Sentara Healthcare in Norfolk, Va. and Nemours in Jacksonville, Fla. are finalists for the Davies Organizational Award from the Health Information and Management Systems Society. The awards will be announced in September and given during the annual HIMSS conference and exhibition in Feb. 20-24, 2011.
Sentara Healthcare has six hospitals, more than 100 physician practices and more than 340 physicians live on its eCare electronic health record system. Nemours is one of the nation's largest health systems devoted to pediatric patient care, teaching and research, and provides clinical care in four states – Delaware, Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It includes the 200-bed Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, which is set on a 300-acre campus near Wilmington, Del.
"The winners of the Davies Award understand that implementing health IT is a strategic decision to improve patient care and outcomes," said David Collins, HIMSS director, healthcare information systems. "These award finalists have put the patient first with the use of technology as a valuable tool for their staffs throughout the organization, describing value in their written application."
The HIMSS Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence, which originated in 1994, acknowledges organizations' use of healthcare IT in four categories: Public Health, Organizational, Ambulatory and Community Health Organizations. The HIMSS Davies Community Health Organization finalist receiving a site visit is Open Door Family Medical Center, Inc. in Ossining, NY. Open Door's patient base of almost 35,000 consists primarily of the working poor: low-income families and vulnerable populations such as Latino immigrants, women and children.
In June six healthcare organizations were named as finalists for the 2010 HIMSS Davies Ambulatory Care and HIMSS Davies Public Health Awards of Excellence. Officials said winners of all four awards would be determined after site visits and final committee votes.
