MidState Medical Center Named Most Wired hospital in the Nation

July 28, 2014

For the fifth consecutive year in a row, MidState Medical Center is pleased to announce it has been named one of the Most Wired hospitals in the nation by Hospitals & Health Networks, the journal of the American Hospital Association.

MidState has been participating in the Most Wired survey for many years. The survey is administered in cooperation with the American Hospital Association, McKesson Corp., and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives.

The 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.

As the nation's healthcare system transitions to more integrated and patient-centered care, hospitals are utilizing information technology to better connect care providers.

Most Wired hospitals meet a set of rigorous criteria across four operational categories and have made tremendous gains by using IT to reduce the likelihood of medical errors. These hospitals share critical patient information electronically with specialists and other care providers.

Among some of the key findings related to improving quality and patient safety are:

• 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 one-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.

"These accomplishments are especially important because they align with the government's current objectives for 'meaningful use' in the field of information technology. By aligning with the 'meaningful use' objectives, we can ensure that MidState is following best practices when it comes to information technology in health care, practices that ultimately benefit the quality and safe care of our patients," said Jennifer Comerford, chief information officer for MidState Medical Center.

This accomplishment is featured in the July issue of Hospitals & Health Networks magazine.