August 21, 2003
HACKENSACK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER HONORED FOR USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Hackensack University Medical Center has been named one of the nation’s Most Wired hospitals according to the 2003 Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study, released by Hospitals & Health Networks magazine. 

“Hospitals are empowering patients with information and providing tools to doctors and nurses to improve quality,” says Alden Solovy, executive editor of Hospitals & Health Networks, the journal of the American Hospital Association, which has named the 100 Most Wired hospitals and health systems annually for five years.

“Being named a Most Wired hospital is the result of real teamwork,” said John P. Ferguson, president and chief executive officer at the medical center. “This teamwork extends to the entire medical center family which understands and recognizes that having the most up-to-date information technology at our fingertips is crucial to providing the best possible care for our patients.”

The 100 Most Wired are providing Web-based patient education at the bedside, disease-specific self-assessments online and are linking clinical equipment to feed patient readings directly into the medical record. 

“This is the fifth year in a row that the medical center has been selected to this prestigious list,” said Lex Ferrauiola of Tenafly, vice president of Information Technology and chief information officer at Hackensack University Medical Center. “Our inclusion, not just this year, but for the past five years in a row speaks to the commitment of our administration and our entire team at Hackensack University Medical Center.” 

The survey was conducted by Hospitals & Health Networks, in cooperation with McKesson Corporation and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). It measures the nation’s hospitals on their use of Internet technologies for safety and quality, customer service, disaster readiness, business processes and workforce issues.

“Hospitals are investing in IT to help them achieve their strategic objectives, especially in the areas of quality, safety and efficiency,” says Barry P. Chaiken, M.D., vice president, medical affairs, for the Information Solutions division of McKesson. “There’s a strong and growing recognition of the value that comes from having the right information at the point of care. That value takes the form of greater care team efficiency, less variability and fewer errors, and ultimately improved health outcomes.”

Results from the survey were used to name the 100 Most Wired, the 25 Most Improved, the 25 Most Wireless and the 25 Most Wired—Small and Rural. More than 400 health systems responded to the survey, representing 1,128 hospitals or 19 percent of U.S. hospitals.

The 100 Most Wired are the organizations that scored highest on the survey. The 25 Most Wireless are those that scored highest on the survey questions specific to wireless applications. The 25 Most Improved are organizations not appearing on the 100 Most Wired list whose score improved the most from 2002 to 2003. The 25 Most Wired—Small and Rural are small and rural organizations not appearing on the 100 Most Wired list that scored highest on the survey. Ties in the Most Wireless and Most Wired—Small and Rural categories resulted in longer lists.

Hackensack University Medical Center, a 683-bed teaching and research hospital affiliated with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - New Jersey Medical School and a member of the New Jersey Council of Teaching Hospitals, is the largest provider of inpatient and outpatient services in the state of New Jersey. 

Hackensack University Medical Center is one of the first two hospitals in the nation to receive The Governor’s Gold Award for Performance Excellence. The Quality New Jersey’s 2001 award is based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award established by the U.S. Congress in 1987 to improve organizational performance and to enhance the nation’s ability in the global marketplace. This is the highest award level and indicative that the medical center has sound systematic approaches and fact-based improvement processes in place. 
 

 

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