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Hot Initiatives for 'Most Wired' Organizations: Innovation and Telehealth

Analysis  |  By Mandy Roth  
   September 25, 2019

A deeper look into the top performing organizations on CHIME's Most Wired List reveals a commitment to five emerging technologies plus virtual care.

How do you surpass more than 16,000 other organizations to become one of the 45 top-performing hospitals and health systems on the domestic CHIME Healthcare's Most Wired List? It's a complex formula, but innovation contributes to the mix.

Facilities ranked the highest say the following five emerging technologies are part of their one- to two-year strategy:

  1. 5G
     
  2. Cognitive computing
     
  3. Predictive analytics
     
  4. Natural language processing
     
  5. Internet of medical things
     

In addition, these facilities say that their organization has made a financial commitment to innovation.

While an assessment of these elements was not part of the formal scoring process, the highest ranked organizations share a commitment to these endeavors, says Michelle Patterson, vice president of operations for the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME).

The top-performing facilities also employ telemedicine to treat many of their patients, says Patterson. Some 24% of organizations use virtual care to treat between 10—24% of their patients; 7% use the technology to treat 25% or more of their patients.

CHIME Creates New Scoring System
 

The Most Wired program was launched nearly two decades ago. CHIME took over the program last year to help elevate the health and care of communities around the world by encouraging the optimal use of information technology. In the past, an applicant was either named to the list or not. CHIME introduced a new scoring system this year, assigning facilities to an increasingly higher tier—Level 1 through 10— based on the maturity of their technology initiatives.

Of 16,138 applicants (which included three separate surveys: domestic, ambulatory, and international), only 45 were ranked Level 9 in the domestic category. Three of those are eligible for Level 10 designation pending a site visit—a new criterion also initiated this year. Those awaiting Level 10 distinction include Avera Health, Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California; and UCHealth, Aurora, Colorado.

"The Level 9 organizations are the leaders in implementing more advanced technologies, and they're also leveraging those technologies in an innovative way to encourage deep adoption across their entire organization," says Patterson. The survey doesn't just cover one segment of an organization's technology, she explains. It encompasses how clinicians are using it and how it impacts patient outcomes, as well as back office functions.

Top Organizations Use Technology to Improve Patient Outcomes and Experience
 

Other than seeking use of certain security frameworks, Patterson says, "We don't ask about specific technologies; we're asking how those technologies are being used to realize meaningful outcomes or [improve] quality of care or patient engagement experiences."

For example, the survey examines how IT departments support opioid use reduction. The more advanced organizations are changing outcomes by including non-narcotics in order sets, employing electronic physician education programs to reduce prescriptions of the substances, and electronic patient education to enhance understanding of the issues.

Top Performing Facilities by State
 

A comprehensive list of the top-ranked Most Wired organizations is available through CHIME. Below is a list of the 45 Level 9 facilities by state. Patterson notes that some of these are single hospitals; others represent all hospitals in a system, for example, Mayo Clinic. It was up to the organizational applicant to determine how to submit their survey.

While there appear to be clusters of Level 9 facilities by state and by region of the country (particularly the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest), Patterson says these patterns correlate with CHIME membership, rather than geographic constellations of advanced technology.

Florida

  • Baptist Health South, Miami, Florida
     
  • Jackson Health System, Miami, Florida
     
  • Memorial Healthcare System, Hollywood, Florida
     
  • Nicklaus Children's Hospital, Miami, Florida
     
  • Tampa General Hospital, Tampa, Florida 

New Jersey

  • Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus, Lakewood, New Jersey
     
  • Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch Campus, Long Branch, New Jersey
     
  • Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, New Jersey
     
  • Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, New Jersey
     
  • Virtua Health, Marlton, New Jersey

California

  • Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California (Level 10 Eligible)
     
  • Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, Palo Alto, California
     
  • University of California, Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, California
     
  • UCLA Health, Los Angeles, California   

Pennsylvania

  • Geisinger Health System, Danville, Pennsylvania
     
  • Lehigh Valley Hospital, Allentown, Pennsylvania
     
  • St. Luke's University Health Network, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
     
  • UPMC, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 

Michigan

  • Aleda E. Lutz Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Saginaw, Michigan
     
  • Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, Michigan
     
  • Spectrum Health, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Missouri

  • Mercy, St. Louis, Missouri
     
  • Truman Medical Centers, Kansas City, Missouri   
     
  • University of Missouri Health Care, Columbia, Missouri  

Maryland

  • Anne Arundel Medical Center, Annapolis, Maryland
     
  • Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland
     
  • Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland

Colorado

  • UCHealth, Aurora Colorado (Level 10 Eligible)
     
  • Mt. San Rafael Hospital, Trinidad, Colorado

Illinois

  • Rush Oak Park Hospital, Oak Park, Illinois
     
  • Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois

Minnesota

  • Essentia Health, Duluth, Minnesota
     
  • Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota

New York

  • NYU Langone Health System, New York City, New York
     
  • St. Joseph's Health, Syracuse, New York

Texas

  • Children's Health, Dallas, Texas
     
  • Cook Children's Medical Center, Fort Worth, Texas

States With One Level 9 Facility:

  • Parkview Health, Fort Wayne, Indiana
     
  • Mercy Medical Center, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
     
  • Novant Health, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
     
  • Altru Health System, Grand Forks, North Dakota
     
  • Bon Secours Mercy Health, Cincinnati, Ohio
     
  • Avera Health, Sioux Falls, South Dakota (Level 10 Eligible) 
     
  • Sibley Memorial Hospital, Washington, D.C.
     
  • West Virginia University Health System, Morgantown, West Virginia

Mandy Roth is the innovations editor at HealthLeaders.


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