TSSO honored with Stage 6 recognition from HIMSS Analytics
TransForm Shared Service Organization facilities attain HIMSS EMRAM Stage 6 distinction.
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics recently announced that four TransForm Shared Service Organization (TSSO) facilities (Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, Erie Shores HealthCare, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare and Windsor Regional Hospital) achieved the HIMSS Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) Stage 6 distinction, an international benchmark for the use of advanced IT to improve patient care.
“TransForm is pleased to have led the Oracle Health implementation for the four hospitals in Erie St. Clair. Our partnership with the leaders, physicians, and staff resulted in achieving HIMSS Stage 6, a globally accepted standard of electronic medical record adoption. The dedication of our partner hospitals in using Oracle Health every day to deliver safe and efficient care for our patients is evident in this achievement,” says Lyn Baluyot, vice president and chief transformation officer, TSSO.
HIMSS is a global healthcare advisor that developed the EMRAM to evaluate the progress and impact of electronic health record systems for hospitals. Tracking their progress in completing eight stages (0-7), hospitals can review the implementation and utilization of information technology toward reaching the highest level, Stage 7, which represents an advanced electronic patient record environment. TransForm facilities leaped from Stage 2 to Stage 6 with the Oracle Health implementation.
"Hospitals recognized as a Stage 6 by HIMSS Analytics serve as role models in health care IT adoption for other health care systems just beginning this process," says Baluyot.
The Stage 6 accreditation demonstrates that electronic physician documentation has been installed throughout the entire hospital with structured documentation templates, which help physicians to point-and-click from a standardized selection of options that facilitate future reporting and data analysis. Physicians have achieved 92.5% electronic documentation in Q4 2021 and nurses 100% in 2021.
Clinical decision support systems and closed-loop medication administration contribute to the delivery of safer and more effective patient care. Order sets that include evidence-based best practices were used 214,484 times in 2021. These order sets are aligned to choosing wisely and quality-based procedures reaching 87.3% of order entries in Q4 2021 by all providers in all four facilities.
Because the safety of patients is always paramount, the Oracle Health implementation helped TSSO achieve significant quality levels regarding medications. Communicating effectively about them is a critical component in delivering safe care by preventing harm from adverse drug events. TSSO achieved a discharge medication reconciliation rate of 84.7% in 2021.
Getting the timing of medication right can be as crucial as the medication itself, so making sure that the right patient receives the right medication and the right dose at the right time is key. Using technology to verify all these via barcode scanning of both patient and medications eliminates human error – such as delayed ward rounds or misread charts – with TSSO achieving 79% scanning compliance in 2021.
The goal is reaching Stage 7, which is operating in an environment where paper charts are not used, to manage the delivery of patient care. Clinical data is used for performance improvement and analytics of care delivery.
"To date, there are only 16 Canadian hospitals at HIMSS Stage 6 and three at HIMSS Stage 7. Our four hospitals have now joined this elite group of Stage 6,” says Baluyot. “With our goal to achieve Stage 7, we will be among the leading 261 HIMSS Stage 7 organizations globally. We know this will take considerable effort, dedication, and investment in order to achieve this high standard. However, Stage 7 indicates that not only is the organization utilizing the system to provide care for patients, but using the data it collects and turning it into actionable information—making real change to the way care is provided to patients."
Within all four hospitals, over 1,000 beds and 18,000 staff were now using the Oracle Health EHR to provide for almost 600,000 citizens in the region. The previously autonomous entities have now standardized best practices and transformed the care they give, resulting in patient data being accessible between sites.
"We are delighted to be TSSO's partner in this highly successful transformative implementation,” says Brian Sandager, vice president, Oracle Health in Canada. “The highly engaged healthcare organizations in the Erie St. Clair region of Ontario came together to transform care delivery from a largely paper-based environment to the second-highest level of technology enablement possible: HIMSS EMRAM Stage 6. None of this could have been achieved without the full dedication of the front-line staff—even during the pandemic—to make this project come to reality. Work is not finished yet. As a continuous learning organization, TSSO and Oracle Health will continue to work together to optimize the system for the improved experience of the patients and providers across the region."