BUSINESS

Wired hospitals keep innovating

A survey finds hospitals that have embraced technology are discovering more ways to use it to improve care.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. Aug. 11, 2003.

The country's most-wired hospitals continue to build on the technological lead they have over their less-wired peers, but the latter are making strides, according to a recent survey.

"The top line is that hospitals are empowering patients with information, and doctors and nurses with the tools to improve the quality of care," said Alden Solovy, executive editor and associate publisher of Hospitals & Health Networks. The journal of the American Hospital Assn. conducted the 2003 most-wired survey and benchmarking study with McKesson Information Solutions, the health care technology unit of McKesson Corp. The survey lists 100 hospitals in alphabetical order as its "most wired."

Pressure from employers, the advent of the Web, more powerful computers and better clinical systems are driving hospitals -- and physicians -- to adopt clinical systems, said Barry Chaiken, MD, vice president for medical affairs of McKesson Information Solutions.

"They realize that clinical systems have matured today to the point that they can greatly impact the delivery of care," he contends. "These tools now can do that within a framework that is fairly close to the existing needs and workflow of the physician. So the physician is willing to change because they are able to see the value to their patients."

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