Hospitals of Community Healthcare System earn 2020 Chime Digital Health Most Wired recognition

Hospitals of Community Healthcare System earn 2020 Chime Digital Health Most Wired recognition

The hospitals of Community Healthcare System have earned CHIME HealthCare’s 2020 Most Wired recognition, according to the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME). The CHIME designation is for achieving Performance Excellence Award Level 9 certification on a scale of one to 10. The Most Wired honor is given to hospitals and health systems that are at the forefront of using healthcare information technology to improve the delivery of care.

A total of 30,135 organizations were represented in the 2020 Digital Health Most Wired program, which this year included four separate surveys: domestic, ambulatory, long-term care, and international. The surveys assessed the adoption, integration, and impact of technologies in healthcare organizations at all stages of development, from early development to industry leading.

Community Healthcare System’s Most Wired hospitals include Community Hospital, Munster, St. Catherine Hospital, East Chicago, St. Mary Medical Center, Hobart, and specialty hospital Community Stroke & Rehabilitation Center, Crown Point, Indiana. Besides earning a Level 9 quality certification for acute care, the healthcare system also was recognized with a Level 8 in the Ambulatory care category.

“Digital technology has been a driver of innovation in healthcare for many years now, but never to the degree that we saw in 2020 with the pandemic,” said CHIME President and CEO Russell P. Branzell. “The Digital Health Most Wired program underscores why healthcare organizations keep pushing themselves to be digital leaders and shows what amazing feats they can achieve. This certification recognizes their exemplary performance in 2020.”

“This level of achievement emphasizes our ongoing commitment to providing safe, high-quality care in a compassionate and cost-effective manner for all of our patients-inpatients and outpatients,” said Donald P. Fesko, President, and CEO, Community Healthcare System.“Through the use of healthcare technology, we can effectively and efficiently streamline workflows for our providers. This enables them to focus even more on the reason we are all here; giving our patients the extraordinary care they deserve.”

Chief Information Officer Jesus Delgado said that it is very important to have healthcare and technology working hand in hand to optimize and provide the highest quality experience to patients.

“We have found that patients are looking for care from hospitals that are innovative and have high technology capabilities,” he said.

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.

“We are able to use the results from the CHIME survey and scores to identify strengths and any opportunities for improvement,” he said.

This is the third year that CHIME has conducted the survey and overseen the program. In each successive year, CHIME has expanded the survey to capture more types of organizations that serve patients across the continuum of care. CHIME also continues to promote the program internationally to provide a global overview of digital health advancements.

As in past years, CHIME publishes an industry trends report based on Digital Health’s Most Wired responses from U.S. participants. The 2020 National Trends Report is scheduled to be released in November during CHIME20 Digital. 

For more information about the CHIME Digital Health Most Wired program, click here.    

For more information about the programs and services available at the hospitals of Community Healthcare System, visit COMHS.org.