HIMSS Analytics recognizes 17 Banner Health facilities with Stage 7 award

Seventeen Banner Health facilities have achieved Stage 7, the final stage in the adoption of electronic medical record (EMR) as acknowledged by HIMSS Analytics, a wholly owned nonprofit subsidiary of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. HIMSS Analytics monitors and recognizes levels of EMR adoption and meaningful use in hospitals in the United States, Canada and other countries.

The Stage 7 recognition by HIMSS Analytics is a compelling example of Banner Health's emergence as a national leader in health care.  Banner Health's 17 Stage 7 hospitals are among only 82 hospitals in the nation at this top level of EMR use. Banner is also recognized by Thomson Reuters as a Top Five Large Health System in the nation and as a Top Leadership Team/Large System by HealthLeaders magazine.

"While achieving HIMSS Stage 7 for 17 of Banner's 23 hospitals is an important organizational achievement, the most important beneficiaries are our patients," said Banner Health's Executive Vice President/Chief Medical Officer John Hensing, M.D. "Our meaningful use of enhanced electronic medical records is integrated into our patient care processes and even targeted to help our clinicians proactively recognize and treat specific and dangerous disorders such as sepsis and delirium," he added.

Banner Health facilities that have achieved Stage 7 status include:

• Banner Baywood Medical Center (Mesa, Ariz.)
• Banner Boswell Medical Center (Sun City, Ariz.)
• Banner Desert Medical Center (Mesa, Ariz.)
• Banner Del E. Webb Medical Center (Sun City, Ariz.)
• Banner Estrella Medical Center (Phoenix)
• Banner Gateway Medical Center (Gilbert, Ariz.)
• Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center (Phoenix)
• Banner Heart Hospital (Mesa, Ariz.)
• Banner Ironwood Medical Center (San Tan Valley, Ariz.)
• Banner Thunderbird Medical Center (Glendale, Ariz.)
• East Morgan County Hospital (Brush, Colo.)
• McKee Medical Center (Loveland, Colo.)
• North Colorado Medical Center (Greeley, Colo.)
• Page Hospital (Page, Ariz.)
• Platte County Memorial Hospital (Wheatland, Wyo.)
• Community Hospital (Torrington, Wyo.)
• Washakie Medical Center (Worland, Wyo.)

In order to obtain the final stage in the EMR adoption, hospitals must be paperless and be able to share clinical information with other health care facilities, networks, clinics, employers, payers and patients. At this stage, health care organizations also can store and analyze data to use to improve clinical outcomes and patient experience. 

HIMSS Analytics surveyors conducted an on-site review of Banner's EMR technologies at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center located in Phoenix. Since nearly all Banner facilities have the same level of EMR adoption and usage, surveyors were able to judge facility capabilities across the system based on their findings at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center.

Four more Banner Health facilities will achieve Stage 7 this summer once they have implemented using bar-coding technology for patient identification and medications administration. The remaining facilities will achieve Stage 7 in 2013.

SOURCE Banner Health