In partnership with HIMSS Analytics, the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) now offers its members and other health system partners secure access to the a database of the eHealth applications and technologies currently in use within Ontario’s hospitals. This eHealth Technologies and Applications Inventory, is the first of its kind in Ontario.
The registry is an opportunity to reduce the frequency of surveys and other data collection efforts, received by hospitals, often by multiple organizations seeking similar information. By creating a single registry, the OHA serves as a central hub, collecting the information once and making it easily available to a wide range of stakeholders.
The registry also provides organizations with data that can be used to explore eHealth benchmarks and other questions about eHealth adoption and performance. Knowing how a hospital performs compared to others, and what range of capabilities it has, can provide important insight on strategies for improvement, increasing efficiencies, and enhancing system integration. Some examples include:
- Comparing hospital organization IT department’s operating expenses to other organization’s total operating expenses, and those of your peers.
- Finding out how much organizations spend on IT relative to their ability to adopt various capabilities supported by eHealth (e.g., clinical, administrative, financial etc.)
- Knowing what vendors or standards hospitals are supporting when planning an integration of systems across hospitals.
Additional Benchmarking Opportunities:
HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption ModelSM score
Through the OHA’s partnership with HIMSS Analytics, Ontario hospitals can also access quarterly benchmarking scores to help them assess their progress in implementing eHealth solutions and to identify future goals. Developed by HIMSS Analytics, the EMR Adoption Model
SM identifies and scores hospitals using an eight-step scale that charts the path to a fully paperless environment. The EMR Adoption Model score illustrates how an organization compares to similar organizations, and is also an international benchmark.
Click here for a detailed description of each of the EMR Adoption Model stages created by HIMSS Analytics. If you would like more information about the EMR Adoption Model score, please click here
eHealth Status Report for Acute Care Hospitals
For each Ontario acute care hospital participating in the OHA’s eHealth Technologies and Applications Inventory, the OHA now offers a quarterly one-page status report on their eHealth adoption. This dashboard-style report will help hospitals better understand their current level of eHealth adoption within the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption ModelSM. Additionally, it will also provide participating hospitals with more detailed peer comparisons on key eHealth indicators.
How to Access the eHealth Applications Viewer:
If you have already received your username and password (emailed from OHA Password), please CLICK HERE to access the eHealth Applications Viewer.
Please note, only hospitals and health system partners have access to this tool via their OHA Member Login username and password. If you require access or have misplaced your username and password, please email Emi by clicking here.
The OHA – HIMSS Analytics Partnership:
In 2008, the OHA partnered with HIMSS Analytics (www.himssanalytics.org), a wholly-owned, not-for profit subsidiary of Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) that supports improved decision-making for health care organizations, to develop the registry project. The OHA’s role is to continually work with hospitals to populate and refresh the registry. HIMSS Analytics then receives updated information from OHA on a quarterly basis and applies its EMRAM methodology to produce scores for hospitals. HIMSS Analytics also provides participating hospitals with access to a package of benefits, such as benchmarking tools that allow Ontario hospitals to compare themselves with participating hospitals across Canada and the U.S.
For more information about the eHealth Technologies and Applications Inventory or the eHealth Applications Viewer, please contact Martha Murray at mmurray@oha.com