WVU Medicine hospitals recognized for technological advancement

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Several WVU Medicine hospitals have been recognized for their advances in healthcare information technology (IT). 

“WVU Medicine has made significant investments in the technology behind our patient care to stay at the front of industry standards and best practices,” Jim Venturella, vice president and chief information officer of WVU Medicine, said. “We see technology as a way to improve the quality of care. It’s good to see our commitment and the hard work of our IT professionals be recognized by leading industry organizations.”

WVU Medicine is in the midst of a nearly two-year project to implement Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system-wide. This includes bringing United Hospital Center, Potomac Valley Hospital, St. Joseph’s Hospital, and Camden Clark Medical Center onto Epic this fall. Reynolds Memorial Hospital will be added in a later phase.

MyWVUChart, WVU Medicine’s online patient portal through Epic, will also become available to patients anywhere in the system. Patients will be able to view their medical records, prescriptions, and test results from all WVU Medicine clinics or hospitals, as well as schedule appointments, request prescription refills, and pay bills, in one convenient place. For more information about MyWVUChart, visit wvumedicine.org/mywvuchart.

Thanks in part to this project, several WVU Medicine facilities have received two different healthcare IT recognitions. 

WVU Medicine-WVU Hospitals, UHC, Berkeley Medical Center, Jefferson Medical Center, and Camden Clark were all named among the 2017 Health Care’s Most Wired®.

The 19th Annual Health Care’s Most Wired® survey, released by the American Hospital Association’s (AHA) Health Forum and published in Hospitals & Health Networks, the journal of the AHA, recognizes leaders in healthcare IT. The winners are considered ahead of the curve in infrastructure, business and administrative management, quality and safety, and clinical integration.

This is WVU Hospitals’ seventh straight year on the list, third for UHC, second for Berkeley Medical Center and Jefferson Medical Center, and first since 2008 for Camden Clark. 

In addition, UHC, Camden Clark, Berkeley Medical Center, and Jefferson Medical Center have all achieved Stage 6 on the EMR Adoption ModelSM (EMRAM) developed by HIMSS Analytics. 

The EMRAM evaluates the progress and impact of electronic medical record systems for hospitals. It tracks progress through eight stages (0-7) of implementation and utilization of IT applications. Stage 6 is the final stage before achieving an advanced electronic patient record environment. WVU Hospitals reached Stage 7 in 2014.