Change has been the common theme of the annual Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study. As well it should be. After all, information technology is fundamentally about process improvement. So each year, about one-third of the survey questions are either new or revised, reflecting the evolution of the tools and goals for IT in health care.
This year, however, the Most Wired team made a dramatic, fundamental change. Since 2003, the safety and quality section of the survey accounted for roughly 30 percent of the points used in the survey scoring process. This year, we increased the value of that section to 40 percent to reflect the growing efforts at quality improvement among hospitals generally, and the specific importance of IT to those efforts.
This decision represents a philosophical statement. It will change the results of the analysis, so it was not made lightly. In making the change, we looked carefully at the total allocation of points. Previously, the patient-centric/health outcomes sections of the survey—safety and quality, customer service, and public health and safety—accounted for 60 percent of the total points (see chart, left). The operational sections of the survey accounted for 40 percent.
To make this change, we had to reduce the weight of other sections of the survey. We reduced both the business processes and the workforce sections, which previously were worth 20 percent each, to 15 percent each. For 2008, the operational sections of the survey will total 30 percent of the points on the survey.
Please consider participating in the 2008 survey. Now in its 10th year, it is the only industrywide analysis of health care organizations’ use of IT. Each participating organization receives a custom benchmarking report that compares its answers with those of the 100 Most Wired organizations and is eligible to be named a Most Wired, a Most Wireless, a Most Improved or Most Wired-Small and Rural organization. For more information, go to www.hhnmostwiredsurvey.com.
This article first appeared in the Winter issue of HHN's Most Wired Magazine.
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