Numerous Northwell Health hospitals were honored for their communications technology by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, or CHIME, in the results of their 2020 Digital Health Most Wired survey.
The annual assessment looks at how hospitals use information technology to enhance patient safety and quality-of-care priorities, as well as their public health and administrative processes.
In the survey’s Acute section, North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, and Glen Cove Hospital were all listed at level eight, the second-highest in the category.
Fellow Northwell institutions Huntington Hospital, Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan; · Long Island Jewish Forest Hills in Queens; Long Island Jewish Valley Stream; Plainview Hospital; South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore; Staten Island University Hospital; and Syosset Hospital were also included at the eighth level.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the health system has used the communication platform to facilitate clinical collaborations as well as manage emergency operations and preparedness of Northwell hospitals located in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester. Additionally, a locally developed chatbot system, NORA, was used to push critical information to clinicians as well as enable clinicians to ask for needed information with simple typed or voice commands.
Other technology that Northwell utilizes and adapted for use during the peak of the pandemic include artificial intelligence/machine learning predictive models to track clinical course and status of patients, as well as wearable biosensors for continuous monitoring of patient vital signs.
“This year has been challenging for us at Northwell Health. The COVID-19 pandemic has required us to use information technologies to a degree like never before,” said John Bosco, senior vice president and chief information officer at Northwell Health, who oversees the IT function of one of the nation’s largest integrated health care systems. “Our ‘Most Wired’ designation this year recognizes our ability to develop health IT infrastructure that can adapt to the needs of an ever-changing environment, including a global health crisis.”
The system says it has an IT team of more than 2,000 employees working across the health system’s 23 hospitals and 800 outpatient physician practices and ambulatory facilities.
