Henry Ford Named "Most Wired"

DETROIT – Henry Ford Health System was selected as a “Most Wired” health care system in the 16th annual Most Wired Survey.

Hospitals & Health Networks (the flagship publication of the American Hospital Association) sponsors the annual Most Wired Survey, which is an industry-standard benchmark study. The survey is designed to measure the level of IT adoption in U.S. hospitals and health systems, and it is a useful tool for hospital and health system leadership to map their IT strategic plans.

Some of the key findings related to improving quality and patient safety:

• Sixty-seven percent of Most Wired hospitals share critical patient information electronically with specialists and other care providers.
• Most Wired hospitals, those that meet a set of rigorous criteria across four operational categories, have made tremendous gains by using IT to reduce the likelihood of medical errors.
• Among Most Wired hospitals, 81 percent of medications are matched to the patient, nurse and order via bar code technology at the bedside.
• Nurses and physicians share best practices for patient safety and use checklists at more than 90 percent of Most Wired organizations.
• To help consumers make better decisions about their health care, standard measures of individual hospital quality performance are reported and publicly available.

Nearly half of Most Wired organizations share this information on their websites and 86 percent provide quality scores to clinical leaders on a regular basis as part of their performance improvement initiatives.

“With EPIC, Henry Ford has created a single workflow process design of its electronic health records, reflecting a seamless patient experience across the continuum of care,” says Mary Alice Annecharico, senior vice president and chief information officer of Henry Ford Health System. “Analytics and reporting provide the data necessary to support evidence-based clinical content and clinical decision support as well as highlight opportunities for performance improvement.”

In terms of integrated information systems, Henry Ford has developed:

• MyChart – the ability for patients to view their own results, communicate with their provider, schedule their own appointments, complete forms online, answer surveys and receive information. Providers can send directed information to patients and patient groups. Henry Ford emphasizes the importance of engaging its patients with MyChart at the first encounter and throughout episodes of care, both ambulatory and inpatient.
• Welcome Kiosks – available at selected areas which allow patients to perform self-registration, make payments and update demographics.
• Care Everywhere is an Epic mechanism designed to share authorized patient information with other non-Henry Ford Health System providers to help patients with their continuum of care.

Most Wired Survey, conducted between Jan. 15 and March 15, asked hospitals and health systems nationwide to answer questions regarding their IT initiatives. Respondents completed 680 surveys, representing 1,900 hospitals, or more than 30 percent of all U.S. hospitals.

To learn more about Most Wired, visit www.hhnmostwired.com.