MASSENA -- Massena Memorial Hospital has been recognized as one of the nation’s “most wired” according to the results of the 2010 Most Wired Survey in the July issue of Hospitals & Health Networks magazine.

According the survey, hospitals understand the importance of health information technology and the benefits of its widespread adoption, yet they still face significant barriers to implementation.

Hospital CEO Charles F. Fahd, II said, “The Information Systems Department has made significant gains with the implementation of bedside medication verification, physician office integration, and ongoing training with clinical review and computerized physician oder entry, CPOE. In addition, a new interactive website (www.massenahospital.org) was designed offering convenient tools such as online pre-registration, bill pay, apply for a job online, search for a physician and patient education. All meaningful use requirements that we have implemented and are implementing improve quality of care and patient safety goals. We are changing ‘the way we do healthcare,’ which enables us to continue delivering the highest level of quality of healthcare. The entire Information Systems department is honored to be selected to Health Care’s Most Wired 2010. We are pleased to accept this award along with being recognized as Most Wired-Small and Rural in 2007.”

This year’s survey reveals continued progress for hospitals in patient safety initiatives:

• Fifty-one percent of medication orders were done electronically by physicians at Most Wired hospitals, up from 49 percent last year.

• Over half (55 percent) of Most Wired hospitals match medication orders at the bedside through bar coding or radio-frequency identification, up from 49 percent in 2009 and from 23 percent five years ago.

• Most Wired hospitals have made improvements when it comes to sharing information during care transitions. For example, new medication lists are electronically delivered to caregivers and patients 94 percent of the time when a patient is transferred within the hospital, 98 percent at discharge and 86 percent when transferred to another care setting.

“The survey results highlight that continued progress is being made but the full potential of health IT has not been meet,” says Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association (AHA). “Hospitals embrace health IT and recognize the many benefits it can provide to patients, but even Most Wired hospitals face barriers to adoption. We have asked that the federal government stimulate greater adoption by making Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments more widely available to hospitals and physicians so more hospitals can move in this direction.”

Survey results speak to the fact that the full potential of health IT has not been met and that the use of electronic medical record (EHR) functions is still not widespread, even with independent physicians who practice within hospitals. For Most Wired hospitals, only 43 percent of independent physician practices have the ability to electronically document medical records, 41 percent have computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and 44 percent have decision support.

For more information about Massena Memorial Hospital, please call the Public Relations Department at 769-4262 or log onto the new interactive website at www.massenahospital.org.