Loma Linda University Medical Center, Children’s Hospital, Surgical Hospital and East Campus hospital are just steps away from earning the highest rating for improving inpatient care via health information technology from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
Loma Linda is working on Stage 7 — the highest level — of the society’s checklist for the inpatient Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model.
Only 4.8 percent of hospitals in the U.S. have achieved Stage 7 status.
“Reaching the final stage demonstrates that we are a data-driven organization committed to continuous improvement and intend to join that elite tier by the end of the year,” said Steve Corbett, MD, chief medical information officer for Loma Linda University Medical Center.
Loma Linda University Health has three remaining items to complete on the 10-point checklist for Stage 7.
“Outcomes-Focused Analytics & Decision Support”
This means the demonstrated use of data to improve practice and outcomes. Loma Linda operational leadership is developing case studies that illustrate the use of analytics to drive change in the information technology, clinical and business spheres.
“Generally Paperless but with Timely Document Scanning”
The medical records team is evolving its entire document collection and scanning processes to meet the Stage 7 standard of scanning all clinically relevant documents within 24 hours of creation or receipt. These new processes go live in June 2017.
“Breast Milk and 95% Blood Scanning”
Loma Linda University Health already meets the barcoded breast milk requirement and is working toward implementation of the requirement for bedside barcode scanning of blood products by August 2017. “Electronic verification of blood products ensures the blood is being given to the right patient. This is an important step to ensure blood product administration is as safe as we can make it,” said W. Tait Stevens, MD, chief of section for transfusion, LLU Medical Center.
After completing these three requirements, Loma Linda’s final step toward Stage 7 status is hosting an evaluation team from HIMSS Analytics.
“Enabling automation to support key clinical and operational processes is an attribute of leading organizations and it will be good to see Loma Linda receive this recognition,” said Mark Zirkelbach, MPA, chief information office for LLU Medical Center.
Employees who would like to learn more can reach out to Stage 7 project manager Zoe Soens at zsoens@llu.edu.