GAYLORD -- Otsego Memorial Hospital (OMH) has been recognized as one of the nation's Most Wired hospitals, according to the results of the 2010 Most Wired Survey released in the July issue of Hospitals & Health Networks magazine.

"OMH is dedicated to providing the best patient care possible by increasing quality and patient safety through the use of technology," said Tim Hella, Chief Information Officer at OMH. "With ongoing upgrades and enhancements to our leading-edge technology, we have made high quality advances in not only our clinical areas, but our financial and administrative areas as well."

In 2008 and 2009, OMH was listed on the Most Wired - Small & Rural Hospitals; however for 2010, OMH has been ranked amongst the Most Wired, which includes hospitals of all sizes that have made great strides in improving and enhancing healthcare information technology to better serve patients. OMH was the only hospital in northern Michigan to be named to the Most Wired list for 2010, and only one of four in Michigan.

"It is a great honor for Otsego Memorial Hospital to be named to a Most Wired list for the third year in a row," Hella continued. OMH is one of four hospitals in Michigan to be named to the Most Wired list, and the only hospital in northern Michigan to receive the honor.

The 2010 Most Wired Survey was redesigned this year to reflect two years of work with an advisory group to continually improve the Most Wired Survey, and represents a new structure and methodology with an increased use of analytics and reporting.

The new analytic structure is being used to stratify hospitals based on progress in adoption, implementation and use of information technology in four areas: Infrastructure, Business and Administrative Management, Clinical Quality and Safety (Inpatient/Outpatient Hospital), and Care Continuum (Ambulatory/Physician/Community). Participating organizations will be identified as Foundational, Core, Advanced, Expert or Leader in each of four focus areas for use of IT. The Most Wired designation reflects organizations whose responses reflect "Core" development.

· This year's survey reveals continued progress for hospitals in patient safety initiatives:

· Fifty-one percent of medication orders were done electronically by physicians at Most Wired hospitals, up from 49 percent last year.

· Over half (55 percent) of Most Wired hospitals match medication orders at the bedside through bar coding or radio-frequency identification, up from 49 percent in 2009 and from 23 percent five years ago.

· Additionally, Most Wired hospitals have made improvements when it comes to sharing information during care transitions. For example, new medication lists are electronically delivered to caregivers and patients 94 percent of the time when a patient is transferred within the hospital, 98 percent at discharge and 86 percent when transferred to another care setting.

"The survey results highlight that continued progress is being made but the full potential of health IT has not been meet," says Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association (AHA). "Hospitals embrace health IT and recognize the many benefits it can provide to patients, but even Most Wired hospitals face barriers to adoption. We have asked that the federal government stimulate greater adoption by making Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments more widely available to hospitals and physicians so more hospitals can move in this direction."