Business & Tech

Local Hospital Named Most Wired

The winning hospitals have implemented systems to ensure quality patient care.

Hospitals & Health Networks magazine has named St. Clair Hospital among the 2013 Most Wired Hospitals and Health Systems in the United States. It marks the second consecutive year St. Clair has been deemed Most Wired.   

Approximately 1,713 hospitals applied this year for recognition as America’s Most Wired health care providers.

Hospitals & Health Networks makes its selection based on four focus areas:   infrastructure; business and administrative management; clinical quality and safety (inpatient/outpatient hospital); and clinical integration (ambulatory/physician/patient/community).

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According to Hospitals & Health Networks, "Most Wired" hospitals have implemented systems to ensure quality patient care. For example: 

  • 69 percent of "Most Wired" hospitals and 60 percent of all surveyed hospitals report that medication orders are entered electronically by physicians. This represents a significant increase from 2004 results when only 27 percent of "Most Wired" hospitals and 12 percent of all hospitals responded, “Yes.” 
  • 71 percent of "Most Wired" hospitals have an electronic disease registry to identify and manage gaps in care across a population compared with 51 percent of total responders.
  • 66 percent of "Most Wired" hospitals share patient discharge data with affiliated hospitals, in comparison to 49 percent of the total responders. 37 percent of Most Wired hospitals do so with non-affiliated hospitals versus 24 percent of total responders. 

Joining St. Clair on this year’s list are such notable institutions as Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (one of the Harvard teaching hospitals) in Boston; Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pa.; Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles; Yale New Haven Health System in Connecticut; Cleveland Clinic in Ohio; Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.; West Virginia University Hospitals in Morgantown; and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh.

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“At St. Clair Hospital, Information Technology, or IT, performs an integral role in fostering patient engagement and enhancing the patient’s experience,” said Richard Schaeffer, chief information officer of St. Clair Hospital. “It occurs at every stage in the patient stay, from having advanced technology to aid patient identification at registration, to deploying mobile technology to enable bedside reporting, to optimizing the format of discharge instructions to ensure there is two-way communication between patient and nurse, to making records available after discharge through the patient portal. All of these technologies enhance the patient’s ability to take an active role in more effectively managing his or her own care.” 

St. Clair Hospital opened an outpatient center in Peters Township in May.


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