HIMSS Analytics has designated three European hospitals as Stage 6 on its Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) scale. The hospitals will be recognized at HIMSS Europe’s CIO Summit in Geneva on November 22.

Azienda ULSS 18 Rovigo (Local Healthcare Authority), Italy; Hospital Clinic I Provincial de Barcelona, Spain and Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, Switzerland have achieved the distinction – the second-highest rating on the EMRAM scale.

EMRAM, launched in 2005, was devised to track EMR progress in hospitals and health systems, identifying and scoring them based on an eight-step scale. EMRAM Stage 6 is awarded when hospitals have achieved all requirements of previous stages and a hospital-wide closed-loop medication administration environment and clinical decision support in at least one inpatient care service area.

“The EMRAM helps transform healthcare through IT by helping hospitals understand, benchmark and advance their IT solutions,” said Uwe Buddrus, CEO, HIMSS Analytics Europe. “For a hospital to achieve Stage 6 on the EMRAM scale means that it has successfully tackled some key challenges in the adoption of electronic medical records.”

In addition to meeting all the requirements for Stage 6, each of the hospitals distinguished themselves with further health IT advancements.

Azienda ULSS 18 Rovigo (Local Healthcare Authority) has ePrescribing set up for all medications and software-assisted preparation for all critical medications. The hospital also uses codification and scaling systems to generate discrete data elements driving clinical decision support system functions.

Hospital Clinic I Provincial de Barcelona has ePrescribing, second line validation, ADM dispensing for ICU medications and bedside documentation.

Inselspital has CLMA, including barcode scanning, in place for critical medications.