Deaconess has been named a Level 9 ‘Most Wired’ healthcare organization for the first time, after being on the ‘Most Wired’ list for 9 consecutive years. 

Only 71 hospitals nationwide received this level of recognition from the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), as part of the organization’s 2020 Healthcare’s Most Wired program.

CHIME’s Most Wired list recognizes healthcare organizations that have adopted and deployed IT to improve patient safety and health outcomes across the industry.  In 2020, many organizations reported IT innovations related to pandemic response support, but many other advancements were related to overall clinical decision support, operations and quality. 

At Deaconess, the Informatics & Technology Services and Clinical Informatics & Data Analytics teams collaborated with many departments to complete initiatives that contributed to this Level 9 designation. 

A key focus in 2020 was on enhancing the patient experience, introducing and expanding many tools to engage patients and their families online and through mobile apps.  Examples include:

• Remote Patient Monitoring, in which Deaconess provided patients with smart devices in their homes, allowing a coordinated team to monitor their condition and progress.
• Exponential growth of telehealth services, from the initial implementation of Deaconess Clinic LIVE, to expanding services throughout the health system; in 2020, Deaconess providers completed more than 65,000 telehealth visits. 
• Drive-through COVID-19 testing sites, with all new online process for scheduling and processing results, were developed in a very short timeframe; since the beginning of the pandemic, these sites have conducted more than 170,000 tests.
• MyChart, the Deaconess patient portal, grew from 130,000 users to more than 208,000 users last year, allowing patients to utilize expanded service such as e-Check-in, online bill pay, and Find Care Now.

Multiple technology and process advancements provided much-needed information to help better inform clinical decision support and operational efficiency, as well as providing metrics to monitor progress on a variety of initiatives, such as:

• Real-time dashboards and analytics tools were deployed in the areas of clinical quality measures, population health and patient engagement
• Four predictive analysis tools were deployed, leading to the utilization of AI to help identify patients at risk of complications or worsening disease.

All of this was accomplished while also successfully transitioning more than 800 Deaconess employees to a long-term, flexible remote work environment. 

The mission of the CHIME “Digital Health Most Wired” program is to elevate the health and care of communities around the world by encouraging the optimal use of information technology. The program conducts an annual survey to identify, recognize, and certify the adoption, implementation, and use of information technology by healthcare provider organizations. The results are intended to improve patient safety and outcomes by driving change in the healthcare IT industry.

Details about the certification levels and results of the survey and study can be found on the CHIME website.