UNC Health Care receives ‘Most Wired Advanced’ designation from AHA

UNC Health Care is one of only 27 systems in the United States to be recognized as a "Most Wired Advanced" health system by the American Hospital Association (AHA) for its use of information technology to improve patient care and clinical integration.

More than 460 hospitals nationwide received "Most Wired" recognition, but UNC Health Care received the additional "Most Wired Advanced" designation because it fully leverages technology in the AHA survey's four focus areas of infrastructure, business and administrative management, clinical quality and safety, and clinical integration.

The 19th Annual Health Care's Most Wired® survey was released by the American Hospital Association's (AHA) Health Forum. UNC Health Care and Carolinas Healthcare System, based in Charlotte, are the only two health systems in North Carolina to receive the 'Most Wired Advanced' recognition.

"This honor recognizes the excellent work of our Information Services Division (ISD) team and the importance of information technology at UNC Health Care as we transition to managing populations of care and delivering more personalized medicine," said William L. Roper, MD, MPH, dean of the UNC School of Medicine and CEO of the UNC Health Care System.

In 2012, UNC Health Care set out a vision to create an integrated electronic health record (EHR) that would provide one patient ID, one problem list, one medication list, and one bill for patients across all UNC Health Care entities.

As of July 2017, the Epic@UNC electronic health record and its supporting infrastructure (including the My UNC Chart patient portal at https://myuncchart.org) is in use at seven UNC Health Care hospital entities and more than 600 outpatient clinics.

"Our team has worked incredibly hard over the past several years to develop common systems for our hospitals and clinics to ensure our providers and staff have the data needed for patient care and business decisions," said Tracy Parham, RN, UNC Health Care's Chief Information Officer (CIO).

"While we continue to focus on improving our systems to provide a better experience for our patients and providers, it is incredibly satisfying to be recognized as national leaders in health IT," said Parham.