Aurora ranks among most wired systems

Milwaukee, Wis. - Consumers seeking increased connectivity with their healthcare providers hope that digital and Internet-based tools will help reduce medical errors and make services easier to access. Although the streamlining of clinical practices with secure, transferable medical data is evolving piecemeal, a group of Wisconsin hospitals appears to be among the leaders of this technological revolution.

The group, organized under Aurora Health Care, is among the top 100 adopters of information technology in the country, according to a recent survey by Hospitals and Health Networks Magazine.

Aurora, a not-for-profit provider of healthcare services to more than 90 hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies throughout eastern Wisconsin, was named as one of the most wired health systems for the third consecutive year.

Many of the most wired hospitals named in the survey provide online coaching for obesity, smoking, and chronic conditions; allow patients to pre-register for tests and appointments; allow patients to check test results online; provide digital radiology images in the hospital inpatient setting and offer digital medical records and electronic ordering of medications.

"Technology is an essential ingredient in helping us find better ways of delivering health care," said Philip Loftus, Aurora vice president of information services and CIO, in a release. "It's a way to help improve safety for patients, decrease costs, enhance the quality of care, and save lives." The annual "Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study" asks hospitals to report on how they use IT to address five key areas. Each survey is scored using a methodology that emphasizes the use of IT for patients and customers, with 60 percent of the points allocated among the three related sections of the survey: safety and quality, customer service, and public health and safety. The remaining 40 percent of the points target hospital operational goals for workforce and business processes.

The 2006 survey was made possible through a partnership among H&HN, Accenture, McKesson Corp., the American Hospital Association, and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives.

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