All five UC Health systems have received the highest-level designation in the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives’ (CHIME) 2019 Most Wired survey. The designation recognizes these organizations’ commitment to using their health IT resources to improve health and care in their communities.
“How fitting that our health systems be recognized for their strategic use of IT to impact the quality of patient care and efficiency of health care delivery,” said Tom Andriola, vice chancellor for information, technology, and data at UC Irvine, and who also plays a coordinating role as UC Health CIO.
More than 16,000 organizations participated in this year’s Most Wired program. Through surveys, the program assessed the adoption, integration, and impact of technologies in health care organizations at all stages of development.
Every participant received a customized benchmark report and certification at a level that reflected the organization’s overall performance. Those earning the highest ranking (levels 8 – 10) were honored with awards, which included all five UC Health organizations.
“We are proud to note that all five University of California health systems earned Most Wired recognition this year, supported in part by multiple UC wide collaborative working groups that have been coordinating improvement efforts,” said Christopher Longhurst, MD, chief information officer, UC San Diego Health.
David Lubarsky, vice chancellor of human health sciences and CEO of UC Davis Health, said, “We are continuing to evolve as a health care organization, which means making the best of use of modern technology to support what’s most important – high-quality patient care and patient safety.”
This is the second year that CHIME has conducted the survey and overseen the program, which previously was administered by the American Hospital Association. CHIME has made numerous improvements to the survey, governance, and scoring methodology. It now includes outpatient clinics and uses an improved system that allows participating organizations to better benchmark their level of adoption and outcomes achieved.
CHIME is an executive organization for chief information officers (CIOs), chief medical information officers (CMIOs), chief nursing information officers (CNIOs), chief innovation officers (CIOs), chief digital officers (CDOs) and other senior healthcare IT leaders.
With more than 2,900 members in 56 countries and over 150 healthcare IT business partners and professional services firms, CHIME provides a trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate, exchange best practices, address professional development needs, and advocate for the effective use of information management to improve the health and care in the communities they serve.
“The healthcare industry is evolving at lightning speed, with many exciting innovations that can truly transform how we deliver care,” said CHIME President and CEO Russ Branzell. “Most Wired gives us a way to gauge where we are, identify best practices that can elevate care everywhere and recognize those leaders whose pursuit of excellence is driving change in our industry.”
Information compiled from CHIME, UCD Health, UCI Health, UCLA Health, and UCSD Health press releases.