Six Legacy Health hospitals and their ambulatory clinics, located in Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash., have reached HIMSS Analytics Stage 7, the highest level on the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model, the model used to track EMR progress at hospitals and health systems.

Developed in 2011, the EMR Ambulatory Adoption Model provides a methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of electronic medical record systems for ambulatory facilities owned by hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics database. These facilities include physician practices, clinics, outpatient centers and specialty clinics.

[See also: NorthShore clinics first to Stage 7.]

“Achieving Stage 7 as a health system, across our six hospitals and 23 ambulatory care locations, represents the vision, hard work, and great success of people throughout Legacy collectively dedicated to healthcare excellence,” George Brown, MD, Legacy Health chief executive officer, said in a news release.

HIMSS Analytics developed the EMR Adoption Model in 2005 as a methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of electronic medical record systems for hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics Database. There are eight stages, 0–7, that measure a hospital's implementation and use of information technology applications. The final stage, Stage 7, represents an advanced patient record environment. The validation process to confirm a hospital has reached Stage 7 includes a site visit by an executive from HIMSS Analytics and former or current chief information officers to ensure an unbiased evaluation of the Stage 7 environments.

HIMSS Analytics developed the EMR Ambulatory Adoption Model in 2011.

[See also: HIMSS Analytics launches EMRAM for ambulatory practices.] and [NorthShore clinics first to Stage 7.]

The validation process confirms ambulatory facilities have reached Stage 7 with a site visit conducted by an executive from HIMSS Analytics and a chief medical information officer with ambulatory deployment experience. The validation team conducts both a comprehensive system overview and an analytics review to ensure improved health status indicators and understanding of the effectiveness of their patient engagement strategy.

“Legacy Health’s integration of medical devices with its EMR in its hospitals and ambulatory clinics demonstrates a strong commitment to making the best use of health IT,” says John H. Daniels, vice president, strategic relations, HIMSS. “Legacy Health has also developed an impressive clinical and business intelligence strategy that they demonstrated through various examples of measures. For example, they analyzed ED utilization data and figured out a way to reduce emergency department visits by 50 percent through proactive care management outreach.”

As of May 31, 2013, 114 U.S. hospitals — or 2.1 percent — of the more than 5,400 U.S. hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics Database, will be or have been awarded the HIMSS Analytics Stage 7 Award and 225 of 32,244 ambulatory facilities will be or have been awarded the HIMSS Analytics Stage 7 Ambulatory Award.