Mercy Medical Center again named among nation’s Most Wired hospitals
Mercy Medical Center has again been named one of Health Care’s Most Wired hospitals, according to the results of the 2013 Most Wired survey released in the July issue of Hospitals & Health Networks (H&HN) magazine, a trade publication published by the American Hospital Association. This is the sixth time since 2006 Mercy has received this recognition. Just eight of Iowa’s hospitals or hospital systems are 2013 Most Wired award recipients.
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the Most Wired survey. In that time, hospitals and healthcare systems have made significant strides in establishing the basic building blocks for creating robust clinical information systems aimed at improving patient care. This includes adopting technologies to improve patient documentation, advance clinical decision support and evidence-based protocols, reduce the likelihood of medication errors, and rapidly restore access to data in the case of a disaster or outage.
This year, Mercy and MercyCare Community Physician clinics implemented a new electronic patient management system, called Epic. This system is enhancing the organization’s ability to offer a more seamless delivery of care for patients. Epic allows integration of multiple information systems at various points of contact into a single patient record through the most advanced medical record system available.
“As the nation’s healthcare system continues to experience change in patient care delivery models and healthcare insurance programs, healthcare organizations like Mercy are providing continuous improvement through existing patient care technologies,” said Jeff Cash, Sr. Vice President and CIO at Mercy. “We are also preparing our organizations for the many changes yet to come. Significant investments are being made to implement flexible and capable technologies such as Mercy’s new Epic Electronic Medical Record and MyChart Patient Portal, and we’re pleased that the Most Wired recognition reflects our adoption and success of those initiatives.”
“This year’s Most Wired organizations exemplify progress through innovation,” said Rich Umbdenstock, President and CEO of the American Hospital Association. “The hospital field can learn from these outstanding organizations ways that IT can help to improve efficiency.”
The Most Wired survey, conducted between Jan. 15 and March 15, asked hospitals and health systems nationwide to answer questions regarding their IT initiatives. Mercy is one of 289 hospitals recognized this year out of the 1,713 hospitals participating in the review.
Mercy will be among the Most Wired winners to be recognized for this accomplishment at an awards ceremony in San Diego later this month.
