CHICAGO (Sept. 14, 2007) - From less waiting time in the emergency department to improved disease tracking throughout the state, recipients of the HIMSS Davies Awards of Excellence understand the value of health information technology. With five examples of interoperability excellence, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) has announced the recipients of the 2007 Nicholas E. Davies Awards of Excellence in the Organizational, Ambulatory and Public Health categories.

The Davies Awards recognize excellence in the implementation of the electronic health record. Originally created by CPRI-HOST in 1994, the program is named in honor of Dr. Nicholas E. Davies, a practicing physician who believed that the computer-based patient record was needed to improve patient care.

The recipients of the 2007 Davies Awards are:
Organizational

Allina Hospitals & Clinics, Minneapolis, Minn.: This health system includes 11 hospitals and 65 clinics, an operation that serves Minnesota and western Wisconsin. With its vision four years ago as "One Patient, One Record," the Allina system shares patient health information among its sites through its extensive EHR and revenue cycle design.

"The Organizational Davies Award Committee applauds the accomplishments of Allina Hospitals & Clinics," said Brian Jacobs, MD, chair of the Davies Organizational Award committee and CMIO and executive director for the Center for Pediatric Informatics at Children's National Medical Center, Washington, D.C. "This hospital system offers an outstanding example of how health IT can be implemented throughout this healthcare complex to improve the delivery of patient care."

Ambulatory

Valdez Family Clinic, San Antonio, Texas: Valdez Family Clinic is a solo-practitioner operation serving an economically disadvantaged and medically underserved community. The practice of Alicia Valdez, MD, achieving real-time data capture of data, diagnosis, orders and plans at the point of care, has decreased her average time spent per patient note from 10 to two minutes. The electronic health record enables this physician to efficiently provide care to seven exam rooms all in a four-day work week.

Village Health Partners (formerly Family Medical Specialists of Texas): Now an eight-physician practice in Plano, Texas, this family practice in a suburban community was founded in 2001 by Christopher Crow MD, MBA and Sander Gothard MD. The EHR was implemented in 2003. The group is building a medical village with the goal to improve their lives and their patients' by creating a one-stop shopping medical experience.

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