VCU news

By Pamela DiSalvo Lepley

RICHMOND, Va. – The Virginia Commonwealth University Health System has been named one of the nation's "Most Wired" hospitals and health systems, according to the 2003 Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study, released today by Hospitals & Health Networks magazine. 

The survey measures the nation's hospitals and health systems on their use of Internet technologies for safety and quality, customer service, disaster readiness, business processes and workforce issues.

"Using state-of-the-art information technology to enhance and improve the quality of our patient care is a major initiative of the VCU Health System," said Dr. Sheldon Retchin, chief executive officer of the VCU Health System and VCU vice president for health sciences.  "We've worked hard in this area, surpassing many of the country's major medical centers, and we are the only health system in Central Virginia to be recognized as a technology leader."

The 100 Most Wired are providing Web-based patient education at the bedside, disease-specific self-assessments online and are linking clinical equipment to feed patient readings directly into the medical record.

"Patient care is at the heart of these initiatives," said Alden Solovy, executive editor of Hospitals & Health Networks, the journal of the American Hospital Association, which has named the 100 Most Wired hospitals and health systems annually for five years.  "Hospitals are empowering patients with information and providing tools to doctors and nurses to improve quality," he said.

Most Wired winners in Virginia include the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Richmond; Carilion Health System, Roanoke; Inova Health System, Falls Church; The Fauquier Hospital Inc., Warrenton (Small and Rural), Mary Washington Hospital, Fredericksburg (Most Improved) and Valley Health System, Winchester.

This year's Most Wired survey was conducted by Hospitals & Health Networks in cooperation with McKesson Corporation and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.

For a list of the Most Wired winners by state or for more information on the survey, contact VCU University News Services at 804.828.1231 or visit www.hhnmostwired.com.