Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Sansum Clinic has been recognized for achieving Stage 6 on the EMR Adoption Model, or EMRAM, as designated by HIMSS Analytics.
HIMSS Analytics developed the outpatient EMR Adoption Model (EMRAM) in 2012 as a methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of electronic medical record systems for ambulatory facilities in the HIMSS Analytics Logic. There are eight stages (0-7) that measure an ambulatory facility’s implementation and utilization of information technology applications. The final stage, Stage 7, represents an advanced patient record environment.
As of the second quarter of 2016, 14 percent of the 38,970 ambulatory facilities in the HIMSS Analytics Logic have received the Stage 6 Award, and 10 percent have received the Stage 7 award.
Sansum Clinic was founded in 1921 and is an independent healthcare organization with more than 180 affiliated physicians and serves more than 129,000 patients, with 800,000 visits, annually at 22 patient care facilities. According to a press release from Sansum Clinic, the focus has been on building an electronic health record system with the tools necessary to help doctors and staff take care of patients and the organization has been working over the past six years to improve its EHR.
“When we submitted our work to HIMSS Analytics for ‘Staging’ we were proud to learn that our providers and executives have intuitively guided us towards Stage 7, without ever knowing it,” Sean Johnson, electronic health record director at Sansum Clinic, said in a prepared statement. “We are thrilled to be at Stage 6 and are now aggressively pursuing Stage 7.”
“HIMSS Analytics congratulates Sansum Clinic for making significant progress towards achieving advanced health IT adoption,” John Daniels, global vice president, HIMSS Analytics, said in a statement. “Stage 6 represents a level of sophistication that can lead to innovative healthcare transformation.”
According to HIMSS, Stage 6 Ambulatory hospitals have made significant executive commitments and investments to reach this stage; hold a significant advantage over competitors for patient safety, clinician support, clinician recruitment and competitive marketing for both consumers and nurse recruitment and achieved fully automated/paperless medical records when IT applications are implemented across most outpatient care settings.
In addition, Stage 6 ambulatory facilities have started to evaluate data for care delivery process improvements or have already documented significant improvements in this area; made investments that are within reach of most ambulatories and recognize the strategic value of improving patient care with EMR and started to create strategic alignments with medical staff to effectively utilize information technology to improve patient safety.
