For more than 10 years, North Kansas City Hospital has been recognized as one of the nation’s Most Wired hospitals.
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives awarded NKCH and Meritas Health quality awards for achieving Digital Health Certified Acute Level 8 and Digital Health Certified Ambulatory Level 8. The annual CHIME Digital Health Most Wired program assesses how effectively healthcare organizations apply core and advanced technologies to their clinical and business programs to improve health and care in their communities.
NKCH and MH have long been dedicated to the use of technology to support provider efforts to improve the patient experience.
Kristen Guillaume
“This recognition represents progress in our journey toward digital transformation,” said Kristen Guillaume, vice president and chief information officer of NKCH and MH. “As we continue to pursue excellence in providing quality care and outstanding customer experiences, we are changing and transforming fundamental business and operational processes with technology.”
With top scores in security and data management, health information exchange, and leveraging data to achieve meaningful clinical and efficiency outcomes, NKCH also is committed to exploring more advanced technologies, like telehealth and artificial intelligence.Guillaume pointed to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the community.
“We quickly pivoted to vaccinate the community, expanded virtual care services, launched a remote work program and innovated to ensure we were removing barriers for clinicians to care for our community,” Guillaume said. “This accolade represents the highest level of CHIME Most Wired achievement for our organization as we continue to collaborate with clinicians and staff to drive adoption of useful technology and analytics across the system.”
More than 36,000 other organizations across the country were certified at levels ranging from 1-10, which includes four separate surveys: acute, ambulatory, long-term care and international acute. NKCH was recognized in the acute category, and MH was recognized in the ambulatory category. The surveys assessed the adoption, integration and impact of technologies in healthcare organizations at all stages of development, from early to industry leading.