Memorial Hermann Named One of the Nation’s “Most Wired” for 12th Consecutive Year in Hospitals & Health Networks Survey
Katy, TX (July 18, 2016) The Memorial Hermann Health System was named one of the country’s “Most Wired” for the 12th consecutive year in the Hospitals & Health Networks (H&HN) recently released annual survey conducted in partnership with the American Hospital Association.
“Memorial Hermann is proud to be named ‘Most Wired’ for the 12th consecutive year,” said David Bradshaw, Memorial Hermann’s Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer. “Our technology has been instrumental to improving and better managing the care of our patients, delivering high-quality and safe care while simultaneously providing a better cost value to healthcare consumers.”
H&HN’s Most Wired Survey is an annual review designed to measure the level of information technology adoption in hospitals and health systems throughout the United States. The data collected from the survey helps healthcare delivery systems establish industry-standard benchmarks for IT operational, financial and clinical performance. The review is intended to be used as a tool by hospital and health system leadership to map strategic IT plans of the future.
The nation’s Most Wired hospitals and health systems have deployed technologies that improve patient documentation, advance clinical decision support and evidence-based protocols, reduce the likelihood of medical errors, and rapidly restore access to data in the case of a disaster or outage, according to the survey.
Memorial Hermann has been at the forefront of adopting and aggressively utilizing IT tools to promote improved patient care and safety, operational efficiency, data collection, and to reduce healthcare costs. It’s the primary reason Memorial Hermann has been lauded as one of the nation’s “Most Wired” systems for 12 of the 18 years H&HN survey has been conducted.
“We strive to continually introduce cutting-edge technologies and systems that further advance our patient care and improved efficiency,” said Emily Handwerk, Memorial Hermann’s Vice President of Information Systems Division (ISD) Applications. “Our use of technology is a key differentiator for our System and is essential to us being a healthcare leader in patient safety and clinically-integrated care.”
For example, Memorial Hermann is employing Cerner technology to among other applications, help manage population health and plan anesthesia care before and after surgery by using documentation tools that provide real-time documentation and access to patient records.
Additionally, Memorial Hermann is using a speech recognition tool that enables physicians to do real-time documentation as well as an electronic prescribing tool that sends prescriptions directly to the pharmacy – thus simplifying the medication ordering processes while at the same time increasing patient safety.
“Memorial Hermann will continue to apply rapidly changing improvements in IT and information systems to its clinical, administrative practices, and population health efforts in a way that enhances quality patient care and service and aligns with our commitment to helping patients better their overall health and healthcare management,” said Amanda Hammel, VP, ISD Operations and Population Health.
Courtesy of Memorial Hermann Hospital
