Electronic Medical Records at The Mount Sinai Medical Center Shown to Greatly Improve Quality of Care
Mount Sinai leadership applauds NYC Mayor Bloomberg, CDC Chief Tom Frieden for expanding NYC EMR initiative to help improve patient care.
The long-term implementation of the Epic Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system at The Mount Sinai Medical Center has resulted in improved quality of care for patients, mirroring results recently announced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden, MD, regarding New York City's own EMR program and its impact on patient care. Since Mount Sinai implemented the first phase of its $120 million Epic EMR system in 2006, the program has expanded to cover inpatient and outpatient services, the Icahn School of Medicine, and Mount Sinai Queens.
"Epic EMR is a major tool for measuring and improving quality of care for patients with chronic disease, especially hypertension, diabetes, asthma, and congestive heart failure – and we have seen its successful implementation here at Mount Sinai," said Mark Callahan, MD, Senior Vice President for Ambulatory Care at The Mount Sinai Medical Center. "Electronic medical records are invaluable in assisting our clinicians to help manage complex patients in ambulatory and inpatient settings, and to attain the highest standards of evidence based-medicine. Mount Sinai continues to meet with members of the NYC REACH program, which helps providers adopt EMR and other technologies to improve health outcomes in New York City, and we applaud the leadership of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City's public health officials in helping to increase the adoption of EMRs around the city and across the country."
In late 2012, Mount Sinai received the prestigious Davies Award of Excellence from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) in recognition of its EMR system. Among other reasons, HIMSS cited Mount Sinai's use of Epic EMR to reduce Medicare readmissions by 56 percent, and – as the following table shows – for other increased hospital quality measures, such as provision of discharge instructions for patients and dispensing antibiotics prior to surgery.
In March 2012, Mount Sinai installed the first phase of Epic Beacon EMR in its chemotherapy infusion suites, later expanding to inpatient and ambulatory services. A survey showed nearly 80 percent of staff using Epic Beacon EMR increased efficiency and improved the quality of patient care. And in April 2013, the $20 million rollout of Epic EMR at Mount Sinai Queens will be completed.
"Mount Sinai is among the leaders of the EMR revolution, and our goal is to remain at the forefront of this technology to continually elevate quality care and patient safety," said Kumar Chatani, Senior Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer at The Mount Sinai Medical Center.
Last year, Mount Sinai was named to the "Most Connected" list by U.S. News & World Report, as a national medical institution recognized for clinical excellence that is also at the forefront in the use of digital technology. Mount Sinai placed higher on the list than any other hospital in the New York City metropolitan area.
About The Mount Sinai Medical Center
The Mount Sinai Medical Center encompasses both The Mount Sinai Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Established in 1968, the Icahn School of Medicine is one of the leading medical schools in the United States, and is noted for innovation in education, biomedical research, clinical care delivery, and local and global community service. It has more than 3,400 faculty in 32 departments and 14 research institutes, and ranks among the top 20 medical schools both in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and by U.S. News & World Report.
The Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is a 1,171-bed tertiary- and quaternary-care teaching facility and one of the nation's oldest, largest and most-respected voluntary hospitals. In 2012, U.S. News & World Report ranked The Mount Sinai Hospital 14th on its elite Honor Roll of the nation's top hospitals based on reputation, safety, and other patient-care factors. Mount Sinai is one of 12 integrated academic medical centers whose medical school ranks among the top 20 in NIH funding and by U.S. News & World Report and whose hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll. Nearly 60,000 people were treated at Mount Sinai as inpatients last year, and approximately 560,000 outpatient visits took place.
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About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with more than 43,000 employees working across eight hospitals, over 400 outpatient practices, nearly 300 labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time — discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 7,300 primary and specialty care physicians; 13 joint-venture outpatient surgery centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and more than 30 affiliated community health centers. We are consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals, receiving high "Honor Roll" status, and are highly ranked: No. 1 in Geriatrics and top 20 in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology/Lung Surgery, Rehabilitation, and Urology. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked No. 12 in Ophthalmology. U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Children’s Hospitals” ranks Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital among the country’s best in several pediatric specialties.
For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.