MultiCare Auburn Medical Center and MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital have received prestigious awards for operating in paperless environments with electronic health records (EHR).
Presented by HIMSS Analytics, the Stage 7 Awards represent the pinnacle of achievement in digital health records – an honor attained by just a small percentage of U.S. hospitals.
“MultiCare has been committed to advancing our EHR for more than 15 years,” said Florence Chang, executive vice president and chief operating officer of MultiCare Health System. “We believe connecting all our providers and patients in a seamless and sustainable way supports safer and more convenient care for our patients.
“This certification acknowledges the hard work and dedication of all of our staff members who contributed to this effort. We are well positioned for partnering with patients, providers and other health systems for healing and a healthy future.”
Accelerating health care transformation
HIMSS Analytics developed a methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of electronic medical record systems in 2005.
The program aims to accelerate the transformation of health care by moving the entire sector toward a national electronic patient record system, which would lead to better health care.
“Stage 7” represents an advanced patient record environment, which only 3.4 percent of the more than 5,400 U.S. hospitals in the HIMSS database have received.
Likewise, just 4.37 percent of the more than 27,000 clinics in the HIMSS database have received the Stage 7 Ambulatory Award.
Auburn Medical Center and Good Samaritan Hospital received the Stage 7 Award in December. In addition, MultiCare Allenmore Hospital and MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital received the Stage 7 Award for their advanced patient records following an on-site validation in January 2015, and 107 MultiCare clinics received the Stage 7 Ambulatory Award for successfully implementing an EHR in ambulatory facilities owned by a hospital.
Empowering patients
EHRs offer health care providers secure access to complete and accurate information about their patients, including notes, diagnostic test results, X-ray images and other information that can be easily shared among doctors’ offices and hospitals.
They also give patients a bigger role in their care, with the ability to make appointments and see test results securely over the Internet using their personal health record (such as MyChart, Powered by MultiCare).
All MultiCare outpatient clinics, hospitals and provider offices are linked to the CareConnect EHR. The technology includes provider order entry, electronic imaging, bedside barcoding of hospital medications and other features that ensure patients get the best and safest care possible.
In 2009, MultiCare received the HIMSS Davies Organizational Award for electronic health record implementation.
