Alameda Health System (AHS) earned the 2021 College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) Digital Health Most Wired recognition for acute, ambulatory and long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC).

The CHIME Digital Health Most Wired program conducts an annual survey to assess how effectively health care organizations apply core and advanced technologies into their clinical and business programs to improve health and health care in their communities.

“By achieving the Digital Health Most Wired designation, AHS illustrates our commitment to excellence in everything we do, with equitable patient and community-centered health care at the core,” said Chief Information Officer Mark Amey. “I am so grateful to our Information Services team as well as our Operational and Clinical partners who made this recognition possible.”

The 2021 survey assessed the adoption, integration and impact of technologies in health care organizations at all stages of development, from early development to industry leading. Participants received certification based on their overall performance with level 10 being the highest.

A total of 36,674 organizations were represented in this year’s Digital Health Most Wired program and AHS was one of the few safety-net health care organizations to be honored, achieving Level 7 in acute, ambulatory and LTPAC.

Since the successful 2019 launch of AHS’s Epic electronic health record (EHR), information technology has come to be an essential tool for staff and medical staff. One year later, over 90% of AHS’s staff use EPIC on a regular basis to stay on top of patients’ health and wellness. It has evolved to provide tools and resources that help physicians’ connectivity with colleagues and patients to create better health outcomes.

“EPIC continues to bridge the gap in patient and provider communication,” said Amey. This was never more important than during the onset of COVID-19 and implementation of regional stay at home orders in March 2020. “We were able to pivot from in-person to telehealth visits with minimal disruption to patient care,” he said.

Today, as the pandemic continues patients can schedule the COVID-19 and flu vaccines on MyAlamedaHealth, their secure electronic health record with the click of a mouse.

Just by registering for MyAlamedaHealth, patients can also message their Primary Care Physicians (PCP), schedule appointments, request prescription refills and view lab and test results. All of this empowers AHS patients to participate and engage in their own health and wellbeing.

In addition to implementing Epic, Alameda Health System has been on a multi-year journey to modernize its infrastructure, enhance the cyber security platforms, and replace antiquated HR, Finance, and Materials Management systems.

AHS consistently builds new capabilities for connectivity and ease of use both for medical staff and patients. Just last week, the Information Services team in conjunction with Epic executed a critical data center failover to ensure minimal data loss and to reduce downtime during a potential data center failure or any emergency that might disrupt patient care and system operations.

“At AHS, we will continue to enhance and optimize technology to provide truly integrated, exceptional and equitable care to our patients and community,” said Amey. “The care they want, need and deserve.”

For more information on CHIME’s Digital Health Most Wired, visit chimecentral.org