CentraCare Health honored for use of technology

CentraCare Health – St. Cloud Hospital was named one of the nation’s “2017 Most Wired hospitals” by Hospitals & Health Networks magazine. St. Cloud Hospital was selected out of a pool of 698 participants that represent an estimated 2,158 hospitals across the United States.

“This recognition is the result of the excellent collaboration between our Information Systems staff and the health care providers throughout CentraCare Health and the St. Cloud medical community,” said Amy Porwoll, vice president of Information Systems for CentraCare Health. “We are proud of this recognition and the great work done by our staff.”

New tools are helping patients become more actively involved in their care and maintaining their health according to results of the 19th Annual Health Care’s Most Wired^® survey, released by the American Hospital Association’s Health Forum.

According to the survey, Most Wired hospitals are using smart phones, telehealth and remote monitoring to create more ways for patients to access health care services and capture health information. This year’s results show:

• 76 percent offer secure messaging with clinicians on mobile devices.
• When patients need ongoing monitoring at home, 74 percent use secure e-mails for patients and families to keep in touch with the care team.
• 68 percent simplify prescription renewals by letting patients make requests on mobile devices.
• 62 percent add data reported by patients to the electronic health record to get a better picture of what is going on with the patient.
• Nearly half of the hospitals are using telehealth to provide behavioral health services to more patients.
• 40 percent offer virtual physician visits.
• More than 40 percent provide real-time care management services to patients at home for diabetes and congestive heart failure.

Innovation in patient care embraces emerging technologies and underscores the need for secure patient information exchange. Hospitals have increased their use of sophisticated IT monitoring systems to detect patient privacy breaches, monitor for malicious activities or policy violations and produce real-time analysis of security alerts.

• 97 percent use intrusion detection systems.
• 96 percent perform data access audits.
• Nearly 90 percent run targeted phishing exercises to teach employees to question suspicious emails.

Detailed results of the survey and study can be found in the July issue of H&HN. For a full list of winners, visit www.hhnmag.com.

About the Most Wired Survey 
The 2017 Most Wired Survey is conducted in cooperation with the American Hospital Association and Clearwater Compliance, LLC. The survey, conducted between Jan. 15 and March 15, 2017, is a leading industry barometer measuring information technology (IT) use and adoption among hospitals nationwide. The survey examines how organizations are leveraging IT to improve performance for value-based health care in the areas of infrastructure, business and administrative management; quality and safety; and clinical integration.

About the American Hospital Association 
The AHA is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations and individuals that are committed to the improvement of health in their communities. The AHA is the national advocate for its members, which include nearly 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks and other providers of care. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. For more information, visit www.aha.org.

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