Abington Health utilizes information technology to enhance care coordination and collaboration among clinicians and patients to improve quality, efficient and transform care delivery.
Abington, PA (PRWEB) July 22, 2013
This year marks the 15th anniversary of Health Care’s Most Wired Survey. In that time, hospitals and health care systems have made great 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.
"Abington Health utilizes information technology to enhance care coordination and collaboration among clinicians and patients to improve quality, efficient and transform care delivery," says Alison Ferren, vice president, Performance Excellence and Information Technology/chief information officer, Abington Health. "The Abington Health team is honored to receive this national recognition."
Among the key findings this year:
- Sixty-nine percent of Most Wired hospitals and 60 percent of all surveyed hospitals report that medication orders are entered electronically by physicians.
- Seventy-one percent of Most Wired hospitals have an electronic disease registry to identify and manage gaps in care across a population compared with 51 percent of total responders.
- Sixty-six percent of Most Wired hospitals share patient discharge data with affiliated hospitals, in comparison to 49 percent of the total responders. Thirty-seven percent of Most Wired hospitals do so with non-affiliated hospitals versus 24 percent of total responders.
- Thirty-two percent of Most Wired hospitals conduct controlled experiments or scenario-planning to make better management decisions. 41 percent of Most Wired hospitals provide a patient portal or Web-based solution for patient-generated data.
“This year’s Most Wired organizations exemplify progress through innovation,” says 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.”
Health Care’s Most Wired Survey asked hospitals and health systems nationwide to answer questions regarding their IT initiatives. Respondents completed 659 surveys, representing 1,713 hospitals, or roughly 30 percent of all U.S. hospitals.
The Most Wired 2013 Survey, which is conducted in cooperation with McKesson Corporation, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), and the American Hospital Association. The July H&HN cover story detailing results is available at http://www.hhnmag.com.
About Abington Health
Abington Health is the umbrella organization that encompasses its flagship hospital, Abington Memorial Hospital, in Abington and Lansdale Hospital in Hatfield Township. Abington Health also includes three convenient outpatient facilities, Abington Health Center - Schilling in Willow Grove and Abington Health Center - Warminster in Bucks County and Abington Health Center – Blue Bell. Together, these facilities serve more than 42,200 inpatients, 131,000 emergency patients and over 560,000 outpatient visits annually.
Over 1,400 physicians are on staff at both Abington Memorial Hospital and Lansdale Hospital. Additionally, Abington Health Physicians is an employed network of specialists and primary care physicians.
Abington Health employs more than 6,000 employees, making it one of the largest employers in Montgomery County.
About the AHA
The American Hospital Association (AHA) is the national organization that represents and serves all types of hospitals, health care networks, and their patients and communities. Close to 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks, other providers of care and 40,000 individual members come together to form the AHA. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. For more information, visit the AHA website at http://www.aha.org.
About the Sponsors
McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 14th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to making the business of healthcare run better. We partner with payers, hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations that deliver better care to patients in every setting. McKesson helps its customers improve their financial, operational, and clinical performance with solutions that include pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management, healthcare information technology, and business and clinical services. For more information, visit http://www.mckesson.com.
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,400 CIO members and over 70 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve.
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