Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital has been named a “Most Wired Hospital” for the fifth consecutive year, according to Health Care’s “Most Wired” annual survey.

Henry Mayo is one of 21 hospitals in the state to receive this prestigious award from the American Hospital Association’s Health Forum and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives.

The Most Wired survey is designed to provide a barometer measuring information technology use and adoption among hospitals nationwide.

The survey of 698 participants, representing an estimated 2,158 hospitals — more than 39 percent of all hospitals in the U.S. — examines how organizations are leveraging IT to improve performance for value-based health care in the areas of infrastructure, business and administrative management; quality and safety; and clinical integration.

“This designation continues to be a remarkable achievement given that the criteria get harder every year,” said Adnan Hamid, assistant chief information officer at Henry Mayo. “I would like to thank everyone for all their hard work in helping us maintain this important designation for the last five years and for continuing to champion the use of technology that improves the care and safety of our patients.”

According to the survey, Most Wired hospitals are using smart phones, telehealth and remote monitoring to create more ways for patients to access healthcare services and capture health information. This year’s results show:

· 76 percent offer secure messaging with clinicians on mobile devices.

· When patients need ongoing monitoring at home, 74 percent use secure e-mails for patients and families to keep in touch with the care team.

· 68 percent simplify prescription renewals by letting patients make requests on mobile devices.

· 62 percent add data reported by patients to the electronic health record to get a better picture of what is going on with the patient.

· Nearly half of the hospitals are using telehealth to provide behavioral health services to more patients.

· 40 percent offer virtual physician visits.

· More than 40 percent provide real-time care management services to patients at home for diabetes and congestive heart failure.

“Most-Wired hospitals are using every available technology option to create more ways to reach their patients to provide access to care,” said AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack. “They are transforming care delivery, investing in new delivery models to improve quality, provide access and control costs.”

Innovation in patient care embraces emerging technologies and underscores the need for secure patient information exchange. Hospitals have increased their use of sophisticated IT monitoring systems to detect patient privacy breaches, monitor for malicious activities or policy violations and produce real-time analysis of security alerts.

· 97 percent use intrusion detection systems.

· 96 percent perform data access audits.

· Nearly 90 percent run targeted phishing exercises to teach employees to question suspicious emails.

Most-Wired hospitals are investing in analytics to support new delivery models and effective decision-making and training clinicians on how to use analytics to improve quality, provide access and control costs.

· 82 percent analyze retrospective clinical and administrative data to identify areas for improving quality and reducing the cost of care.

· Three-quarters use sophisticated analytics such as predictive modeling and data to improve decision-making.

· Nearly 70 percent interface electronic health record data with population health tools for care management.

· More than 70 percent are providing data analytic tools training to physicians and nurses.

· 45 percent initiate a patient pathway using health IT to follow a care plan.

· Nearly 40 percent deliver quality metrics to physicians at the point-of-care.

· 32 percent have tools for real-time patient identification and tracking for value-based care conditions, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

For more information, visit www.hhnmag.com.