Newswise — Loyola University Medical Center (LUMC) has been named one of the nation’s Most Wired Hospitals and Health Systems, according to results of the 2012 Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study. These results were published in the July issue of the American Hospital Association’s Hospitals & Health Networks (H&HN) magazine.
“Loyola is honored to be recognized for the role we have taken on as leaders in information technology,” said Art Krumrey, vice president and chief information officer, LUMC. “Advances we have made have allowed the organization to better communicate with our patients and provide quality care that goes beyond the bedside."
This year marks the 14th annual release of the list of Most Wired Hospitals and Health Systems. LUMC was one of the more than 200 organizations to be recognized as Most Wired. This award marks the 10th time LUMC has been named to the list.
Hospitals are recognized based on their progress in adoption, implementation and use of information technology in infrastructure, business and administrative management, clinical quality and safety and care continuum.
Among the reasons LUMC was named to the list was for its ongoing investment in information technology. One example of this was the implementation of a referring physician portal. This improves patient care by giving physicians access to their patients’ medical records for at least three months after they refer. This service also notifies referrers of significant events in their patient’s care, such as a hospital admission or an emergency department visit.
LUMC also continues to use electronic health records in a meaningful way. This technology has helped to improve patient outcomes, such as reducing readmissions of heart failure patients to the hospital and decreasing the number of catheter-associated urinary-tract infections in patients. LUMC’s electronic health records also have allowed for standardizations in patient care using evidenced-based medicine.
“We look forward to expanding our electronic health record capabilities when we implement this service at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital early next year,” said Paul Kuo, MD, MBA, FACS, chair, Department of Surgery, and chair, Informatics Committee, LUHS. “This will allow us to provide the integrated delivery of quality patient care between Loyola and Gottlieb. It also will create greater efficiencies, research advantages and significant cost savings for the health system.”
RSS