‘Best Hospital IT Departments’: UI Health Recognized for Innovative Technology Use
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
UI Health recently was named a “Best Hospital IT Department” by Healthcare IT News, the online resource for healthcare technology and policy news. UI Health was one of five hospitals honored in the “Large Hospital” category; overall, 20 hospitals were honored with the designation.
Hospitals recognized on the “Best Hospital IT Departments” list display a commitment to innovative use of technology to help physicians and staff to provide the best care and support for patients and families.
Assessing electronic health record (EHR) infrastructure, redesigning service-delivery processes, investing in leadership development, and aligning hospital leadership and IT staff to move forward projects were among the Information Services achievements that Healthcare IT News highlighted in its article.
Audrius Polikaitis, UI Health’s chief information officer, called the EHR project both “tactical and strategic.”
“We’re positioning it as a redesign of workflows, with IT being an enabler,” he told the site.
Polikaitis also noted UI Health’s “flat-organization” structure — directors and C-suite leaders working together with staff — and investments in leadership as keys to IT success.
“How do people get into leadership positions?” he said. “Technically, it’s because they’re the best at their job. But we’re realizing: We don’t prepare people for the leadership role … it was investment into people and leaders, so we saw as an organization how we can improve.”
Recently, UI Health has been building dashboards and Big Data platforms so that providers can access analytics and data in real-time on iPads in the hospital and clinics.
Looking forward, Information Services will begin work on the EHR project, collaborate on the development of an enterprise imaging strategy, and further leverage analytics to bring data more closely into clinical workflows.
