Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford and Stanford Children's Health in Palo Alto, California have received the prestigious Stage 7 Award. Their 167 network practices have also been awarded the Stage 7 Ambulatory Award, making them the only children's hospital enterprise in Northern California to receive these accolades.

The Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford and Stanford Children's Health are the biggest Bay Area healthcare centers dedicated exclusively to children and expectant mothers. The enterprise connects healthcare institutions at more than 60 northern California locations and 100 others in the western U.S.

"Our enterprise is honored to have achieved HIMSS Analytics Stage 7," said Ed Kopetsky, CIO of Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and Stanford Children's Health, in a press statement. 

[Also: Healthcare IT News names Lucile Packard's a Best Hospital IT Department 2016 winner]

"This recognition confirms that we are leveraging our clinical information technology to improve patient care across the full continuum of care," he added.

Developed in 2011, the Stage 7 ambulatory award evaluates the EMR process and impact in ambulatory institutions, such as physician practices, outpatient centers and clinics, owned by hospitals in the HIMSS analytics database.

The Stage 7 and Stage 7 ambulatory awards are given to  the most elite hospitals that demonstrate a progressive electronic patient record environment and the highest level of EMR adoption.

Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford and Stanford Children's Health have 'definitely earned' their recognition, said John P. Hoyt, executive vice president HIMSS Analytics.

Only 3.7 percent of more than 5,400 hospitals within the HIMSS Analytics Database had received the prestigious Stage 7 award by the second quarter of 2015.

Just 7.4 percent of more than 34,000 ambulatory clinics in the HIMSS Analytics Database have received the Stage 7 Ambulatory Award.

"As a leader in serving the greater San Francisco and Northern California region, they have uniquely utilized the deployment of a comprehensive, enterprise-wide EHR to lead clinical transformation and begin the development of a continuity of care record," Hoyt said.

"This leading enterprise has also begun to mine their wealth of data for not only direct patient and population health improvement, but also to continue their high level of excellence in providing peer-reviewed, published research for the worldwide children's health community," he added.