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Healthcare, Policy

How top US care network stays ahead

By Jianggan Li | 9 February 2010

Over the past ten years, Intermountain Healthcare’s integrated healthcare systems have been ranked the first five times and the second three times among nearly 600 American care providers evaluated by leading research institutions.

These rankings measured efficiency, communications as well as cost and quality of care. Intermountain, which operates 21 hospitals in the states of Utah and Idaho and employs more than 28,000 people, has also received several other awards for its electronic medical records and evidence-based medical care guidelines.

The healthcare system has been working ‘consistently’ on computerising and improving its clinical systems for the past 35 years. “One important factor for Intermountain’s success is evidence-based care, with years of clinical knowledge captured in their EMR system to make real time Clinical Decision Support,” Blair Butterfield, GE Healthcare’s Vice President for eHealth, told FutureGov.

Butterfield’s team has been working on Intermountain Healthcare’s clinical IT systems for a number of years. He adds that in many places, the best clinical knowledge is kept in doctors’ heads but not captured in a proper software system to benefit the organisation as a whole.

At Intermountain, processes used in treating the patients are carefully measured, analysed and documented. And from this knowledge, guidelines are developed for clinicians across the entire network to follow. Butterfield added that it was critical to their success that these guidelines are ‘rigorously promoted among all their practices’.

A clear example Intermountain often used to describe the usefulness of their IT decision support system is a picture of a large room with lots of equipment. A baby was placed in the centre of the room but viewers of the image often failed to notice him. “Doctors are often inundated by information and have to make decisions based on it,” Butterfield adds. “Therefore, he or she has to rely on very powerful processing software to show which pieces of information are important and necessary in a specific settings. This is something human beings might not be able to cope with.”

Butterfield expects that with proper standards in place and responsible use of data, Intermountain’s experience could inspire regional or even national initiatives. “We are beginning to see a connected healthcare ecosystem,” he said. “If you combine clinical knowledge with standards to allow an easy flow of information regionally or nationally, you get a tremendous view of the possibilities.”

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