News Feature | July 24, 2015

Hospitals ‘Wired' For Patient Engagement, Data Security

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Ease Patient Sharing Information

The 17th Annual HealthCare’s Most Wired Survey finds the top hospitals are most concerned with engaging their patients and securing data.

The results are in and, according to the 17th annual Healthcare’s Most Wired Survey, hospitals are most concerned about how they can better engage patients and ways to protect their data. “With the rising number of patient data breaches and cybersecurity attacks threatening the healthcare industry, protecting patient health information is a top priority for hospital customers,” said Frank Nydam, Senior Director of Healthcare at VMware. “Coupled with the incredible technology innovation taking place today, healthcare organizations need to have security as a foundational component of their mobility, cloud and networking strategy and incorporated into the very fabric of the organization.”

Fierce Health IT reports 741 participants, representing more than 2,213 hospitals were surveyed. Some key findings of the survey include:

  • In 84 percent of Most Wired organizations, physicians can view and exchange other facilities’ results in the portal compared with 63 percent of hospitals surveyed.
  • 76 percent use the portal and electronic health record (EHR) to exchange results with other EHRs and health information exchanges compared to 56 percent of those surveyed.
  • 81 percent can communicate with patients via email or alerts in contrast to 63 percent of all respondents.
  • 67 percent of Most Wired hospitals offer the ability to incorporate patient-generated data.
  • 63 percent offer self-management tools for chronic conditions.
  • 60 percent offer patient-specific education in multiple languages.

The winners of the Most Wired list include hospitals which exhibit high standards in the following categories: infrastructure; business and administrative management; clinical quality and safety (inpatient/outpatient hospital); and clinical integration (ambulatory/physician/patient/community).

“We commend and congratulate this year’s Most Wired hospitals and their CIOs for improving care delivery and outcomes in our nation’s hospitals through their creative and revolutionary uses of technology,” said CHIME CEO and President Russell P. Branzell, FCHIME CHCIO. “These Most Wired organizations represent excellence in IT leadership on the frontlines of healthcare transformation.”