HIMSS Analytics honors Mission Health with stage 6 recognition

PRESS RELEASE: Patients are seeing significant improvements in how care is delivered
at Mission Health through the use of advanced electronic medical records and data analytics, according
to a global healthcare analytics company.
HIMSS Analytics has recognized Mission Health for achieving Stage 6 on the company’s Outpatient
Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model, also known as O-EMRAM.
“Mission Health’s BIG (GER) Aim is to get each person to their desired outcome, first without harm, also
without waste and always with an exceptional experience for every person, family and team member,”
said Dr. Ronald A. Paulus, Mission Health President and CEO. “We have been recognized as one of the
highest-quality, safest health systems in the nation and that is in part because of our strong focus on
having the right technology and associated analytics to support our incredible clinicians. I’m very
appreciative of our information technology team and proud of this important achievement.”
Jon Brown, Mission Health Chief Information Officer, said the recognition is important because it
highlights Mission’s commitment to high-quality care across all of western North Carolina.
“This achievement represents tremendous work that our team has performed to support our caregivers
in effectively using information technology to create exceptional outcomes for patients,” Brown said.
“Mission Health will continue to invest in our electronic medical records, data and analytics
infrastructure to offer the highest-quality, safest care for the community.”
HIMSS Analytics created O-EMRAM in 2012 to evaluate the progress and impact of electronic medical
record systems improvements for ambulatory facilities with its LOGIC™ market intelligence tool.
Ambulatory facilities can track their progress in stages from zero to seven with the goal of reaching
Stage 7, which represents an advanced electronic patient record environment.
Stage 6 ambulatory facilities have achieved these benchmarks:
• Significant executive commitments and investments.
• Significant advantage over competitors for patient safety, clinician support, clinician
recruitment, and competitive marketing for both consumers and nurse recruitment.

• Almost fully automated/paperless medical records when they have implemented their IT
applications across most of the outpatient care settings.
• Starting to evaluate their data for care delivery process improvements or have already
documented significant improvements in this area.
• Investments that are within reach of most clinics and recognize the strategic value of improving
patient care with the EMR.
• Starting to create strategic alignments with their medical staff to effectively utilize information
technology to improve patient engagement and population health
• Positioning to provide data to key stakeholders, such as payers, the government, physicians,
consumers, and employers, to support electronic health record environments and health information
exchanges.
Stage 6 organizations have also achieved a significant advancement in IT capabilities that positions them
to successfully address many of the current industry transformations, such as meaningful use criteria in
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, claims attachments for the Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act, pay for performance, and government quality reporting programs.