HealthPartners named among Most Wired in nation

'Most Wired' health systems and hospitals leverage IT to improve performance and patient care

MINNEAPOLIS, July 6, 2016 — HealthPartners is the only hospital in the Twin Cities to be named one of the 'Most Wired' health care organizations in the U.S. for its use of information technology.

The 2016 HealthCare's Most Wired™ award is based on a national survey conducted by Hospital & Health Network's magazine, a publication of the American Hospital Association. The survey examined how organizations leverage IT to improve four areas: infrastructure, business and administrative management, quality and safety, and clinical integration.

The Most Wired honor recognizes effective use of electronic medical records and technology at six HealthPartners hospitals (Amery Regional Medical Center, Hudson Hospital and Clinics, Lakeview Health, Methodist Hospital, Regions Hospital and Westfields Hospital) and at HealthPartners and Park Nicollet clinics.

"The Most Wired award isn't easily achieved, and is an important industry benchmark that measures how well we're performing in key areas of technology that directly affect the care we provide for the people we serve and their families," said Alan Abramson, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at HealthPartners.

Cybersecurity, new ways of delivering care and engaging with the patient, and increased use of predictive analytics for population health are top priorities for many U.S. hospitals, according to results of this year's survey. The security, virtuwell, and health informatics teams are all directly engaged in these efforts at HealthPartners.

Now in its 18th year, the Most Wired survey had more than 680 participants and 2,146 hospitals (34 percent of all U.S. hospitals) taking part. The number of hospitals and health systems selected as Most Wired numbers only 341 organizations nationwide.

"HealthPartners continues to make significant investments in Health IT," said Kim LaReau, Vice President of Care Delivery Information Systems at HealthPartners. "This award reflects on all of our hospitals, clinics, doctors, clinicians, nurses and staff who make sure we're delivering value on our technology investments by continuously improving the care we provide."

This is the seventh consecutive year HealthPartners has been recognized for its leadership in using IT to improve health care performance. A full list of the 2016 Most Wired results and more details on the survey are available at www.hhnmag.com/mostwired.