Electronic Health Reporter

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) announced that Intermountain Healthcare has become the first organization in the world to earn Triple Stage 7 designation under new requirements, the highest level of achievement on how health systems are improving care using digital tools.

HIMSS is a global nonprofit organization that measures and validates healthcare organizations based on how they use electronic medical records to improve patient outcomes.

“The Triple Stage 7 recognition from HIMSS validates the hard work our teams have put into using technology to make it easier to improve care and scale best practices,” said Diego Ize-Ludlow, MD, chief health information officer for Intermountain Healthcare. “We continue to push the envelope of technology to deliver the highest value and to develop the future models of care.”

This groundbreaking work was utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic when Intermountain came up with a self-testing system which didn’t require patient interaction. Patients could book an appointment online, find a testing site, and receive digital results for a self-collect saliva test. Caregivers also designed an automated testing letter patients could share with their employer.

HIMSS measured Intermountain in three areas to see how they utilized their EMR. To reach a level 7, an organization is scored by how they’re improving patient safety and satisfaction, supporting clinicians and securing data.

1. Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) – measures clinical outcomes, patient engagement and clinical use of EMR technology to strengthen organizational performance and health outcomes across patient populations.
2. Outpatient Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (O-EMRAM) – assesses maturity of EMR technology in outpatient facilities and its impact on patients served, overall population health and health system operational efficiency with a focus on quality of care, patient safety, and cost reduction.
3. Adoption Model for Analytics Maturity (AMAM) – measures the analytics capabilities that healthcare organizations have gained from having a strong analytics strategy and competency and advances an organization’s healthcare analytics regardless of the technologies installed.

“These ratings are a good way to take a look under the hood to make sure everything is running as well as we think it is,” said Farukh Usmani, MD, medical director of care transformation at Intermountain Healthcare. “We don’t avoid our annual physical just because we feel good; sometimes it’s beneficial to get a good exam done, to be reviewed by an outside source. The HIMSS validation is a good EMR utilization check from the leader in the industry.”

Intermountain digital capabilities have been critical during COVID when researchers needed real time data on which treatments and procedures were working best for patients. Being able to rapidly scale groundbreaking research into clinical practice using the electronic medical record gave doctors the tools to provide the best care to patients in all the communities we serve.

“Everyone has electronic medical records, but not everyone has the tools and team to give insights and time back to caregivers,” said Seraphine Kapsandoy, PhD, RN, chief clinical information officer at Intermountain Healthcare. “What we have in place at Intermountain allows us to embed more clinical knowledge and do more data-driven care and research than ever before.”