HIMSS names Davies Award winners

HIMSS has named both the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics (UIHC) and Lakeland HealthCare of St. Joseph’s, Mich., as 2014 Enterprise Davies Award recipients.

Given out since 2004, the award recognizes “outstanding achievement” of organizations that have utilized health IT to improve patient outcomes while achieving a return on investment, according to the organization.

Lakeland HealthCare, a not-for-profit, community-owned system of care serving a tri-county region in southwest Michigan, has three hospitals, about 30 ambulatory clinics and offers long-term, home care and hospice services. It succeeded in its “big bang implementation” of an EHR system across its acute and ambulatory care settings in 2012 using a “speed to value approach,” according to HIMSS.

Lakeland standardized care by using evidence-based guidelines, and collaboratively developed key performance indicators and a quality-focused, team-oriented culture. As a result, it significantly cut adverse events, hospital-acquired infections and improved population health outcomes, and its improvement initiatives generated nearly $22 million in savings over two years.

UIHC realized a broad range of significant benefits through health IT, including reducing instances of venous thrombosis, sepsis, pneumonia and other clinical conditions. Also, as a result of improved documentation and secondary diagnosis capture, cost avoidance associated with improved clinical outcomes and reduced mortality and length of stay, and incentives paid for quality improvements, UIHC had a net cash flow of more than $50 million from July 2013 to June 2014.

Both will be recognized at the 2014 Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition in Chicago next April.