Albany Medical Center Recognized for Work in Implementing Electronic Medical Records

ALBANY, N.Y., Dec. 6 -- Albany Medical Center issued the following news release:

HIMSS Analytics, a global healthcare advisory company, today announced that Albany Medical Center has achieved an advanced milestone in implementing electronic medical records systems.

According to the company, Albany Med has achieved Stage 6 on the EMR Adoption ModelSM (EMRAM). Stage 7 is the highest ranking, and as of November 2016, 31 percent (1,669) of the more than 5,400 U.S. hospitals tracked by HIMSS Analytics had reached Stage 6.

"Building physician and clinician documentation into our electronic health record is vital to high quality patient care," said Fedinand Venditti, M.D., Executive Vice President for System Care Delivery and Hospital General Director, and Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs. "These initiatives provide the building blocks of clinical indicators that allow advanced systems to automatically alert caregivers to new conditions that require their intervention,"

Stage 6 hospitals have implemented the following initiatives: * Made significant executive commitments and investments to reach this stage; * Appear to have a significant advantage over competitors for patient safety, clinician support, clinician recruitment, and competitive marketing for both consumers and nurse recruitment; * Have almost fully automated/paperless medical records when they have implemented their IT applications across most of the inpatient care settings; * Are either starting to evaluate their data for care delivery process improvements or have already documented significant improvements in this area; * Made investments that are within reach of most hospitals and recognize the strategic value of improving patient care with the EMR; * Begun to create strategic alignments with their medical staff to effectively utilize information technology to improve the patient safety environment; and * Are well-positioned to provide data to key stakeholders, such as payers, the government, physicians, consumers, and employers, to support electronic health record environments and health information exchanges.

Stage 6 hospitals also have achieved a significant advancement in their IT capabilities that positions them to successfully address many of the current industry transformations, such as meaningful use criteria in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, claims attachments for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, pay for performance, and government quality reporting programs.

"The clinical data that our physicians and nurses capture positions us to examine aggregated data for patterns that will improve overall patient care effectiveness and efficiency," said George Hickman, CIO and Executive Vice President, Information and Data Services.

In July, Albany Medical Center also was named one of the "Most Wired Hospitals" in the nation for the third year in a row based on a Hospitals &Health Networks survey measuring how hospitals are using technology to improve patient care and the patient experience. Albany Med, one of only 22 hospitals in New York State to receive this recognition, is the only hospital in Albany County to be named "Most Wired."

"HIMSS Analytics congratulates Albany Medical Center for making significant progress towards achieving advanced health IT adoption," said John H. Daniels, CNM, FACHE, FHIMSS, CPHIMS, Global Vice President, HIMSS Analytics. "Stage 6 represents a level of sophistication that can lead to innovative healthcare transformation."

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