Healthcare IT News - February 2009 - (Page 20) 20 HIMSS Insider I February 2009 www.himss.org C CBHA Meets Challenges of Evolving EHR Technologies olumbia Basin Health Association (CBHA) is a winner of the 2008 HIMSS Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence in the category of Community Health Organizations. CBHA is a Federally Qualified Health Center providing more than 145,000 patients visits annually to over 26,000 patients through variety of care services. According to CBHA CEO Greg Brandenburg, the organization first transitioned to an EHR in 2000. Since then, CBHA has strived to keep pace both with the changing demands of their patient base and ever-evolving electronic systems. “By allowing us to capture data in the aggregate or to drill down to each specific provider the EHR has allowed us to improve our quality, patient safety and satisfaction, and at the same time advance access to care and enhance our bottom line,” says Mr. Brandenburg. Even an organization that has worked with an EHR for years still experiences challenges, as technologies and systems continue to evolve. “Our biggest challenge was migrating the data from the old EHR into the new one.” Mr. Brandenburg believes that winning the Davies Award of Excellence will be a beneficial tool as they move forward on their EHR journey. “Our technology vendors seem to want to compete to have a Davies Award winner on their client list. And I think the fact that we received the Davies Award gives us instant credibility with the vendors we need to partner with when we are developing new and innovative ways to apply technology to improve our clinical operations.” CBHA's Davies application is available at www.himss.org/davies. I COMPARISON use of CPOE and closed loop medication administration processes. Stage 7 indicates a paperless clinical environment. What does each award program measure? [continued from page 17] The Davies Awards measure enterprise-wide use of the EMR and affiliated IT through an introspective evaluation in response to the application criteria, including CPOE and CDS, documented return on investment (clinical and financial), and clinical workflow and operational efficiencies, demonstrating success in meeting initial system objectives. The Stage 7 Award measures the presence of all of the EMR applications, including CCD or other interoperability standard transactions, and the extent to which they have been implemented. It also measures closed loop medication administration processes, the percentage of medical orders entered by physicians and the percentage of the EMR that is paperless. The Davies Awards require EMR use in all or in most care settings. All major clinical areas should be using an EMR, which should be the primary or sole source of care information. Additionally, CPOE should be utilized throughout the organization and CDS within the EMR system is used in real-time for enhanced patient care. The Stage 7 Award requires hospitals report on the status of their EMR environment by completing the annual study and are assigned an EMR Adoption Model stage level. All lower stages must have been achieved before HIMSS Analytics will move a hospital to a higher level. Hospitals can update their data as frequently as they desire to ensure they have the most accurate EMR Adoption Model score. Stage 6 hospitals are validated via a phone interview with the CIO, CMO, directors of IT and/or clinician managers. Stage 6 hospitals will also be recognized at the Stage 7 Award ceremony at the 2009 Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition in Chicago. Nominees for the Davies Awards must submit prerequisite applications; the 2009 applications opened the second week of January. If an organization meets the criteria, it will be invited to submit a full application. A site visit by a multidisciplinary volunteer committee of peers will be conducted to verify and clarify the application, prior to final award decision. “We found the Davies Award process to be valuable both on an internal and external level. The process made us pause and take a critical look at our objectives in deploying systems and how well we were meeting our original intent. The evaluation committee brought an experienced, broad perspective and raised questions for us to consider that led to additional improvement opportunities. The award gave us the chance to celebrate and recognize what we've accomplished,” said Susan Heichert of Allina Hospitals & COMPARISON [continued on page 21] What are the criteria for each award? How do organizations become eligible for each award? http://www.himss.org http://www.himss.org/davies http://www.himssanalytics.org http://www.himssanalytics.org http://www.himssanalytics.org
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