For hospitals and health systems, HIMSS stage 7 is the ultimate benchmark. It means clinical information can be shared electronically among entities, and data is being leveraged to improve care quality, patient safety, and process performance. It’s a badge of honor that any IT department would be proud to wear, as it evidenced in the press releases sent out by organizations that have received it.
But while most CIOs have long been sold on the merits of reaching stage 7, others in the organization, from C-suite members to clinicians, may not always see the value in an initiative that isn’t directly tied to funding. And even for some CIOs, the once-valued benchmark has taken a back seat to Meaningful Use.
These are precisely the people Ed Ricks and Joel Benware hope to reach in their presentation, during which they will discuss their strategies as they strive to reach stage 7, and the cultural shift required to obtain staff buy-in. Ricks is VP and CIO at Beaufort Memorial Hospital, and Benware is VP of Information Systems & Compliance at Northwestern Medical Center — both are Stage 6 organizations.
The biggest case, according to Ricks, comes in the “tipping point” in quality initiatives and value-based purchasing for organizations that reach Stage 7. The difference in operating margin among facilities that have become more efficient with their use of IT is “what really jumps off the page,” he notes.
So why is it a tough sell?
“For the most part, no one else in the organization cares if you’re HIMSS stage 7 or stage 2. It’s not really meaningful to people unless you can wrap around organizationally what that means you’ve achieved,” says Ricks. The challenge lies in communicating that successfully implementing and utilizing systems such as EHRs can result in improvements in patient safety and care quality, as well as cost savings. “You don’t get those rewards for getting to that level; you get rewards for doing the work that gets you to that level. That’s what people don’t realize.”
In the presentation, Ricks and Benware will talk about the key obstacles they’ve faced in attaining stage 6 — including achieving 90 percent CPOE, bedside medication verification and CCD exchange, how they’re meeting these challenges, and why they believe it’s important to reach the next level.
“We’re 2 stage 6 hospitals talking about why we think it’s important to strive for stage 7,” said Ricks. But “we’re not putting in efforts to reaching Stage 7. We’re aligning our efforts with what’s right organizationally, and by doing those things, the unexpected – or perhaps, expected – consequences are that you’ll attain stage 7.”
Ricks and Benware will discuss their organizations’ journeys during their presentation, on Friday, Oct. 16 at 11:15 a.m.
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