CHAPEL HILL, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UNC Health Care has achieved Stage 7 designation – the highest rank possible – for hospitals, outpatient practices, and advanced analytics from HIMSS Analytics, a global healthcare research advisory firm. The Stage 7 honors confirm UNC Health Care’s place as a national leader in health IT and analytics.
UNC Health Care is the only health system in the U.S. to achieve Stage 7 status on all three HIMSS Analytics domains (inpatient, outpatient, analytics) and also honored as ‘Most Wired Advanced’ by the American Hospital Association (AHA).
“Achieving Stage 7 recognition further reinforces the success our teams have reached in building an information technology infrastructure that enhances the ability of our providers, care teams, and staff to care for our patients,” said Tracy Parham, RN, UNC Health Care’s Chief Information Officer.
The Stage 7 designations for UNC Health Care include its hospitals and associated clinics at Caldwell Memorial Hospital in Lenoir, Chatham Hospital in Siler City, High Point Regional, Pardee Hospital in Hendersonville, UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough, and UNC REX in Raleigh.
At each of these hospitals, the awards recognize the utilization of a complete electronic medical record infrastructure, including external Health Information Exchanges, advanced data/analytics, and comprehensive plans and support in place for information technology governance, disaster recovery, privacy, and security.
“Starting in 2012 and 2013, our focus centered on establishing system-wide information systems and building baseline capabilities,” said Dr. Bill Roper, Dean of the UNC School of Medicine and CEO of the UNC Health Care System. “Now, just five years later, we are recognized as national leaders in health IT by multiple organizations. I am incredibly proud of the work of Tracy and her team in our Information Services Division.”
Parham stressed that the awards are part of the larger goal of continually improving UNC Health Care’s technology platforms and analytics offerings.
“Most importantly, these rankings represent real and meaningful benefits for our patients in terms of quality, safety, and overall care,” Parham said. “We take great pride in knowing that this award recognizes our efforts to achieve UNC Health Care’s vision of becoming the nation’s leading public academic health system.”
In another example of that continual improvement and national leadership, UNC Health Care is one of 40 health systems nationwide collaborating with Apple (and one of only 10 in the beta test group) to allow patients to easily download their electronic health record data from the My UNC Chart patient portal and integrate the data with Apple’s existing personal data tracking and reporting features in the iOS Health app.
This feature is available to all UNC Health Care patients with an active My UNC Chart account and an iPhone running iOS 11.3 or later. Simply open the Health app and select ‘Health Records’, and then select ‘Add Account.’ From there, select the UNC Health Care hospital you’ve visited and sign-in to your ‘My UNC Chart’ to connect your My UNC Chart data to the Apple Health app alongside Apple’s existing personal data tracking and reporting features.
About UNC Health Care
UNC Health Care is an integrated health care system comprised of UNC Hospitals and its provider network, UNC Faculty Physicians, UNC Physicians Network, the clinical patient care programs of the UNC School of Medicine, and ten other hospitals and hospital systems across the state: UNC REX Healthcare, Chatham Hospital, Johnston Health, Pardee Hospital, High Point Regional Health, Caldwell Memorial, Nash Health Care, Wayne Memorial, UNC Lenoir Health Care, and UNC Rockingham Health Care.
