Methodist Earns 2020 CHIME HealthCare's Most Wired Recognition in 3 Categories

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is pleased to announce that Methodist Health System has earned 2020 CHIME HealthCare’s Most Wired recognition as a Certified Level 7 in ambulatory, acute and long-term care areas.

The Most Wired program conducts an annual survey to assess how effectively health care organizations apply core and advanced technologies into their clinical and business programs to improve health and care in their communities.

Organizations in level 7 meet the criteria for being designated as Most Wired. These organizations have deployed technologies and strategies (e.g., population health/cost-of-care analytics, HIEs/integration engines and patient portals) to help them analyze their data and are starting to achieve meaningful clinical and efficiency outcomes. Some of these organizations are experimenting with more advanced technologies, like telehealth, that expand access to care.

“To earn this award in 2020, given the many challenges we have faced with the pandemic, is a true credit to the entire information technology team,” said Kent Sona, Methodist Health System’s vice president and chief information officer. “We were part of many health system initiatives related to COVID-19 while maintaining our strong IT service programs across the organization. Part of the success of our team is being nimble, implementing initiatives quickly and being thoughtful leaders in the area of information technology.”

More than 30,000 facilities were represented in the 2020 survey, almost double 2019’s representation. This is the third year that CHIME has conducted the survey and overseen the program. In each successive year, CHIME has expanded the survey to capture more types of organizations that serve patients across the continuum of care. This year, the Digital Health Most Wired program added a long-term care survey to the previous options of domestic, ambulatory and international. The surveys assess the adoption, integration and impact of technologies in health care organizations at all stages of development, from early development to industry leading.

“This has been an incredibly challenging year for health care organizations around the world, and these digital health leaders should be proud of the support their teams provide in the toughest of conditions,” said CHIME President and CEO Russell P. Branzell. “The pandemic forced them to quickly pivot to services like telehealth, with their entire organization working 24/7 to help keep patients and providers safe. It is a testament to their commitment to quality care that they participated in our survey – for many, for the very first time.”

Each participating organization received a customized benchmarking report, an overall score and scores for individual levels in eight segments: infrastructure, security, business/disaster recovery, administrative/supply chain, analytics/data management, interoperability/population health, patient engagement and clinical quality/safety. Participants can use the report and scores to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement.