Brownwood News – Hendrick Health System has been nationally recognized for reaching Stage 7 for the Analytics Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) from Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). This designation is awarded to institutions that leverage information technology to maximize healthcare, and puts Hendrick in an elite group with only 62 other U.S. healthcare organizations to have achieved the highest stage.

“The implementation of software technology and medical devices have allowed us to become a leader in using analytics and dashboards to drive clinical decisions,” said Duane Donaway, director of Information Systems and Technology at Hendrick Health System. ‘We want to ensure our patients not only leave our services in better health than they arrived, but that they are more informed and empowered to maintain their health at home.”

This new level helps improve Hendrick Health System’s performance on core measures like quality and safety, use of technology and predictive analytics to lower the incidence of infections, identify potential sepsis and kidney failure earlier, as well as decrease medication errors. Additionally, using electronic medical records directly improves patients’ quality of care by making their health information available to all their providers.

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“This results in better-coordinated care because every health provider is seeing the same picture of a patient’s health,” said Donaway. “Reaching Stage 7 enables us to make a more significant difference in our patient’s outcomes,” said Donaway.

According to HIMSS Analytics, there are eight stages (0-7) that measure a hospital or medical group implementation and utilization of information technology applications. The final stage, Stage 7, represents the most advanced patient record environment. The validation process to confirm a group has reached Stage 7 includes a site visit by an executive from HIMSS Analytics and former or current chief information officers to ensure an unbiased evaluation of the Stage 7 environments.