10/15/2015
UPMC and four individual hospitals within the health system have been recognized as being among the “most connected hospitals” for 2015-16 by U.S. News & World Report. The list includes Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, UPMC Hamot, UPMC McKeesport and UPMC St. Margaret.
The hospitals are among 158 that met U.S. News’ standards, spanning clinical connectedness, patient engagement and patient safety.
“As one of the nation’s pioneers in the adoption of electronic medical records, UPMC is pleased to receive this recognition from U.S. News,” said UPMC Chief Information Officer Ed McCallister. “Thanks to the dedication of our talented clinicians and information technology staff, we are continually implementing or creating technologies that are transforming the delivery of care and the patient experience.”
To be identified as one of the most connected hospitals, U.S. News analyzed 56 variables, including the ability to share data with other providers, to improve patient safety through computerization and to engage patients in their own care by providing electronic access to data. It then assigned domain-specific scores and an overall score to each hospital for which it could obtain data from the most recent American Hospital Association information technology survey. Hospitals that earned at least 70 out of 75 points in the 2014 survey or 55 out of 61 points in the 2013 survey and that also achieved a national ranking or high-performing recognition in the current edition of Best Hospitals, Best Hospitals for Common Care or Best Children’s Hospitals were recognized as Most Connected Hospitals.
In July 2015, UPMC was once again named to the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll of America’s “Best Hospitals,” earning 13th position. In June 2015, Children’s was named for the sixth consecutive year to the publication’s Honor Roll of America's “Best Children's Hospitals.” Children's Hospital ranked eighth in the nation overall.
Over the past five years, UPMC has invested more than $1.5 billion in technology to support clinical excellence and administrative efficiency. UPMC is one of the nation’s earliest and most sophisticated users of electronic medical records, and has been recognized for 16 consecutive years as a “Most Wired” health system by Hospitals & Health Networks, the journal of the American Hospital Association. Through its Information Services Division and its commercialization arm, UPMC Enterprises, UPMC leverages technology such as telemedicine, cloud computing, enterprise analytics and ongoing eRecord improvements, to not only raise the standard of patient care, but to positively impact the future of health care.
Andrea Kunicky, 412-692-6254, andrea.kunicky@chp.edu
Wendy Zellner, 412-586-9777, zellnerWL@upmc.edu