The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s HIMSS Analytics branch has designated Seoul National University Bundang Hospital Stage 7 on the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model (EMRAM) scale. The South Korean hospital is the first outside the United States to achieve Stage 7 designation.

The HIMSS Analytics EMRAM provides both a guide and leadership model for IT adoption in healthcare. Each higher stage is progressively more advanced in complex IT application implementation and usage, with Stage 7 representing a totally paperless environment.

Just 1 percent of U.S. hospitals have achieved Stage 7, where care coordination throughout the hospital is improved with a paperless environment, health information exchange (HIE) and data warehousing for population health improvement.

The Seoul National University Bundang Hospital reached Stage 7 with:

• Almost all medical orders entered by physicians;
• Ninety percent of physicians enter patient health information into the EHR using structured templates that generate valuable data enabling clinical decision support for clinical guidance.
• Efficiency gains through automation, such as relying on only four transcriptionists to support 910 inpatient beds and more than 4,000 outpatient visits per day;
• A fully digitized medical imaging department that produces 1.2 terabytes of data per month for 70,000 radiologic exams per month;
• A closed loop medication administration process;
• Clinical data warehousing for developing 250+ clinical quality indicators and 98 critical pathways; and
• HIE between the hospital and 36 private clinics in its region.

 
HIMSS Analytics is beginning to collect data on EHR implementation from all hospitals in South Korea, according to the Chicago-based organization.