HIMSS Analytics, the research arm of the Chicago-based Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) has announced Banner Health, a Phoenix, Ariz.-based health system, has received its Stage 7 Awardfor 17 of its 23 hospitals, which are located in seven western states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming.  Stage 7 is the highest level on HIMSS Analytics’ Electronic Medical Records Adoption Model (EMRAM) scale, used to track EMR progress at hospitals and health systems.

“While achieving HIMSS Stage Seven for 17 of Banner’s 23 hospitals is an important organizational achievement, the most important beneficiaries are our patients,” Banner Health’s executive vice president and chief medical officer (CMO) John Hensing, M.D., said in a statement. “Our meaningful use of enhanced electronic medical records is integrated into our patient care processes and even targeted to help our clinicians proactively recognize and treat specific and dangerous disorders such as sepsis and delirium,” he added.

Banner Health’s hospital includes the first critical access hospitals (CAHs) that has this high level of EMR sophistication implemented, according to John P. Hoyt, executive vice president of HIMSS Analytics. “With more than 90 percent of all medical orders being directly entered into the system by the medical staff, the quality and safety is significantly enhanced for all Banner patients,” he said. They also have a simulation center for clinician training and creative tools used to build specific views of patient health data.

Banner will be awarded at the 2013 HIMSS Conference in New Orleans in March of next year. According to HIMSS, Banner Health is one of only 66 U.S. facilities, or 1.2 percent, of the more than 5,000 U.S. hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics Database, to be awarded the HIMSS Analytics Stage 7 Award.