Kaiser Hawaii hospital nets Stage 7 HIMSS Analytics award

Moanalua Medical Center, a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Honolulu, has received a Stage 7 Award from HIMSS Aanalytics, a nonprofit subsidiary of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). The award represents attainment of the highest level on the EMRs Adoption Model (EMRAM), which is used to track EMR progress at hospitals and health systems.

HIMSS Analytics developed the EMR Adoption Model in 2005 as a methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of EMR systems for hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics Database. There are eight stages (0-7) that measure a hospital's implementation and utilization of IT applications. The final stage, Stage 7, represents an advanced patient record environment. The validation process to confirm a hospital has reached Stage 7 includes a site visit by an executive from HIMSS Analytics and former or current CIOs to ensure an unbiased evaluation of the Stage 7 environment.

The hospital will be recognized at the 2012 annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition on Feb. 20-24 in Las Vegas.

As of December 2011, Moanalua Medical Center is the first hospital in the state of Hawaii, and one of only 65 U.S. facilities, or 1.2 percent, of the more than 5,000 U.S. hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics Database, to be awarded the HIMSS Analytics Stage 7 Award.

Kaiser Permanente's website embraces two integrated secure systems: My Health Manager for member access and HealthConnect for internal management of members' records, according to HIMSS Analytics. The two features allow members to email their personal physician, and access lab results, prescription refills and appointment scheduling.

In addition, the general public is encouraged to access healthcare information, recipes, podcasts, health-related videos, interactive health tools and more through this paperless system.

Kaiser Permanente also provides HealthConnect, which seeks to improve prevention and the coordination of care for members and enhancing the way physicians work together. Through HealthConnect every entry in a member's record is securely integrated into a single EMR that is accessible to the network of more than 450 physicians and thousands of clinical support staff.

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