STANFORD, CA – Stanford University Medical Center, a HIMSS Analytics Stage 6 hospital, has  applied for Stage 7, the highest HIMSS Analytics certification.

Hospital certification is measured by HIMSS Analytics, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chicago-based Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, on a scale of 1 to 7, with the higher number repesenting better use of technology.

A Stage 6 hospital deploys an integrated network of IT solutions that includes physician documentation, a fully-functional radiology picture archiving and communication system (PACS) and a complete clinical decision support solution.

Stanford University Medical Center, based in Stanford, Calif., is seeking to install a completely functioning and integrated electronic medical record systems, which would qualify the hospital for Stage 7 consideration.

Carolyn Byerly, the hospital's CIO, said a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system has been in place since 2001, so physicians are comfortable with electronic systems.

“We were in a state of need for many applications,” she said. “We were more a Stage 3 in 2002, and in 2004 we made some improvements to infrastructure. We addressed HIPAA data security with the goal of having a good foundation to implement our EMR strategy.”

“Specifically, a big challenge was physician documentation and closed loop medication administration (bar coding),” said Pravene Nath, the hospital's CMIO. “While our CPOE system was not perfect it was 100 percent compliant.”

The hospital selected Epic's EMR in March 2006, said Byerly.

"We went through an evaluation process with 30 to 40 physicians, along with other clincial staff,” she said. “We did demos and sessions with the vendors we were considering. In the end, there was an overwhelming support for Epic. The physicians loved the user interface. Our physicians were tired of a loosely-interfaced environment.”