Award honors the success of Sentara eCare® and its role in improving patient care
NORFOLK, VA. (September 2010) - Sentara Healthcare has been honored as a recipient of the 2010 HIMSS Davies Award. HIMSS, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, is a company that collects and analyzes healthcare data related to IT processes and environments. Since 1994 this award has recognized and honored healthcare organizations for successful implementation of health information technology systems as well as a proven ability to derive value in the form of improved patient care.
“We have long believed in the effective use of technology to improve patient care,” said Bert Reese, vice president and Chief Information Officer for Sentara Healthcare. “Sentara eCare® was a collaboration of our best clinical minds and our best technology experts coming together to ensure that the final product would work for the benefit of patient care. Our outstanding success affirms that our strategy was the right one.”
This latest recognition follows additional significant acknowledgements for Sentara: receiving the HIMSS Analytics Stage 7 Award in recognition of the highest level of electronic medical record adoption and several consecutive years being listed to the Most Wired listing, published annually in Hospitals & Health Networks magazine. Sentara is the only multi-hospital integrated healthcare system in the country to receive all three distinctions related to its Information Technology systems.
Sentara began hospital implementation of its electronic health record system, Sentara eCare®, in 2008. With Sentara Obici Hospital scheduled for implementation later this month, all Sentara hospitals in Hampton Roads will be live on the Sentara eCare® system. In addition, Sentara Medical Group physicians use Sentara eCare® and over 30,000 residents in the region now utilize the Sentara MyChart patient portal to communicate with physicians, schedule appointments, request refills, view test results and more.
“We are engaging patients in ways that truly make them the center of the care team,” says Reese. “As healthcare evolves, Sentara eCare® will allow us to better care for our patients in the in- and outpatient settings.”
Sentara eCare® has brought dramatic clinical improvements in hospital care, including a reduction in average length of stay for patients, a reduction in hospital readmission rates, shortened length of time from admission to bed assignments, decreased times from medication orders to administration, and prevented more than 100,000 potential medication errors across its hospitals operating on the Sentara eCare® platform.
With 87% computerized physician order entry, Sentara betters the national average. This is something Reese believes speaks directly to the improvements in patient care.
“Our entire clinical team has embraced the use of Sentara eCare® as a way to do their jobs better,” adds Reese. “It proves that efficient care can be better care.”
A total of six Davies Award winners in four categories were announced this week and will be honored during the HIMSS annual conference in February 2011.
For more health information and the latest press releases, go to the Sentara news page on Sentara.com.
Sentara eCare® Electronic Medical Record System
Hospitals & Health Networks (H&HN) magazine