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Officially announced at the HIMSS AsiaPac Awards last week during the HIMSS AsiaPac 19 conference, Princ Paknampo Hospital made history by becoming the first hospital in Thailand to achieve the HIMSS Analytics Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) Stage 7 validation. The EMRAM was developed in 2005 with the first Stage 7 EMRAM achieved in 2008. There are eight stages (0– 7) that measure a hospital's implementation and utilisation of information technology applications. Tracking their progress in completing eight stages (0 – 7), hospitals can review the implementation and utilisation of information technology applications with the intent of reaching Stage 7, which represents an advanced electronic patient record environment. Princ Paknampo Hospital is a 100-bed hospital based in Nakhon Sawan, well outside the capital city of Bangkok. Upon full implementation of the EMR, Princ Paknampo was able to leverage a number of technological applications to improve patient care and safety. Princ Paknampo implemented a full Clinical Decision Support (CDS) alert and order set for early detection of septic shock, and enacted guidelines to monitor for patient care against their set of standards.  With an advanced analytics monitoring system, the hospital is able to get real time data on specific sepsis related indicators – to better monitor, and reduce, the instances of sepsis. The hospital’s mortality rate, length of stay and costs from sepsis-related treatments have all significantly decreased as a result. According to Hal Wolf, President and CEO of HIMSS, this designation represents the first time any hospital in Thailand has reached this advanced stage of digital healthcare and could lead to significant improvements in patient care in the country, and the region. Princ Paknampo Hospital was the first hospital in Thailand to achieve Stage 6 on the EMRAM in 2016. “Ensuring patient care is of the highest quality possible is the ultimate impact of the electronic medical record system, said Wolf. We at HIMSS are proud of Princ Paknampo Hospital for its commitment to patient health, and congratulate them on reaching the ultimate level of advancement in their electronic health record implementation journey, and also for becoming the first Stage 7 organisation in Thailand.” “The hospital has realised a 97 percent reduction in pre-dispensing errors during the closed-loop medication administration process, a substantial reduction in sepsis cases, and an increase in diabetes protocol compliance. This hospital will serve as a beacon for other hospitals across Thailand and throughout Asia,” added Wolf.

In the first six months, a quality improvement initiative helped realize a 662% increase in the number of patients identified each month for follow-up – from eight per month to 61.

Seven administrative and clinical executives from across the health system discuss efforts from an electronic ICU to an AI symptom checker to ‘smart hospital’ tech.

The company, founded by former National Coordinator for Health IT Dr. Farzad Mostashari, says advanced analytics are helping its accountable care organizations drive big efficiencies.

Francisco Partners says it will be able to give resources to help the developer of laboratory information systems and point-of-care testing technology innovate its product offerings.

Analytics solutions have been very effective toward improving clinical, financial and operational performance at healthcare organizations, according to a HIMSS Analytics and Dimensional Insight study of 109 senior healthcare executives. WHY IT MATTERS The survey found nearly 85 percent of organizations that are leveraging analytics are doing so in multiple areas, with two-thirds leveraging analytics in all three areas spotlighted by the survey – financial, operational and clinical. Organizations have the highest overall success rate (78 percent) with clinical metrics, with a particular focus on using analytics to reduce readmission rates, infection control and reduction, and patient outcome improvements. Analytics is seen as an extremely important component to organizations' future strategy, with operational efficiency and cost management ranking as the top reasons for implementing analytics across all three areas. Most organizations surveyed said their primary method to determine ROI is financial returns and improvements, followed by clinical outcome improvement and staff efficiency. Survey results, however, indicated that these organizations observe their highest measured success rate (75 percent) if they use clinical outcomes improvement as their primary metric. THE LARGER TREND Budgeting and forecasting is the most employed metric across all three areas, used by roughly 90 percent of all survey respondents, followed closely by financial performance tracking and reporting, financial benchmarking and trending, and revenue cycle management measured success rates were also highest in these areas. When implementing and leveraging an analytics solution at their health system, survey respondents said improvement to patient care (safety, quality and outcomes) was their primary goal in deploying clinical analytics solutions. For financial analytics, increasing revenue and cost management were top concerns, followed by operational efficiency, and for operational analytics, driving efficiency and improving decision-making capabilities was the goal most often cited by respondents, followed by increased revenue and cost management. ON THE RECORD "As healthcare organizations move to value-based payment models, they are finding that focusing on clinical metrics, including readmission rates, infection control, and patient outcome improvements is critical for success," George Dealy, Dimensional Insight's vice president of healthcare solutions, said in a statement. "Analytics provides tremendous insight into these areas and can benefit healthcare organizations that are navigating this transition." "Healthcare analytics has often focused on measuring financial improvement or staff efficiency. And while those are certainly important focus areas for hospitals and health systems, clinical outcomes improvement is critical, especially as value-based payment models take hold," the report concluded. "Those organizations that are focusing on clinical outcomes improvement as their key measurement for ROI report seeing the greatest measured success from their analytics implementations." Nathan Eddy is a healthcare and technology freelancer based in Berlin. Email the writer: nathaneddy@gmail.com Twitter: @dropdeaded209

OMNY Health co-founder and COO Sunny Grewal, whose 3.5-minute elevator pitch was the audience's top pick at the "Shark Tank"-like competition, explains how his distributed ledger tech can help hospitals monetize mounds of unused data.

The clinical pathways system is designed to help make appropriate decisions related to specific clinical questions. The drug tool is designed to help pharmacists, physicians and nurses with access to point-of-care drug information.

The platform, Critical Care Suite, developed in partnership with UC San Francisco and powered by GE's Edison AI technology, can help radiologists prioritize cases involving collapsed lungs.

Four precision medicine experts – a groundbreaking provider organization and three precision medicine technology vendors – offer healthcare CIOs and other leaders their expertise for getting started with the nascent area of medicine.