The American Hospital Association has announced 2014's Most Wired Hospitals, as reported in its Hospitals & Health Networks publication. Hospitals can achieve Most Wired status by meeting specific requirements in four focus areas: infrastructure, business and administrative management, clinical quality and safety and clinical integration.
Here are eight characteristics of this year's Most Wired hospitals.
1. Eighty-two percent of Most Wired hospitals allow patients to check test results through an online portal.
2. Just over half — 53 percent — offer self-management tools through a portal for patients with chronic conditions.
3. Fifty-eight percent of Most Wired hospitals offer an mHealth app providing access to their patient portal.
4. Forty-percent of Most Wired Hospitals offer secure messaging.
5. More than three quarters — 77 percent — of Most Wired hospitals offer point-of-care documentation regarding evidence-based plan of care.
6. In point-of-care documentation, 63 percent of Most Wired hospitals embed links to relevant research and quality measures.
7. Nearly 60 percent of Most Wired hospitals have point-of-care discharge checklists that send alerts for unmet criteria.
8. Just over 80 percent of Most Wired hospitals use barcode electronic bedside medication verification.
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