Digital Health Analytics

Certification Level Definitions

Levels 9–10: In addition to meeting the criteria for levels 1–8, organizations in level 9 or 10 are often leaders in healthcare technology who actively push the industry forward. Not only have many of them implemented advanced technologies, but they often leverage these technologies in innovative ways and have encouraged deep adoption across their entire organization. As a result, they are realizing meaningful outcomes, including improved quality of care, improved patient experience, reduced costs, and broader patient access to healthcare services. Some of the advanced technologies used to achieve these outcomes include telehealth solutions, price-transparency and cost-analysis tools, access to data at the point of care, and tools to engage patients and their families throughout the care process.

Levels 7–8: Organizations in levels 7 and 8 meet the criteria for being designated as Most Wired. These organizations have deployed technologies and strategies (e.g., population health/cost-of-care analytics, HIEs/integration engines, and patient portals) to help them analyze their data and are starting to achieve meaningful clinical and efficiency outcomes. Some of these organizations are experimenting with more advanced technologies, like telehealth, that expand access to care.

Levels 4–6: Organizations in levels 4–6 have made progress in expanding their core IT infrastructure to support internal strategic initiatives. Often, they have implemented basic technologies to protect patients’ health and financial information (e.g., firewalls, spam/phishing filters, endpoint encryption), but they may lack more advanced technologies that would mediate other vulnerabilities. Many are actively collecting patient data electronically; however, they may not effectively leverage the data they collect and may encounter significant barriers in exchanging patient data with external organizations.

Levels 1–3: Organizations in levels 1–3 are in the early stages of developing their technology infrastructure and may still be transitioning, or may have more recently transitioned, to electronic formats for collecting patient data and performing clinical activities. Some may have deployed technologies that capture data (e.g., EMRs, ERP solutions, revenue cycle management solutions) but may not fully leverage the functionality these technologies offer. Additionally, these organizations may still be working to help end users adopt the technologies that have been implemented.

DHMW FAQs

1. How do I receive a pass code or user ID?

Send an e-mail to [email protected] with your organization’s name, city and state, Country. Many hospitals have the same name; please do not forget to include city and state.

2. Can I save the survey and finish it later?

Yes. The survey will automatically save your progress.

3. Is there a way to get a copy of the full survey so I can determine if we want to participate or to research the questions before inputting the answers online?

A PDF of the complete survey will be made available in early April 2021.

4. Some questions require a screenshot. Where should I send the screenshot?

Screenshots should be e-mailed to [email protected].

5. I am filling out the survey for more than one hospital. How do I answer?

If you are filling out the survey for more than one hospital, your answers must reflect the AVERAGE OF ALL HOSPITALS represented.
Example:
For what percentage of pharmaceutical supplies is an electronic order generated when they reach a predetermined par level with appropriate internal controls?
None
1-20%
21-40%
41-60%
61-80%
81-100%
If you are answering the survey for 10 hospitals and 3 of the 10 hospitals order 100% of supplies electronically and the other seven order 0% electronically, you should check the 21-40% box since 30% is the weighted average across the entire system.

6. Can we put the entire hospital campus (3 hospitals) on one survey? Or would you prefer if we filled out a survey for each hospital?

That is a decision for the organization to make. You are able to submit the survey both ways. It may depend on how you would like to be represented, if you prefer to have the health system represented as a whole or if you’d like each individual hospital to receive separate feedback.

7. Are all questions scored?

No. Questions under the categories of “Organizational Information” and “General Information” are used for identification and benchmarking purposes only which will not affect Most Wired status. Additionally, there are questions marked within the survey as “Not Scored”.

8. Should outsourcing or application service provider models be included?

Yes.

9. Should depreciation and IT expenses in other departments be included in IT operating expense?

Yes, these expenses are important to include for total operating costs.

10. What should be included in IT capital?

We usually include the costs for acquisition, licensing and implementation for infrastructure (hardware, storage, network, data center) and software, as allowed by what can be capitalized per GAAP. As an example, we would include the cost of the PACS application, hardware, etc. But we would not include the digital acquisition devices that we added or swapped out over time. IT capital expense includes IT related capital included in the budget of other departments (e.g., lab, radiology, etc.), if known or can be reasonably estimated. Include the total value of capital leases to be signed in the current year.

11. Our organization is planning to have this technology in place later this year. Can I go ahead and answer the question as if we already had it in place?

All technology should be in place by 3/31/2021.

12. When will I know if my organization is recognized?

We will send e-mail notifications by late-August to all participants to let them know if they received a Most Wired designation or not, your organizations benchmark report will be included at that time as well. If you do not receive your benchmark report, please email [email protected].

13. I submitted my survey, but we answered a question incorrectly. Can I correct this?

Yes. Corrections to survey submissions are allowed up to 3 weeks after results have been released to participating organizations.

Past Results

In 2019, an improved system was introduced that allows participating organizations to better benchmark their level of adoption and outcomes achieved. These certification levels will help ensure that the Most Wired program continues to be a catalyst for technology adoption that improves patient outcomes and engagement. Every participating organization will be certified at a level that represents their respective achievements. Levels are based solely on an organizations raw score without consideration for how this score compares to the scores of other participants.

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