Joining elite company, Pennsylvania's Reading Health System is the latest provider to earn Stage 7 distinction from HIMSS Analytics.

The nonprofit Reading Health System is an integrated delivery system with more than 1,000 physicians serving several counties in southeastern part of the Keystone State.

As of the second quarter of 2015, just 3.7 percent of more than 5,400 U.S. hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics Database achieved the Stage 7 Award, the top level of the EMR Adoption Model, which frames a methodology to track implementation and maturity of electronic medical records and other health IT.

Stage 7 represents an advanced health IT environment. The validation process to confirm a hospital that status includes a site visit by an executive from HIMSS Analytics and former or current chief information officers to ensure an unbiased evaluation.

[See also: Stage 7 awards are on the upswing]

John H. Daniels, global vice president in HIMSS Analytics' healthcare advisory services group, notes that Reading has "integrated several medical devices throughout the hospital to streamline nursing documentation" and makes good use of "physician leaders who are helping their colleagues leverage the power of structured documentation also streamlining physician documentation processes."

The health system will be recognized with other Stage 7 winners at the 2016 Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition, Feb. 29 to March 4, 2016 in Las Vegas.

"Reading Health System is proud to have achieved HIMSS Stage 7," said Gregory Sorensen, MD, Reading Health System's senior vice president and chief medical officer, in a statement. He emphasized the organization's commitment deploying EMRs for "continuous performance improvement and clinical decision support," keeping a focus on "improving safety, minimizing errors, and prioritizing information technology in the role of patient care."