Loyola University Medical Center recognized as one of nation's Most Wired hospitals

For the twelfth time in 14 years, Loyola University Medical Center has been named one of the nation's Most Wired hospitals.

Results of the 2014 Health Care's Most Wired Survey are published in the July issue of the American Hospital Association's Hospitals & Health Networks (H&HN) magazine.

"Loyola is honored to be recognized for the innovative ways we use information technology," said Art Krumrey, Loyola's vice president and chief information officer. "Advances we have made have prepared the organization to better meet the demands of our changing health-care environment."

Most Wired hospitals are recognized based on their progress in adoption, implementation and use of information technology in infrastructure, business and administrative management, clinical quality and safety and clinical integration. These hospitals lead the way in use of IT to hardwire evidence-based practices to improve quality and patient safety, converting data into actionable information through analytics for clinical and business decision-making and integrating services through medical homes and health information exchanges.

LUMC was recognized for its ongoing investment in information systems, including point-of-care medication verification and computerized physician order entry compliance. The organization also was honored for its use of electronic data for performance improvement in patient care, management of care transitions and patient engagement. LUMC is a major organ transplant center, performing more lung transplants than any other Illinois hospital. Shortly after LUMC installed specialized transplant electronic health record technology, the organization performed a record number of lung transplants. This system streamlined the flow of critical information and allowed high quality imaging for the surgical team.

Loyola recently became one of the first health systems in the state to share health information electronically through two record-exchange consortiums. The information exchange enables Loyola to share a patient's electronic health information with outside providers such as hospitals, nursing homes, home care agencies and non-Loyola physicians. In turn, a Loyola provider can obtain a patient's records from outside providers, thus creating a more complete picture of the patient's condition. Such shared health information can include, for example, records of a patient's allergies, medications, health history, immunizations, test results, diagnoses, procedures and clinical and hospital visit notes.

Loyola also is a leading participant in the Chicago Area Patient Centered Clinical Outcomes Research Network (CAPriCORN). The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) recently awarded CAPriCORN an 18-month, $7 million contract to this Chicago area coalition of 20 health and hospital organizations. Through the contract, coalition members will establish a clinical data research network. CAPriCORN will provide a data and informatics infrastructure to support collaboration among scientists in conducting patient-centered outcomes research, with the ultimate goal of improving patient outcomes.

Health Care's 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.

SOURCE Loyola University Health System