Loma Linda University Medical Center, Children’s Hospital, Surgical Hospital and East Campus have achieved Stage 7 of the inpatient Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model from Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics.
The awarding of this highest status — held by only 5.3 percent of U.S. hospitals — reflects Loma Linda University Health’s commitment to providing the best patient care through employing health information technology.
HIMSS Analytics gave the Stage 7 designation during a survey visit to Loma Linda on Nov. 7 by a three-person team led by Philip Bradley, North American regional director for the Healthcare Advisory Services Group at HIMSS Analytics.
This achievement speaks to the medical staff’s commitment to maximizing patient care, noted Mark Zirkelbach, MPA, chief information officer at LLU Medical Center.
"Observing our caregivers’ presentations to the survey team about how they have successfully leveraged technology on the units reinforced in my mind the blessing that administrators like myself experience in partnering with our staff,” he said.
Echoing this appreciation, Chief Medical Information Officer Francis Chan, MD, said, “I want to thank the medical staff, pharmacy and nursing leadership for their support as we prepared for this visit and demonstrated our utilization of Epic electronic records to improve the care of our patients. Loma Linda University Health can be proud of their efforts as we transform health care from paper records to a digital platform.”
Chan continued, “We received much positive feedback on what we are doing well along with areas where we can improve. I look forward to working with the LLEAP team as we continue to make changes to better fulfill the mission of our institution.”
The survey team complimented Loma Linda University Health on specific accomplishments including robust use of data, a true partnership between operations and information technology, staff enthusiasm, effective case studies demonstrating the use of data analytics to drive positive change, and Transfer Center dashboards and management.