News
July 15, 2015Albany Medical Center Named 2015 Most Wired
Albany Medical Center has been named one of the Most Wired Hospitals in the nation in the 17th annual Health Care’s Most Wired Survey, conducted by Hospitals & Health Networks.
Albany Med is one of only 15 hospitals in New York State to receive this designation, which is awarded based on a survey of hospitals’ uses of technology in infrastructure, business and administrative management, clinical quality and patient safety, and clinical integration. It is also one of only 338 hospitals in the nation to receive the designation.
“Albany Med has worked to put the most advanced technologies in place so we can offer the very best patient care possible,” said George Hickman, executive vice president and chief information officer at Albany Med. “Our efforts allow us to continue to deliver the latest and most current procedures and care practices.”
The survey found that health data security and patient engagement are top priorities for the nation’s hospitals. According to the survey, hospitals are taking more aggressive privacy and security measures to protect and safeguard patient data. Top growth areas in security among this year’s Most Wired organizations include privacy audit systems, provisioning systems, data loss prevention, single sign-on and identity management.
“Implementing advanced technology is critical to meeting Albany Med’s high standards for care delivery, research and teaching,” said Dennis P. McKenna, M.D., medical director of Albany Medical Center. “As the region’s only academic health sciences center, Albany Med is committed to remaining on the leading edge of technology.”
According to the survey, physician portals are a key factor in strengthening physician-hospital alignment. In 84 percent of Most Wired organizations, physicians can view and exchange other facilities’ results through a physician portal, compared with 63 percent of hospitals surveyed, and 81 percent can communicate with patients via email or alerts in contrast to 63 percent of all survey respondents.
The 2015 Most Wired Survey, conducted between Jan. 15 and March 15, asked hospitals and health systems nationwide to answer questions regarding their IT initiatives. Respondents completed 741 surveys, representing more than 39 percent of all U.S. hospitals.
The July H&HN cover story detailing results is available at www.hhnmag.com.
About the AHA
The American Hospital Association (AHA) is the national organization that represents and serves all types of hospitals, health care networks, and their patients and communities. Nearly 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks, other providers of care and 43,000 individual members come together to form the AHA. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. For more information, please visit www.aha.org.
About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior health care IT leaders. With more than 1,500 CIO members and over 150 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and health care in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.chimecentral.org.
About Health Forum
Health Forum is a strategic business enterprise of the American Hospital Association, creatively partnering to develop and deliver essential information and innovative services to help health care leaders achieve organizational performance excellence and sustainability. For more information, please visit www.healthforum.com
About the Sponsor
VMware is a global leader in cloud infrastructure and business mobility. Built on industry-leading virtualization technology, VMware offers a new model of IT that is fluid, instant and more secure. Customers can innovate faster by rapidly developing, automatically delivering and more safely consuming any application. With 2014 revenues of $6 billion, VMware has more than 500,000 customers and 75,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.
Albany Medical Center, northeastern New York’s only academic health sciences center, is one of the largest private employers in the Capital Region. It incorporates the 734-bed Albany Medical Center Hospital, which offers the widest range of medical and surgical services in the region, and the Albany Medical College, which trains the next generation of doctors, scientists and other health care professionals, and also includes a biomedical research enterprise and the region’s largest physicians practice with more than 450 doctors. Albany Medical Center works with dozens of community partners to improve the region’s health and quality of life. For more information: www.amc.edu or www.facebook.com/albanymedicalcenter.
