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Dr. Joshua Purses with MultiCare Orthopedics & Sports Medicine accesses a patient's health information via computer. All MultiCare outpatient clinics and hospitals are linked to the electronic health record, called MultiCare Connect.
MultiCare ranks among nation's 'Most Wired' health care systems
MultiCare Health System is one of the nation’s Most Wired health care organizations for the fourth year in a row, according a survey released in the current issue of Hospitals & Health Networks magazine.
The Tacoma-based, not-for-profit MultiCare is one of the few health systems in the nation to have a complete electronic health record system.
MultiCare has been at the leading edge of this technology with implementation of the electronic health record MultiCare Connect in 1998. All MultiCare outpatient clinics and hospitals are linked to the electronic health record. MultiCare Health System includes four hospitals: Tacoma General Hospital, Mary Bridge Children's Hospital and Allenmore Hospital in Tacoma, and Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, as well as primary care, urgent care and specialty clinics in Pierce, Thurston, Kitsap and King counties.
The survey looked at the achievement in clinical quality and safety, in the continuum of care and in technology infrastructure, as well as in business and administrative management.
The 154 Most Wired organizations are hospitals and health systems that scored the highest on a recent national survey of more than 1,570 hospitals and health systems. Madigan Army Medical Center was the only other hospital in Pierce County to earn the distinction. In Seattle, only Virginia Mason Medical Center received the award.
“As shown by these survey results, hospitals continue to demonstrate how IT not only can be used to improve patient care and safety but it is also a means to improve efficiency,” says Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the AHA.
MultiCare Connect includes physician order entry, inpatient and outpatient area access, electronic imaging, patient access to records, bedside barcoding and other features that ensure patients get the safest and best care possible. MultiCare patients can view their health record, lab and test results, schedule an appointment or refill prescriptions using a secure patient portal called MyChart (Powered by MultiCare) at home or anywhere they have internet access.
MultiCare has earned other distinctions recently for health information technology.
Earlier this year, MultiCare ranked No. 10 on the national list of top 100 integrated health care systems -- the fifth consecutive year that MultiCare has ranked among the top 10 in the United States. MultiCare ranked No. 3 among all of the health care networks in the entire 12-state West Region. The 2012 Top 100 Integrated Healthcare Networks list, compiled by independent researcher IMS Health, ranks health care networks based on each system's performance and degree of integration in eight categories. MultiCare received perfect scores in Services & Access, Outpatient Utilization, Integration, and Integrated Technology. This is the 10th consecutive year MultiCare has ranked in the Top 100.
Last month, MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital and MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital were honored with an “A” Hospital Safety Score by The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits. The two MultiCare hospitals were the only facilities in the South Sound to receive this top recognition, based in large part on MultiCare’s commitment to implementing a comprehensive electronic health record.
In 2010, MultiCare Health System was the sole winner of the prestigious Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence for Organizational Health. Presented by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the national award recognizes MultiCare’s effective use of health information technology, specifically electronic health records, to improve the safety and quality of patient care.
Earlier this year, MultiCare announced the release of a free MyChart app – which lets you access medical records, ask your doctor questions, review test results and more – for iPhone and Android mobile devices. MyChart gives MultiCare patients secure online access to personal health information, plus easy-to-use tools that make managing health care simple and convenient. To download the app, visit the marketplace for your mobile device or visit www.multicare.org/mychart.
In late 2011, MultiCare began posting the current wait times at the health system’s eight Urgent Care centers. Wait times are available online and on MultiCare's mobile site. Updated every 10 minutes, the times are an approximation of how long it will take to go from check-in to exam room, based on clinic volumes.
Among the key findings of this year’s Most Wired survey:
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Ninety-three percent of Most Wired hospitals employ intrusion detection systems to protect patient privacy and security of patient data, in comparison to seventy-seven percent of the total responders.
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Seventy-four percent of Most Wired hospitals and fifty-seven percent of all surveyed hospitals use automated patient flow systems.
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Ninety percent of Most Wired hospitals and seventy three percent of all surveyed use performance improvement scorecards to help reduce inefficiencies.
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One hundred percent of Most Wired hospitals check drug interactions and drug allergies when medications are ordered as a major step in reducing medication errors.
Posted on Aug 9, 2012 in Trophy Case
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