July 2015, Morristown, NJ – Atlantic Health System was again named one of Health Care’s Most Wired organizations for a sixth consecutive year according to the results of the 17th annual HealthCare’s Most Wired™ survey, released this week by the American Hospital Association’s Health Forum and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME).
The 2015 Most Wired™ survey and benchmarking study, in partnership with CHIME and sponsored by VMware, is a leading industry barometer measuring information technology (IT) use and adoption among hospitals nationwide. The survey of more than 741 participants, representing more than 2,213 hospitals, examined how organizations are leveraging IT to improve performance for value-based healthcare in the areas of infrastructure, business and administrative management, quality and safety, and clinical integration.
The protection of patient data and privacy has been among the top priorities at Atlantic Health System, which includes Morristown, Overlook, Newton and Chilton Medical Centers and Goryeb Children’s Hospital.
“As the delivery of health care relies ever more on real-time sharing of information across care settings and between physicians and patients, the importance of cybersecurity has become more paramount,” said Linda Reed, RN, Vice President, Behavioral and Integrative Medicine and Chief Information Officer, Atlantic Health System. “This year’s Most Wired Survey not only underscores this change in dynamic, but that Atlantic Health System is among those leading the way.”
Atlantic Health System has implemented PatientSecure, a biometric patient identification solution that ensures the correct health record is used for every patient, every time. Morristown Medical Center became the first health system in the state of New Jersey to deploy PatientSecure. The system gained a high acceptance among patients, with almost 4,000 enrollments scanned in the first month. Since then, approximately 60,000 enrollments have been made using PatientSecure throughout Atlantic Health System facilities.
PatientSecure utilizes palm vein pattern recognition technology and links the patient to his/her unique medical record, allowing healthcare providers to accurately identify every patient at the point of care, making hospital registration more accurate, more secure and less time-consuming.
The new palm scanning technology helps eliminate risk, and as an added bonus, gives patients protection against medical identify theft. It accelerates registration, decreases patient wait time, and puts a stop to duplicate medical records and overlays.
According to the survey, hospitals are taking more aggressive privacy and security measures to protect and safeguard patient data. Top growth areas in security among this year’s Most Wired organizations include privacy audit systems, provisioning systems, data loss prevention, single sign-on and identity management.
“With the rising number of patient data breaches and cybersecurity attacks threatening the healthcare industry, protecting patient health information is a top priority for hospital customers,” said Frank Nydam, Senior Director of Healthcare at VMware. “Coupled with the incredible technology innovation taking place today, healthcare organizations need to have security as a foundational component of their mobility, cloud and networking strategy and incorporated into the very fabric of the organization.”
HealthCare’s Most Wired™ Survey, conducted between Jan. 15 and March 15, 2015, is published annually by Health & Hospitals Network. Respondents completed 741 surveys, representing more than 39 percent of all U.S. hospitals. Last October, the AHA/Health Forum and CHIME announced the formation of a Most Wired partnership to enhance collaboration between the two organizations in the development and sustainability of the survey, and to collectively help meet the growing demand for useful data on health IT integration.
Detailed results of the survey and study can be found in the July issue of H&HN.
About Atlantic Health System
Atlantic Health System, headquartered in Morristown, New Jersey, is one of the largest non-profit health care systems in New Jersey. Atlantic Health System has created a Trusted Network of Caring™. Our promise to our communities is that anyone who enters our system will receive the right care, at the right quality, at the right time, at the right place and at the right cost. Our network includes Morristown Medical Center in Morristown, NJ; Overlook Medical Center in Summit, NJ; Newton Medical Center in Newton, NJ; Chilton Medical Center in Pompton Plains, NJ; and Goryeb Children’s Hospital in Morristown, NJ, as well as Atlantic Rehabilitation, and Atlantic Home Care and Hospice. It also includes its subsidiary, Atlantic Ambulance Corporation. Atlantic Health System comprises 1,599 licensed beds, more than 14,000 employees and more than 4,000 physicians. Atlantic Health System has a medical school affiliation with the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University; a Major Clinical Affiliate of Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey; part of Atlantic Accountable Care Organization, one of the largest ACOs in the nation, and is a member of AllSpire Health Partners. Learn more about our Trusted Network of Caring™ at Atlantic Health System >