Tim Arnold, MD, Family Medicine, Riverwood
Riverwood Healthcare Center is now certified as a Stage 6 Healthcare facility for use of electronic health records (EHR) by Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics.
“Riverwood began implementing and using an electronic health record system in 2005 long before it was required by federal regulations,” said Dr. Tim Arnold, Riverwood family physician who has served in a lead role in guiding electronic health record use for the medical staff. “In the past 12 years, we’ve continued to advance through EHR stages to the point where we have a fully automated, virtually paperless environment. Thanks to expert Riverwood IT support and dedicated efforts on the part of our providers and staff, the end result is improvements in our clinical practice, quality of care and patient safety.”
Since 2005, HIMSS has been evaluating and tracking hospitals’ use of electronic health records for evaluating implementation and progress. As of May 2017, only one-third of Minnesota hospitals or 48 that are tracked by HIMSS Analytics, have achieved Stage 6. The total number of hospitals and health systems in Minnesota is 142. “HIMSS Analytics congratulates Riverwood for making significant progress towards achieving advanced health IT adoption,” said John H. Daniels, Global Vice President, HIMSS Analytics. “Stage 6 represents a level of sophistication that can lead to innovative healthcare transformation.”
Stage 6 hospitals also have achieved a significant advancement in their IT capabilities that positions them to successfully address many of the current health care 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.