Cheyenne Regional Medical Center Receives “HealthCare’s Most Wired™” Award for Second Year in a Row
July 13, 2015
Cheyenne, WY—Cheyenne Regional Medical Center (CRMC) has received “HealthCare’s Most Wired™” award for the second consecutive year. CRMC is the only stand-alone hospital in Wyoming and one of only 338 hospitals or healthcare systems in the nation to receive the award this year.
The recognition is based on the results of a survey and benchmarking study that is conducted in by the American Hospital Association’s Health Forum in partnership with the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME).
The 2015 Most Wired survey and benchmarking study is a leading industry barometer measuring information technology (IT) use and adoption among hospitals nationwide. The survey of more than 741 healthcare organizations, representing more than 2,213 hospitals, examined how organizations are leveraging IT to improve performance for value-based healthcare in the areas of infrastructure, business and administrative management, quality and safety, and clinical integration.
Hospitals and healthcare systems that are given the Most Wired designation must meet all requirements specified in the four focus areas. The number of Most Wired organizations in 2015 is down 10 percent from last year due to additional requirements.
“We are very pleased and excited that we have been chosen to receive this award for the second consecutive year. This validates that we are continuing to grow our information technology systems and staying ahead of the curve in healthcare IT,” said Jody Siltzer, Cheyenne Regional’s IT director.
“To receive the award for two years in a row also shows that our IT system is evolving and that it continues to support our work to provide quality, coordinated care to our patients and community,” Siltzer noted.
According to survey results, health data security and patient engagement are among the top priorities for the nation’s hospitals.
“Protecting patient health information is a top priority for hospital customers,” said Frank Nydam, senior director of healthcare at VMware, which sponsored this year’s survey. “Coupled with the incredible technology innovation taking place today, healthcare organizations need to have security as a foundational component of their mobility, cloud and networking strategy and incorporated into the very fabric of the organization.”
For CRMC to be considered as a Most Wired organization, Siltzer had to complete a 17-page online survey, including 86 questions focusing on the IT systems being used at the hospital and its affiliated clinics. About 39 percent of all U.S. hospitals submitted a survey.
“This recognition shows a continuation of our combined efforts to improve utilization of our IT systems to improve patient care. As new requirements are introduced and the bar is raised, we have been able to meet these new challenges,” Siltzer said.
Survey results show that hospitals are taking more aggressive privacy and security measures to protect and safeguard patient data. Top growth areas in security among this year’s Most Wired organizations include privacy audit systems, provisioning systems, data loss prevention, single sign-on and identity management. These security measures have all been implemented at CRMC, and they continue to be monitored and updated.
Like most of the Most Wired organizations, CRMC uses intrusion detection and privacy audit systems and also conducts annual drills to test its emergency preparedness in the event of an IT incident.
“Participating in the Most Wired survey is a good way to gauge the collective direction that healthcare IT is taking,” said Craig Luzinski, Cheyenne Regional’s vice president of performance optimization.
“Even though we have our own strategies and initiatives, it is important to compare ourselves to other healthcare systems and hospitals,” Siltzer added.
The survey also discovered that hospitals and health systems are using IT to improve and integrate the care of patients and to better facilitate information exchange between hospitals and physicians and across care settings.
“We continue to improve our overall processes as a result of the installation and optimization of our Epic electronic medical record and thanks to ongoing improvements to our IT infrastructure,” Luzinski said. “Ultimately, all of this work is to ensure that we are providing the best care possible to our community.”
Another survey result that stood out was the importance of IT systems and electronic medical records in strengthening physician-hospital alignment.
“The physicians that we are recruiting now are used to a certain level of IT sophistication when they arrive, so it’s important for us to stay current,” Siltzer said.
A majority of Most Wired organizations, including CRMC, offer physicians the ability to view and exchange other facilities’ results through their electronic portals. Physicians on the medical staff at CRMC can also communicate with patients electronically via email or alerts, which is another advancement shared by more than two-thirds of Most Wired systems.
“We commend and congratulate this year’s Most Wired hospitals and their chief information officers for improving care delivery and outcomes in our nation’s hospitals through their creative and revolutionary uses of technology,” said CHIME CEO and President Russell P. Branzell. “These Most Wired organizations represent excellence in IT leadership on the frontlines of healthcare transformation.”
A story detailing the results of the survey is available in the July 2015 issue of Hospitals & Health Networks at www.hhnmag.com
CRMC was also recently recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review for being one of 100 great community hospitals in the nation and is ranked by the healthcare quality ratings firm CareChex as the number one hospital in Wyoming for overall hospital, medical and surgical care.
About HealthCare’s Most Wired™ Survey
Last October, the American Hospital Association’s Health Forum and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives announced the formation of a Most Wired partnership to enhance collaboration between the two organizations in the development and sustainability of the survey, and to collectively help meet the growing demand for useful data on health IT integration. The survey is conducted annually between January 15 and March 15 and is published each year by Health & Hospitals Network. This was the 17th year for the survey to be conducted.
