UPMC has been named one of the nation’s “Digital Health Most Wired” health systems by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) for the 24th year in a row — and one of only 17 health systems to be recognized in the highest level for both ambulatory and acute settings.
The CHIME Digital Health Most Wired program conducts an annual survey to assess how effectively health care organizations use advanced technologies in their clinical and business operations to improve the health of their communities. Nearly 39,000 facilities were evaluated this year.
UPMC earned the highest score possible of a level 10 rating in both the domestic ambulatory and acute categories. To achieve this recognition, UPMC and others in this group implemented advanced technologies, including telemedicine, access to data at the bedside and cost analysis tools, and leveraged them to improve care, patient experience and access to services, while reducing costs.
UPMC Hillman Cancer Center facilities also earned high recognition with a score of 7 in the ambulatory domestic category.
“The Most Wired achievement recognizes our team’s ongoing efforts to apply technology to some of the toughest challenges in health care,” said Ed McCallister, UPMC’s chief information officer. “Throughout the pandemic, our technology investments have been key to ensuring that we can meet the needs of our patients – and we continue to look for new ways to deliver compassionate, life-changing care and insurance services.”
Over the last five years, UPMC has invested more than $2.4 billion in technologies across the health system to improve the quality and effectiveness of care. Renowned for its technology leadership, UPMC was an early adopter of electronic medical records and is pioneering advancements in biometrics, machine learning and natural language processing.
Each participating organization in the CHIME survey received an overall score, as well as scores for individual levels, in eight segments: infrastructure, security, administrative/supply chain, analytics/data management, interoperability/population health, patient engagement, clinical quality/safety and innovation.