Riverside Health has been recognized, for the 12th consecutive year, as one of America's Most Wired® health care systems. This accomplishment is the result of many years of investment, hard work and a commitment to improving the health and wellness of the communities Riverside serves through the use of information technology.
Riverside has been and continues to be a pioneer in providing the best tools to our physicians, advanced practice providers and clinical staff by investing early in proven, worthwhile technology.
Technology is improving the efficiency of care delivery and creating a new dynamic in patient interactions, according to results of the 18th Annual Health Care's Most Wired® survey, released by the American Hospital Association's (AHA) Health Forum.
According to the survey, Most Wired hospitals are using telehealth to fill gaps in care; provide services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; and expand access to medical specialists. This year's results show:
- The top three telehealth services offered in hospitals are consultations and office visits, stroke care and psychiatric examinations and psychotherapy.
- Stroke care is the most rapid growth area for telehealth services up 38 percent from 2015, as evidence-based studies emphasize the time urgency of stroke care.
- More than 25 percent of hospitals use internet-enabled monitoring devices for chronic disease management of congestive heart failure, diabetes and heart disease.
Riverside is a leader in the area of telelemedicine in the Coastal Virginia Region. This is best exemplified by our Telestroke Program. Our neurointerventionalists with our neurovascular specialists can virtually link to outlying hospitals in the Riverside Health, primarily rural communities, to evaluate suspected stroke patients. There are two components to telestroke: telemedicine and teleradiology. Essentially, teleneurology has the potential to place a neurologist, an interventionalist and a neurosurgeon at every rural hospital, not only in Virginia, but all over the world.
Not only is Riverside a leader in telemedicine, Riverside is a pioneer in implementing electronic medical records in physician practices in 1996, at a time when less than 1 percent of all physician practices had automated the clinical side of their practices.
"Our vision for the future is the creation of a single electronic health record that is seamless across all care settings, whether an individual is seen in the physician office, emergency department, outpatient office, hospital or within lifelong health." said Dr. Charles Frazier, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Information and Innovation Officer. "This seamless medical record will present a comprehensive and accurate view of the person's overall health and will help us design care around their individual needs," That vision became a reality in 2015 when Riverside chose to migrate to the Epic platform.
Along with the sharing of information within our system, Riverside is working to share secured health information externally to create a portable health record thereby creating a comprehensive view of an individual's health status and health needs. This results in cost effective, higher quality care and better experiences for our patients and their families.
The iCare transformation (Epic platform) will enable us to further the Riverside mission statement of caring for others as we care for those we love as we create a single integrated medical record to better serve our patients, caregivers and Riverside's operations. The go-live date for our physician practices, ambulatory care facilities and hospitals are in the first half of 2017.
About the Most Wired® survey
HealthCare's Most Wired® survey, conducted between Jan. 15 and March 15, 2016, is published annually by Health &Hospitals Networks (H&HN). The 2016 Most Wired® survey and benchmarking study is a leading industry barometer measuring information technology (IT) use and adoption among hospitals nationwide. The survey of 680 participants, representing an estimated 2,146 hospitals—more than 34 percent of all hospitals in the U.S.—examines how organizations are leveraging IT to improve performance for value-based health care in the areas of infrastructure, business and administrative management; quality and safety; and clinical integration.