Hospital Marina Salud de Denia, described as a model for what the hospital of the future should look like, is well on its way to fulfilling its promise.

Newly opened in 2009, the facility reached 100 percent paperless status in three years and received the highest rating — Stage 7 — on HIMSS Analytics' EMRAM scale, which evaluates a hospital's digitization level. Marina Salud, which serves a population of more than 150,000, is the first hospital in Spain, and the second in Europe, to attain Stage 7 status.

All nurses and physicians at Marina Salud document their clinical notes online. Likewise, the medical imaging department makes all images available online across the hospital network. Physicians also enter orders electronically, supported by an intelligent clinical decision support system. In addition, a clinical and business intelligence program enables staff to analyze care quality and efficiency.

Vicent Moncho, director of organization and IT at Marina Salud, told attendees at HIMSS14 on Tuesday that he joined the hospital with the directive of adopting new technologies and transforming clinical practices. 

The hospital wanted to realize benefits in clinical and operational areas. On the clinical side, they emphasized avoidance of medical errors and infections. And operationally, they strived for time savings in physician and nursing activities, elimination of paper records, increased efficiencies in coding, and optimization of material use in operating rooms.

Among the most impressive results was a 10 percent reduction in the average length of stay at Marina Salud, while increasing occupancy to nearly 90 percent. According to Moncho, that resulted in a calculated savings of $11 million.

The hospital also calculated an estimated $240,000 in savings attributed to an increase of OR occupancy from approximately 60 percent to 70 percent. Nearly 7,200 surgeries were performed in 1.5 fewer ORs, resulting in a decrease of 4.5 full-time equivalents in nursing and assistants.

Moncho added that implementation of a clinical rule avoided pre-operative chest X-rays in patients under 60 years of age without pathologies. Over one year, Marina Salud avoided 988 X-rays at a cost of $16 apiece for total savings of just under $16,000.