UNC Health Care, an integrated health care system based in Chapel Hill, N.C., has achieved Stage 7 designation on the HIMSS Analytics’ Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM).
HIMSS Analytics is the research arm of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). HIMSS Analytics developed the EMRAM in 2005 as a methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of electronic medical records on health systems around the world. Tracking their progress in completing eight stages (0-7), hospitals can review the implementation and utilization of information and technology applications culminating with Stage 7, which represents an advanced electronic patient record environment.
UNC Health Care is comprised of UNC Hospitals and its provider network and ten other hospitals and hospital systems across the state of North Carolina. According to UNC Health Care officials, the healthcare system is the only health system in the U.S. to achieve Stage 7 status on all three HIMSS Analytics domains (inpatient, outpatient, analytics).
“Achieving Stage 7 recognition further reinforces the success our teams have reached in building an information technology infrastructure that enhances the ability of our providers, care teams, and staff to care for our patients,” Tracy Parham, R.N., UNC Health Care’s CIO.
The Stage 7 designations for UNC Health Care include its hospitals and associated clinics at Caldwell Memorial Hospital in Lenoir, Chatham Hospital in Siler City, High Point Regional, Pardee Hospital in Hendersonville, UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough, and UNC REX in Raleigh.
At each of these hospitals, the awards recognize the utilization of a complete EMR infrastructure, including external Health Information Exchanges (HIEs), advanced data and analytics, and comprehensive plans and support in place for information technology governance, disaster recovery, privacy, and security, according to health system officials.
“Starting in 2012 and 2013, our focus centered on establishing system-wide information systems and building baseline capabilities,” Bill Roper, M.D., Dean of the UNC School of Medicine and CEO of the UNC Health Care System, said in a statement. “Now, just five years later, we are recognized as national leaders in health IT by multiple organizations. I am incredibly proud of the work of Tracy and her team in our Information Services Division.”
Parham stressed that the awards are part of the larger goal of continually improving UNC Health Care’s technology platforms and analytics offerings.
“Most importantly, these rankings represent real and meaningful benefits for our patients in terms of quality, safety, and overall care,” Parham said. “We take great pride in knowing that this award recognizes our efforts to achieve UNC Health Care’s vision of becoming the nation’s leading public academic health system.”
UNC Health Care is one of 40 health systems nationwide collaborating with Apple (and one of only 10 in the beta test group) to allow patients to easily download their electronic health record data from the My UNC Chart patient portal and integrate the data with Apple’s existing personal data tracking and reporting features in the iOS Health app. This feature is available to all UNC Health Care patients with an active My UNC Chart account and an iPhone running iOS 11.3 or later.
