What Do the Top 10 Most Wired Hospitals Have in Common?

In November, CHIME named 254 organizations to its Healthcare’s Most Wired list. What does it take to achieve this distinguished ranking in healthcare IT?

According to Russell Branzell, president and CEO of CHIME, any hospital can achieve Most Wired status if they have a strategic vision, paired with the right leadership and technology. This year, CHIME used a new scoring methodology, which set the bar higher for becoming a Most Wired recipient. Trends from the survey have been published in an industry report covering four key areas: 1) Integration; 2) Security; 3) Population Health Management; and 4) Telehealth. Branzell went on to explain that the Most Wired survey is the opportunity to improve patient safety and outcomes by sharing best practices nationally and globally. We wondered what traits, clinical metrics, and commonalities Most Wired recipients share. We looked at the top ten hospitals and health systems that made the list, and here’s what we found.

Most Wired Hospitals: By the Numbers

(Data calculated using mean average. Source: Definitive Healthcare Database)

Most Wired Hospitals: Profile

• Most are acute care hospitals, in addition to a children’s hospital, teaching hospital, and a short-term acute care hospital.
• Designations are wide ranging and most include one or more of the following:
  • Pediatric Trauma Center Level II/III
  • ANCC Magnet Hospital
  • Trauma Center Level III
  • Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Level IV Regional
  • HRSA – Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Member
• Hospitals are located in eight U.S. states, led by Florida and California with two each. When comparing their locations based on region, the Midwest and West tied with three organizations each.
• Average number of affiliated hospitals was 77 (spanning from five to 258)
  

  

Most Wired Hospitals: Key clinical metrics

• 1,497—Average number of Medicare Certified Beds
• 64,102—Average number of discharges
• 4.99 days—Average length of stay

Most Wired Hospitals: Employees/headcount

• 10,869—Average number of employees (ranging from 575 to 31,865)
• 1,704—Average number of affiliated physicians
• 293—Average number of interns/residents

Most Wired Hospitals: Where patients seek care across different providers and provider types

(percent of total Medicare payments)

• 38%       Hospital – Inpatient
• 20%       Physician
• 21%       Hospital – Outpatient
• 7%          Skilled Nursing Facility
• 4%          Home Health Agency
• 2%          Renal Dialysis Facility
• 1%          Hospice
• 0%          Federally Qualified Health Center
• 0%          Rural Health Clinic

Most Wired Hospitals: Survey of patients’ experiences

HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) is a national survey that asks patients about their experiences during a recent hospital stay. Data gathered from Medicare.gov Hospital Compare.

• 58%       Patients who reported that the area around their room was “Always” quiet at night
  62%       National average
• 76%       Patients who reported YES, they would definitely recommend the hospital
  72%       National average
• 53%       Percentage of patients who received appropriate care for severe sepsis and septic shock
  50%       National average

Most Wired Hospitals: Technology use

• $72,767,726         Average estimated IT operating budget
• $3,005,112           Smallest IT operating budget
• $193,943,412      Largest IT operating budget
• 50%                      Use Epic EHR
• 40%                      Use Cerner EHR

Most Wired Hospitals: Other metrics

• 60%                      Average bed utilization rate
• 339,307                Average number of ER visits
• 51,870                  Average number of estimated total surgeries

What Did We Learn?

Most Wired Hospitals represent a wide cross section of U.S. hospitals and don’t necessarily share any obvious characteristics or commonalties, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s encouraging to see that hospitals of all sizes, budgets, and geographic locations can successfully leverage healthcare IT to make a difference in care delivery.

CHIME has indicated it will expand this annual survey from measuring adoption of health IT to include IT processes and the development of people.

We congratulate all Most Wired 2018 recipients and would also like to call out eight of our customers on this year’s top 10 list! These customers rely on Spok for a range of clinical communication solutions.

Congrats again!

Background Note: CHIME acquired the Healthcare’s Most Wired program from the American Hospital Association in July 2017. Over 600 organizations, representing more than 2,100 hospitals applied for consideration. Recipients were chosen among those demonstrating IT implementation and innovation excellence, and were also evaluated on their progress toward IT adoption and implementation.