Sacred Heart Receives Top Recognition
Spokane, WA - For the sixth straight year, Sacred Heart Medical Center has been named among the top 100 Most Wired hospitals in the country by Hospitals & Health Networks, the journal of the American Hospital Association. Each year, the journal evaluates the nation’s hospitals on their use of information technologies to improve quality, customer service, public health and safety, business processes and workforce issues and awards the top 100 performers.
Only four hospitals in Washington state were recognized this year. Joining Sacred Heart on the list are Mount Carmel Hospital in Colville, St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute in Spokane and PeaceHealth System Center in Bellevue. Kootenai Medical Center in Coeur d’Alene was also named; one of only two hospitals in Idaho to make the list.
Lending particular significance to this year’s award is a survey conducted by Solucient, one of the nation’s largest sources of health care intelligence, which found that hospitals that have made significant investments in information technology have lower mortality rates than other facilities. In fact, “Most Wired” hospitals have a risk-adjusted mortality rate that is 7.2 percent lower than other hospitals, clearly demonstrating the important role technology plays in patient quality improvement.
During her recent visit to Sacred Heart, Senator Maria Cantwell was clearly impressed with the way information technology had advanced patient care, including the use of laptops in the rooms to record and recover patient records; the use of wireless PDAs to monitor vital signs and medical conditions by physicians; and the hospital’s electronic pharmacy system. “Spokane is already on the cutting edge of technology … even more than some parts of Seattle,” she said.
Citing the recently-introduced Health Information Technology Improvement Act, which she helped introduce earlier this month, Cantwell said the $100 million provided over the next two years will help smaller hospitals gain access to information systems and set national standards for the way data is shared among health care providers, ensuring security and privacy.
“Better technology can cut costs, eliminate duplication of services and reduce costly errors,” said the Senator. “Many Washington state hospitals have been leaders in technology, but we need to make sure our community health centers also have access to this level of patient care.”
Sacred Heart Medical Center is a nonprofit, Catholic hospital founded by the Sisters of Providence in 1886. With 623 beds, Sacred Heart is the largest advanced care medical facility between Seattle and Minneapolis and the second largest hospital in the state (Swedish Medical Center in Seattle is the largest). Each year, approximately 25,000 patients are admitted and emergency treatment is provided for nearly 46,000 people.
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