Samaritan Recognized as Digital Health Most Wired October 11, 2021 Samaritan Health Services has been recognized as being a “Digital Health Most Wired” organization for applying core and advanced technologies into its clinical and business operations to improve health care in the communities it serves. The recognition was announced this month by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives. CHIME conducts an annual survey of tens of thousands of organizations to assess how effectively health care organizations use technology and to assess their level of performance. CHIME President and CEO Russell Branzell said digital transformation in health care has accelerated to an unprecedented level since 2020. “The next few years will bring a wave of innovation that empowers health care consumers and will astound the industry,” he said. “The Most Wired program recognizes the outstanding digital leaders who have paved the way for this imminent revolution in health care. Their trailblazing commitment to rapid transformation has set an example for the entire industry in how to pursue a leadership vision with determination, brilliant planning and courage to overcome all challenges.” What It Means to Be Most Wired As a “Most Wired level seven” organization, Samaritan Health Services has deployed technologies and strategies to analyze data and to achieve meaningful clinical and efficiency outcomes, and have implemented more advanced technologies, like telehealth, to expand access to care. “Many teams and organizations implement technology, but the Samaritan information services team takes it personally. You can feel the pride this team has in taking care of our community. They truly exemplify why they love working here. It is an incredibly proud moment for us and I would like to acknowledge and thank the whole IS team for achieving such great results,” said Sonney Sapra, Samaritan vice president and chief information officer. Kim Sather, Samaritan’s associate vice president of information services design and operations, also praised the IS team for ensuring top quality technology services and response. “Samaritan had already been a leader in incorporating technology into its clinical settings and business departments – really, throughout our entire system,” she said. “The pandemic restrictions of the past several months forced us to expand our parameters and allowed us to be forward-thinking in how we serve our patients and our health care team.” More than 36,600 organizations were represented in the 2021 Digital Health Most Wired program, which includes four separate surveys: acute care, ambulatory care, long-term care and international acute. The surveys assessed the adoption, integration and impact of technologies in health care organizations at all stages, from early development to industry leading. Each participating organization received a customized benchmarking report, an overall score and scores for individual levels in eight segments: Infrastructure. Security. Business/disaster recovery. Administrative/supply chain. Analytics/data management. Interoperability/population health. Patient engagement. Clinical quality/safety. Participants can use the report and scores to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement. Participants also received certification based on their overall performance, with level 10 being the highest.
