The University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics (UIHC) in Iowa City has been named a 2014 HIMSS Enterprise Davies Award recipient by the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
Through the use of EHR-enabled clinical workflows and standardized documentation, UIHC significantly reduced adverse drug events and hospital acquired infections, HIMSS said in a news release. What’s more, with the use of almost 500 best practice alerts and analytics, UIHC significantly reduced instances of venous thrombosis, sepsis, pneumonia, and other clinical conditions. As result of improved documentation and secondary diagnosis capture, cost avoidance associated with improved clinical outcomes, and reduced mortality and length of stay, and incentives paid for quality improvements, UIHC has net cash flow of over $50 million from July 2013 to June 2014, attributable to the use of IT, according to HIMSS officials.
UIHC joins the Kansas City, Mo.-based Truman Medical Center, Lakeland HealthCare in St. Joseph, Mich., and El Hospital Marina Salud de Dénia in Spain as 2014 Davies Award winners.
Since 1994, the HIMSS Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence has recognized outstanding achievement of organizations that have utilized health IT to substantially improve patient outcomes while achieving return on investment. The Davies Awards program promotes EHR-enabled improvement in patient outcomes through sharing of case studies and lessons learned across a wide range of efforts, including implementation strategies, workflow design, best practice development and adherence, and patient engagement.
Davies Enterprise Award recipients are Stage 7 and 6 hospitals and healthcare delivery organizations, a designation from the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) developed in 2005 by HIMSS Analytics. The EMRAM is an eight-step methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of electronic medical record systems for hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics Database. In 2012, the UIHC system reached Stage 7 status.
“UIHC’s use of information technology to improve care delivery and documentation has resulted in significantly improved clinical outcomes leading to cost avoidance, efficiencies, reduction in claims rejections, and increased revenue,” Jonathan French, HIMSS director of quality and patient safety, said in a statement. “Thus, UIHC has achieved a positive return on investment without even factoring in meaningful use dollars. The Davies Committee and HIMSS congratulate the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics staff for its focus on improving the health outcomes of their patient population through the effective use of health IT.”
University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics will be recognized at the 2015 Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition, April 12-16, 2015 in Chicago.
