Samsung Medical Center is the latest hospital in Asia-Pacific to achieve Stage 6 accreditation for the HIMSS Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model.

The EMRAM assesses the adoption and maturity of a health facility's EMR capabilities. 

WHY IT MATTERS

During the validation, HIMSS commended SMC for its health information system, highlighting its wide use of computerised orders and digital medication prescriptions. Clinicians were found to be enthusiastic about the EMR, with the hospital having a 100% user adoption rate for clinical documentation and CPOE use.

The hospital's health information exchange capabilities were also impressive, with data being exchanged across multiple external and national databases "in near real-time for most". 

Additionally, the hospital was praised for its patient engagement initiatives, including its use of the Visual ARS system for appointment booking. SMC has also developed patient engagement solutions for medical treatment, nursing, hospital administration, pharmacy and radiology.

"SMC is well on its way to accomplishing its goal of being a SMART Medical Center, innovating in technology, the utilisation of space and patient experience, while striving to provide the highest quality of care," Andrew Pearce, HIMSS Vice President for Analytics and Global Advisory Lead, said. 

Meanwhile, HIMSS advised the hospital to integrate its numerous patient engagement tools into a single platform to provide patients and their caregivers with a seamless experience in accessing health records, communicating with providers, managing their health, and completing administrative tasks.

In preparation for its Stage 7 validation, SMC is expected to ready a case study presentation about its multiple technology solutions that are being deployed to solve operational and clinical problems. 

THE LARGER TREND

SMC’s EMRAM Stage 6 validation comes four months after it became the first hospital in the world to attain Stage 7 accreditation for the HIMSS Infrastructure Adoption Model.

It also follows fellow Asian hospitals, Tung's Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital in Taiwan and the Pondok Indah Hospital Group in Indonesia, to receive the EMRAM Stage 6 validation this year. Three Australian hospitals – Royal Women's Hospital, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre – were also awarded EMRAM Stage 6 in April.

ON THE RECORD

"SMC has been continuously digitally transformed through optimisation, efficiency and continuous integration efforts with a passion to provide the best healthcare services priorities on quality, security, patient safety and work efficiency," said Sang Seob Lee, IT operations manager at SMC. 

He said that following this latest EMRAM accreditation, "SMC will continue to contribute to improving patient safety and medical efficiency, and accelerate the implementation of advanced intelligent hospitals through digital innovation".