CHiME recognizes Healthcare System for commitment to technology

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) has announced Riverside Healthcare has earned 2021 CHIME Digital Health Most Wired recognition. Riverside received the award and is certified as an Acute Level 8 Quality organization. The CHIME Digital Health Most Wired program conducts an annual survey to assess how well healthcare organizations apply technologies to improve health and care in their communities. 2021 marks the 5th consecutive year Riverside has been named Most Wired.

"Despite working behind the scenes for most patient care, our IT and IS teams are very dedicated to the patient experience. Being named Most Wired is a reflection of their commitment," said Riverside President and CEO Phil Kambic. "This recognition shows that we are on track with providing our employees, patients and the community with the latest technology."

Over the past year, Information Services at Riverside has tackled some key projects. Most of these projects go on behind the scenes. While most are unaware of these improvements, they can significantly improve patient safety and experience. One such project involved Riverside successfully implementing new vital signs monitors in the hospital, allowing vitals to be taken at the bedside and transferred into patient records automatically. This eliminates the need for clinician data entry and potential errors.

Riverside's Information Services also implemented new speech recognition software for doctors to use speech-to-text, allowing for quicker and more accurate transcriptions into patient records. The Information team also partnered with Glytec, a glucose monitoring system. Together they developed a way to integrate monitoring into patient records. The result removed redundancy, assuring accuracy and increasing patient safety.

Additionally, the team implemented some features that users of the myRiverside myChart are sure to recognize, including:

• a Fast Pass notification which alerts patients of earlier appointment openings
• Invite Proxy, giving patients the ability to grant access to other family members or caregivers
• and electronic health risk assessment questionnaires, eliminating unnecessary paperwork and improving claims.

"Our teams have continued to work hard on improving technology and security for the entire health system," said Kyle Hansen, MBA, CHCIO, Director of Information Services. "It's a consistently ongoing process, as technology improves, we seek to stay at the forefront of what is best for our patients."

Each participating organization received a customized benchmarking report, an overall score and scores for individual levels in eight segments: infrastructure; security; business/disaster recovery; administrative/supply chain; analytics/data management; interoperability/population health; patient engagement; and clinical quality/safety. Participants can use the report and scores to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement. Participants also received certification based on their overall performance, with level 10 being the highest.