The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) has released the name of this year’s AHIMA Grace Award: Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS) - Eastern Wisconsin Division—which includes HSHS St. Vincent Hospital and HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital Medical Center in Green Bay; HSHS St. Nicholas Hospital in Sheboygan; and HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital in Oconto Falls.
The award, which is named after AHIMA’s founder, Grace Whiting Myers, honors organizations that demonstrate excellence in health information management (HIM). More than 90 years ago, AHIMA founder, Grace Whiting Myers, acted on a sincere conviction to improve the quality of the nation’s health records by founding the association. AHIMA continues the annual recognition of the Grace Award to honor healthcare delivery organizations for their innovative and novel approaches to using HIM to deliver high-quality care to patients.
“This award exemplifies the commitment our health information management team shows day in and day out, in the spirit of providing our patients the highest quality of care possible as they continue to seek new and innovative ways to use the electronic medical record,” said Therese Pandl, president and CEO, HSHS - Eastern Wisconsin Division.
HSHS - Eastern Wisconsin Division’s achievements in HIM excellence include:
• The use of demographic information, patient population and diagnoses to determine if additional services should be offered, and whether patient population needs could be accommodated
• Using data to support the decision to open a wound clinic, increase the number of ICU rooms, increase X-ray capacity, open an intermediate care unit and update the ICU and expand surgical services to include up-to-date technology and telemedicine implementation
• Creating an inpatient clinical dashboard within the electronic medical record or monitoring of patient care helping identify the status of patients in real-time by recognizing trends in care and allowing staff to appropriately order supplies and medications
• Implementing an electronic query process allowing physicians to answer questions directly helping reduce physician queries for procedure documentation by 90 percent for patients with transcatheter aortic valve replacements (TAVR)
• Developing a mortality chart review process reducing the observed-to-expected mortality rate to less than 1 percent
The Division is also recognized for decreasing denials by 20 percent in six months, saving $50,000 in software expenses due to identified edits, improving the Division’s case mix index within the last year by increasing benchmark goals by 18 percent, making bedside iPads available for patients and family members to see upcoming appointments and procedures and leading the conversation regarding inclusion of LGBT information in the electronic medical record to improve patient safety and quality of care.
HIM professionals at HSHS - Eastern Wisconsin Division led this work by initiating conversations, facilitating inter-departmental groups, serving as resources and educating colleagues.
Award evaluation criteria included how organizations’ HIM professionals demonstrate or promote leadership by volunteering or leading within their organization or community or help develop other HIM professionals by serving as educators, as well as how the organization demonstrates professional achievement and supports and contributes to innovation.
AHIMA will present HSHS - Eastern Wisconsin Division with this honor at the AHIMA Health Data and Information Conference in Chicago on September 17.
