VUMC’s use of technology ranked among best in U.S.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center has once again been named among the nation's 100 “most wired” hospitals and health systems.
The 2007 Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study was conducted by Hospitals and Health Networks magazine, Accenture, McKesson Corp. and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives.
This is the third consecutive year that Vanderbilt has been included in the list. Vanderbilt is also the only Middle Tennessee health care facility named.
Bill Stead, M.D., associate vice chancellor for Health Affairs and director of the Informatics Center, is pleased that Vanderbilt has maintained its presence among the nation's foremost users of medical information technology.
“The Most Wired survey assesses the percent of the time a hospital uses information technology in those tasks where it is most likely to improve quality or productivity.
“Vanderbilt's ranking is a tribute to the operational leadership of Vanderbilt University Hospital, the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt and the Vanderbilt Medical Group,” Stead said.
All U.S. hospitals are eligible to participate in the annual survey.
Respondents fill in a questionnaire about their use of information technology to support safety and quality, customer service, public health, business processes and the hospital workforce. In all, 568 hospitals and health systems participated in the 2006 survey; individual hospitals represented by the respondents totaled 1,284.
The 100 top scorers were listed in the July issue of Hospitals and Health Networks magazine. The list was ordered alphabetically and rankings were not published.
According to the survey report, “the nation's 100 Most Wired Hospitals and Health Systems have better outcomes than other hospitals on four key measures — mortality rates, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's patient safety measures, the Hospital Compare's Core Measures and average length of stay.
“This is the strongest evidence in the nine-year history of the survey of an association between the implementation and adoption of information technology and the quality and cost of patient care.”