Hervey Bay, Queensland-based St. Stephen's Hospital is the most recent winner of a HIMSS Davies Award of Excellence.

WHY IT MATTERS
The hospital, which is part of UnitingCare Queensland, has been recognized for its use of connected technology to boost patient safety and improve quality outcomes.

On its path to digitization, St. Stephen's staff kept patients wellbeing top-of-mind, according to HIMSS, and its electronic health record deployment was also designed with close input from frontline clinical end-users, informed by Australia National Standards and UnitingCare Queensland best practices.

IT staff at the hospital worked to quickly identify and resolve technical issues to keep the project on schedule and aligned with those principals.

The hospital's EHR was just the beginning, of course –  itl then developed scalable technology to enable seamless connection of medical devices at the point of care and within the workflow, enabling real-time patient monitoring and decision support tools.

Its analytics have helped effect a decrease in infection rates across the hospital that has been continuous over the past four years, according to HIMSS.

In addition, the biomedical device integration has helped nurses spend 3,000 more hours at the bedside – enabling leading a 58% improvement in care efficiency, an elimination of MRSA and a 19% reduction in other hospital-acquired injuries.

THE LARGER TREND
St. Stephen's is also one of the first two HIMSS Analytics Stage 7 validated hospitals in Australia, as tracked by HIMSS Analytics Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model.

Later this month, HIMSS is partnering with the Australia Digital Health Agency to present the HIMSS Australia Digital Health Summit, November 20 and 21, in Sydney.

The conference, whose theme is interoperability and connected care, is expected to bring together representatives from ADHA, public and private healthcare leaders from Australia and from across the APAC region.

ON THE RECORD
"St. Stephen's thoughtfully adopted a variety of technology solutions as part of a digital health strategy to improve acute care access and quality in the Hervey Bay area," said Jonathan French, senior director of quality and value-based care at HIMSS. "Care standardization is supported by the seamless exchange of clinical data and vital signs into St. Stephen's decision support, making it easier to deliver the right care at the right time. For this, HIMSS is proud to recognize St. Stephen's Hospital as the first Davies Award recipient in Australia."

"As the first fully integrated digital hospital in Australia, health information and technology has been a cornerstone to our success in providing excellent and safe care to our patients and the community," said Madonna Bowers, acting general manager and director of clinical services at St. Stephen's Hospital. "I would like to take this opportunity to thank HIMSS, and the past and present employees and volunteers of St. Stephen's and UnitingCare Queensland who have been on this journey."

St. Stephen's will be recognized for its achievement in March during the 2020 HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition in Orlando, Florida.

Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com

Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.