PITTSBURGH –  UPMC Bedford Memorial and UPMC Passavant hospitals join eight other UPMC facilities as being among the most advanced in the world for their use of comprehensive electronic medical records (EMRs), having achieved HIMSS Analytics Stage 6 criteria for EHR use.

HIMSS Analytics, a not-for-profit subsidiary of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), scores hospitals based on their progress in completing eight stages (0-7) to create a paperless patient record environment. Stage 6 requires that a hospital has implemented physician documentation and scheduling, clinical decision support that provides guidance for clinical activities in the form of variance and compliance reports, and a picture archiving and communication system for medical imaging.
 
Only 4.4 percent of the more than 5,000 U.S. hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics database have reached Stage 6. In addition to UPMC Bedford Memorial and UPMC Passavant, Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC, UPMC McKeesport, UPMC Mercy, UPMC Presbyterian, UPMC Shadyside and UPMC St.
 
Margaret also have reached Stage 6, and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC has reached Stage 7. ISMETT, UPMC's transplant hospital in Italy, has reached Stage 6 of the HIMSS European EMR Adoption Model and was the first hospital in Europe to receive this distinction.

"These achievements by UPMC Bedford Memorial and UPMC Passavant are just the latest evidence of UPMC's long-standing commitment to improving healthcare by providing our clinicians with the right patient data at the right time at the point of care," said James J. Venturella Jr., CIO, Physician and Hospital Services, UPMC. "We embarked on this journey of EMR adoption long before it was mandated by the federal government, and our patients and clinicians already are reaping the rewards in terms of higher levels of quality and safety."

Over the past five years, UPMC has invested more than $1.3 billion in technology to support clinical excellence and administrative efficiency as it creates new models of accountable care. UPMC officials say UPMC is one of the nation's earliest and most sophisticated users of EMRs.