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New York Methodist Hospital (NYM) was recently certified by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) as an Electronic Medical Record Adoption Stage 7 IT Hospital. This is a distinction shared by fewer than five percent of hospitals around the country. No other hospital in Brooklyn has achieved it.

The HIMSS visited New York Methodist and evaluated the Hospital's information technology systems prior to granting it a Stage 7 certification–the highest designation the organization offers. After achieving Stage 6 standards for data management, interoperability, process integration, and clinical electronics, a hospital can achieve Stage 7 certification by refining clinical and electronic processes further and driving all paper out of the system.

"HIMSS was extremely impressed with the infrastructure, innovations, use of analytics and quality improvement projects at the Hospital," said Parag Mehta, M.D., senior vice chairman of the Department of Medicine and chief medical information officer at NYM. "They were also impressed with the users'—physicians and nurses—cooperation with alerts to improve the quality and culture of organization.

Lauren Yedvab, chief operating officer of NYM, said that the Hospital has been working since 2002 to go completely digital. "Since partnering with the Cerner Corporation and implementing their electronic medical record (EMR) system, we have continuously built on and refined our health information system. This designation shows that NYM not only has the technology in place, but also that it is using it in a way that saves lives," she said. "It has been an incredible journey with a team of the smartest technical staff led by highly engaged physicians and nurses."

"This certification confirms New York Methodist's commitment to pursuing, developing and adapting the most advanced medical information technology," said Mark J. Mundy, CEO and president of the Hospital. "I could not be prouder of the staff who worked tirelessly to get the Hospital to this point." 

The certification will be officially presented to the Hospital at the HIMSS meeting in Orlando in February 2017.