Seoul National University Bundang Hospital in South Korea has been named by HIMSS Analytics as the first hospital in Asia and the first hospital outside the U.S. to achieve stage 7 of its electronic medical record (EMR) adoption program.
The announcement was made at the recent HIMSS Asia10 Health IT Congress and Leadership Summit held in Daegu, South Korea.
HIMSS Analytics, headquartered in Chicago, developed an EMR Adoption Model (EMRAM) to objectively measure the progress of hospitals and health systems in converting from paper-based to electronic medical records. It scores hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics database on their progress in completing the eight stages to create an advanced electronic patient record environment.
As of November 2010, the 52 hospitals that have reached stage 7 represent best-practice examples of how to implement sophisticated electronic medical environments that fully engage their clinicians and staff. These hospitals operate in a paperless environment and perform electronic data transfer of patient records and billing. They also use their clinical information databases to improve delivery care performance, enhance patient safety clinical decision support, and improve patient outcomes, according to HIMSS Analytics.
Ninety percent of physicians affiliated with the 910-bed Seoul National University Bundang Hospital use structured templates to enter patient health information into its EMR database. The hospital uses only four full-time equivalent medical transcriptionists to support inpatient activity, outpatient activity generated from more than 4,000 patient visits per day, and 70,000 diagnostic imaging procedures performed each month.
A clinical data warehouse supports the use of more than 250 quality assurance clinical indicators, and a radiofrequency identification system is used to maintain patient safety with the dispensing of barcoded prescription medications.
In its November 19 announcement, HIMSS Analytics also reported that it has started to collect data on electronic health record implementation from all hospitals in Korea.
By Cynthia E. Keen
AuntMinnie.com staff writer
November 22, 2010
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Canadian hospital hits HIMSS milestone, August 6, 2009
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