Press release
MedCentral Health System’s electronic health record keeping is one of the tops in the country.
MedCentral was among four national winners in Health Data Magazine’s Game Changer competition. The program was established to honor those throughout the health care industry who have made substantial contributions to the development and use of clinical information technology.
Mike Mistretta, vice president of information services and chief information officer, submitted the winning entry. He noted when he joined MedCentral in 2006 the health system had document scanning and not much else.
Now the health system is approaching the pinnacle of technology on the health information management scale. Under Mistretta’s leadership, MedCentral has automated its inpatient documentation, built out an electronic order entry system, added bar code technology to medication administration, deployed boutique applications in high-risk service lines such as surgery and obstetrics, implemented an ambulatory EHR among its employed physicians and tied it all together in a common data repository.
MedCentral is part of a regional health information exchange that connects some 50 nursing homes, the local federally-funded qualified health care center and a group of 250 independent physicians with staff privileges.
“Our contest entry was a basic write-up on our use of technology and the impact it has on safety outcomes and compliance,” said Mistretta, who noted he has been pushing for the use of technology throughout his eight years as head of the health system’s I.T. Department.
“We are way above the national average now,” he said.
Profiles of Mistretta and the three other national winners were published in the January 2014 issue of Health Data Magazine.
Gary Baldwin, editorial director of the magazine, said the judges enjoyed Mistretta’s entry and were impressed by MedCentral’s accomplishments in the field of technology.