UPMC Mercy, UPMC St. Margaret Honored for Advancing Electronic Medical Records

PITTSBURGH, June 15, 2010 – UPMC Mercy and UPMC St. Margaret join three other UPMC facilities in the elite ranks of U.S. and Canadian hospitals that have been recognized for their advanced use of a comprehensive electronic medical record (EMR) to enhance patient safety.

The two are now “Stage 6” hospitals, according to HIMSS Analytics, a not-for-profit subsidiary of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). They join UPMC Presbyterian and Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC at that level, while Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC is Stage 7, the highest classification.

HIMSS Analytics scores hospitals based on their progress in completing eight stages, from zero to seven, of a paperless patient record environment, and its studies have shown correlations between quality metrics and EMR adoption. The UPMC hospitals at Stage 6 are among only 127 facilities at that level, while Children’s is one of 39 at Stage 7, out of more than 5,700 hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics™ Database.

“This distinction honors UPMC’s extensive efforts to implement technology solutions that have the ability to improve patient safety and quality of care,” said H. Stephen Lieber, president and chief executive officer of HIMSS Analytics. “It takes executive commitment, support and a great team of health care professionals to achieve this advanced level.”

In March, UPMC Mercy completed implementation of Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) and Positive Patient Identification (PPID) systems, which have been shown to reduce medication errors. Within the first month of the implementation, 84 percent of physicians at UPMC Mercy placed all of their orders by CPOE, one of the highest and fastest adoption rates in the health system. UPMC St. Margaret, which previously implemented CPOE, added PPID to achieve Stage 6 functionality, which also includes computerized charting, a clinical data repository, decision support for clinicians and physician documentation.

“UPMC is at the forefront of health care organizations that are embracing electronic medical records to improve and ultimately transform patient care—a national priority under health care reform,” said G. Daniel Martich, M.D., chief medical information officer at UPMC. “CPOE now is deployed across nearly 70 percent of UPMC’s inpatient beds, a remarkable achievement in our development of a patient-centered electronic medical record.”

HIMSS Analytics collects data from more than 5,000 U.S. and Canadian hospitals to provide an accurate and current view of EMR implementations. HIMSS is a health care organization exclusively focused on providing leadership for the optimal use of health care information technology and management systems for the betterment of health care.

About UPMC

UPMC is an $8 billion integrated global health enterprise headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is one of the leading nonprofit health systems in the United States. As western Pennsylvania’s largest employer, with almost 50,000 employees, UPMC is transforming the economy of the region into one based on medicine, research and technology. By integrating 20 hospitals, 400 doctors’ offices and outpatient sites, long-term care facilities and a major health insurance services division, and in collaboration with its academic partner, the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC has advanced the quality and efficiency of health care and developed internationally renowned programs in transplantation, cancer, neurosurgery, psychiatry, orthopaedics and sports medicine, among others. UPMC is commercializing its medical and technological expertise by nurturing new companies, developing strategic business relationships with some of the world’s leading multinational corporations, and expanding into international markets, including Italy, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Qatar and Japan. For more information about UPMC, visit our Web site at www.upmc.com.