The Ministry of Health (MoH) of New Zealand has chosen MidCentral and Southern District Health Boards (DHBs) as pilot sites for implementing digital maturity assessments.

The pilots will include three HIMSS Analytics maturity assessments: the electronic medical record adoption model (EMRAM), outpatient-EMRAM (O-EMRAM) and the continuity of care maturity model (CCMM).

MoH group manager digital strategy and investment Darren Douglass says the assessments cover digital maturity across multiple care settings, which will create useful information to inform where DHBs focus in terms of digital investment. 

HIMSS EMRAM scores hospitals internationally on their adoption and use of electronic medical records on a scale from 0–7, and O-EMRAM is used to evaluate services provided outside of a hospital or acute care environment.

CCMM focuses on the capabilities needed in order to “seamlessly coordinate patient care across a continuum of care sites and providers,” the HIMSS website says.

Douglass says the two DHBs were chosen as pilot sites because they have both recently developed digital health strategies and have strong linkages within their districts across hospitals, primary care and community services.

The timing of pilot programmes to implement HIMSS digital maturity assessments has yet to be confirmed. The success of the pilot programmes will inform whether the assessments are rolled out nationally.

All DHBs have previously completed the EMRAM hospital inpatient maturity assessment.

According to MoH’s eHealth website section on Digital Hospitals, HIMSS Analytics provided a report on the findings within New Zealand in June 2016. Evidence from implementations overseas has shown a strong correlation in improvement in productivity and quality as hospitals move up the EMRAM model to Stage 7.

A version of this article first appeared on eHealthNews.nz.