Lahey Health has achieved Stage 7 for both the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model and the Outpatient-EMRAM model.

HIMSS Analytics pointed to Lahey’s major strides in its use of technology to streamline patient care in a consistent and more efficient manner.

Lahey Health joins only 5 percent of U.S. hospitals that have reached this highest level on the scale. Lahey Health is one of fewer than 40 U.S. hospitals and health systems  – and the only hospital or health system in Massachusetts –  to have earned the distinction for both acute and ambulatory care.

[Also: 7 tips for EMR success from Stage 7 hospitals]

Lahey Health put its EHR and related technologies to work on improving overall prescribing practices and the identification and management of opiate-dependent patients. Interventions included: documentation tools and workflows for opiate therapy consent and contracts, enhancing patient education and outreach processes and building reports to identify chronic opiate therapy patients.

The Lahey Health team also used data from these reports to drive patient outreach and engage patients in reducing dependency through education, opiate agreement contracts and referrals for treatment.

“With Lahey Health’s thorough deployment of electronic medical records, they have developed a comprehensive care environment,” John Hoyt, Stage 7 lead at HIMSS Analytics, said in a statement. “Their uniformity of system use is a testament to their enterprise commitment to using their EMR to drive improvements in care quality and efficiency, equally on the inpatient and outpatient basis.”

Twitter: @Bernie_HITN
Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com