals range in size from a 74-bed hospital to an 858-bed healthcare system, demonstrating that any size hospital can achieve this level of technology sophistication.”

“When we began our quest for one EMR that is comprehensive and crosses the continuum of care, we thought we were catching up with other hospitals,” said Denni McColm, CIO of Citizens Memorial Healthcare. “Based on the HIMSS results, we seem to have leapt ahead of, well, most hospitals. The benefits of a patient-centered EMR that is fully functional and crosses care settings are tremendous.”

Back in 2003, Midland Memorial Hospital in Texas put forth a vision to implement a “full-blown” EMR system, according to David Whiles, director of information systems. “It was an opportune moment to embrace the vision and move toward the federal government’s goal of patient care and patient safety. It’s the right thing to do.”

By February 2007, Midland Memorial brought to bear almost all of Stage 6’s conditions. The historically quick implementation of the vision was a result of buy-in from the bottom up and support from the top-down. “The board and executive staff were fundamentally devoted to the project and dedicated to making it a success,” he said. “We are fully paperless.”

As hospitals across the country implement health IT systems, MColm said, “We hope that Stage 6 becomes the norm throughout the country within the next few years.”

But where do these nine hospitals go from here? The next level, of course. Stage 7 will one day recognize the paperless EMR hospital, which has the ability to exchange health information with all entities within a regional healthcare network.

Stay tuned. Meanwhile, while at HIMSS08, network with the elite few.

The nine Stage 6 hospitals:

• Midland Memorial Hospital, Midland, Tex.

• Citizens Memorial Healthcare, Bolivar, Mo.

• St. Agnes Hospital, Baltimore, Md.

• Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, Baton Rouge, La.

• Newport Hospital, Newport, R.I.

• Clarian North Medical Center, Carmel, Ind.

• St. Clair Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pa.

• Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, Evanston, Ill.

• Memorial Health University Medical Center, Savannah, Ga.