On Tuesday, U.S. News & World Report released its "Most Connected Hospitals" list featuring 118 facilities, U.S. News & World Report reports.
The hospitals included on the list are both clinically high-performing and advanced in their implementation of electronic health record systems, according to U.S. News.
To compile the listing, U.S. News staff compared highly ranked facilities in its "Best Hospitals" and "Best Children's Hospitals" lists with a list of early EHR adopters released by HIMSS Analytics, a division of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.
HIMSS Analytics evaluates hospitals by how far they have progressed in incorporating health IT into areas of clinical care. The hospitals are assessed on a scale of zero through seven. Stage 7 hospitals have fully implemented health IT and no longer use any form of paper chart to manage patient care, while Stage 0 hospitals have not begun using health IT.
According to HIMSS, about 1% of U.S. hospitals are at Stage 7, and 3.5% are at Stage 6.
For the U.S. News list, a hospital was defined as "most connected" if the entire hospital or one major unit has:
- Achieved either Stage 6 or Stage 7 EHR adoption; and
- Been named as a national Best Hospital or Best Children's Hospital, or met another high-performing designation in one or more specialties.
The Most Connected Hospitals list does not rank the hospitals but does specify whether the facility was at Stage 6 or Stage 7 of EHR adoption.
The full list is available online (U.S. News & World Report, 7/18).