HIMSS Aligns Davies, Stage 7 Health IT Achievement Programs

Now aligned with HIMSS Analytics Stage 6 and Stage 7 awards, the HIMSS Davies Awards of Excellence rank as the highest level of achievement for EHR excellence that HIMSS offers. The changes impact the award categories, criteria and the application process.

Since 1994, the HIMSS Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence has recognized excellence and value in the implementation of health information technology, specifically the electronic health record. Hospitals and health organizations applying for the HIMSS Enterprise (formerly Organizational) Davies award must achieve Stage 6 or Stage 7 on the EMR Adoption Model?, or EMRAM, an evaluation system introduced in 2005 by HIMSS Analytics to track the more than 5,000 hospital in its database on their progress in completing the eight stages to creating a paperless patient record environment.

In addition, all enterprise organizations must substantially demonstrate value and the achievement of meaningful use of the EHR according to criteria from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, including computerized provider order entry for medication use, etc. Being a meaningful user does not guarantee HIMSS Davies Award status. Visit the HIMSS Web site for up-to-date analysis and information regarding the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The six winners of the 2011 HIMSS Davies Awards deliver quality and consistent care to the patients and populations they serve with information technology – specifically the electronic health record. These healthcare leaders, winners of the HIMSS Davies Awards of Excellence, appear below in the four award categories: organizational, ambulatory, community health organization and public health.

HIMSS Organizational Davies Award - Kaiser Permanente: Headquartered in Oakland, Calif., Kaiser Permanente is one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit health plans, serving more than 8.8 million members with its 36 hospitals and 454 medical offices and more than 15,000 physicians in all specialties. Founded in 1945, the organization followed a 10-year plan beginning in 2002 to implement KP Health Connect, its system-wide E-H-R now used by all hospitals throughout the Kaiser Permanente system to allow clinicians to focus on delivering quality care to patients.

HIMSS Ambulatory Davies Award: With quality patient care at the forefront of their achievements, the two winners in the ambulatory category are:

Fallon Clinic in Worcester, Mass., is a physician-owned and run not-for-profit multispecialty group practice with 357 providers representing 30 specialties located in 23 sites throughout central Massachusetts. With a thorough needs assessment, vendor selection and EHR implementation, Fallon Clinic achieved measurable improvements in the quality, safety, efficiency and satisfaction of healthcare delivery.

Community Health Organization Davies Award: The HIMSS Community Health Organization Davies Award Committee selected Hudson River HealthCare (HRHCare), in Peekskill, NY. Since its founding as the Peekskill Area Ambulatory Health Center in 1975, this healthcare organization has continued its ongoing commitment to improving the quality of care, patient experience and health outcomes for its underserved, uninsured and underinsured patient populations. The health center’s 16 primary care sites serve 64,000 patients, with over 275,000 annual visits, representing a diverse, low income population in rural, urban, migrant, homeless and public housing settings.

Public Health Davies Award: Recognized in Atlanta at the Public Health Informatics 2011 Conference, sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two winners of the HIMSS Public Health Davies Award of Excellence now join 14 past public health Davies award winners, all honored for positively impacting population health by optimizing health information technology. The winners are:
•Florida Department of Health, Bureau of Epidemiology, Electronic Surveillance System for the Early
Notification of Community-based Epidemics, Florida (ESSENCE-FL), and
•The New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, Primary Care Information Project.