December 07, 2011
A Spanish health IT success story
Recently, the Healthcare
Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) awarded
Stage 6 Certification to Hospital de Dénia
(Dénia, Spain). Currently, only seven hospitals in Europe have received Stage 6 recognition from the HAE (HIMSS Analytics Europe).
HIMSS Stage 6 demonstrates that Hospital de Dénia
provides, among other benefits, structured and continuous clinical
documentation and a closed medication cycle using a unified hospital system, Cerner Millennium, to give providers a
horizontal vision of care, reduce patient risks and increase the quality of
care.
Hospital de Dénia also received the eHealth
Innovation award from SIMO Network (the International ICT Services and
Solutions Fair), for its project “Comprehensive EMR in 14 Months.” The eHealth
Innovation award's goal is to contribute to a wider diffusion of the main technological
innovations that take place in Spain's health care sector, and the benefits for
patients. A selection committee comprised of professionals from media
specialized in health and ICT selected nine finalist projects out of the 47
presented for an open online vote. The votes submitted confirmed the Hospital
de Dénia
project as the winner.
This project was the result of a very important effort on
the part of Hospital de Dénia and Cerner, two organizations whose objective was,
from the beginning, to achieve intelligent and computerized clinical processes
for the benefit of the patient.
These intelligent computerization models are the only ones
capable of providing health care to patients beyond the hospital, extending
services to primary care centers, homes and wide geographic regions in general.
They also involve other providers in a highly efficient way, reducing test
duplication among organizations, seamlessly integrating access to patient
information, proactively increasing safety through alerts, and implementing
care plans for chronic conditions, which in the long term will result in an
increased quality of life for patients.
This model represents the only possible way to reach a sustainable
health care system based on efficiency, limiting the costs arising from lack of
coordination and, at the same time, increasing patient care quality and safety.
Hospital de Dénia and Cerner are considering extending
this model into the hospital's geographic area of influence next year, maximizing
the IT investment and developing a service network which will help to improve
health outcomes, thus becoming an integrated health care organization. Hospital
de Denia also plans to apply for Stage 7 recognition in 2012, potentially
becoming the first Spanish hospital reaching this stage.
Jordi de la Osa,
Cerner Iberia sales leader, has a degree in electronic engineering from the
Universidad Politécnica de Barcelona. He has developed his professional career
in the health care IT sector. Since 2007, he has contributed intensively to
Cerner’s business in Spain.