Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH) has once again been recognized as one of the world’s “most wired” hospitals, earning Level 9 certification from the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME).

The Most Wired survey and certification program serves as a comprehensive “Digital Health Check” for healthcare organizations across the nation. Unique in the industry, the certification reflects a provider’s commitment to the digital transformation necessary to deliver today’s best patient care. The survey criteria go far beyond a typical IT survey or adoption scale to broadly evaluate an organization’s philosophies, programs, processes and outcomes.

As success in digital health increasingly determines the quality of patient care, the scope of the CHIME Digital Health Most Wired survey reflects the progress of leading healthcare providers as they reinvent healthcare for a new century. The award also gives organizations the data and insight needed to strive for improvement and reach for higher levels of impact on an annual basis.

More than 36,000 facilities were represented in the 2021 survey, a 20 percent increase from the number of facilities represented in the previous year’s survey. These impressive gains reflect the ongoing drive toward digital transformation in healthcare during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Levels 9–10: In addition to meeting the criteria for levels 1–8, organizations in level 9 or 10 are often leaders in healthcare technology who actively push the industry forward. Not only have many of them implemented advanced technologies, but they often leverage these technologies in innovative ways and have encouraged deep adoption across their entire organization.

As a result, they are realizing meaningful outcomes, including improved quality of care, improved patient experience, reduced costs, and broader patient access to healthcare services.

Some of the advanced technologies used to achieve these outcomes include telehealth solutions, price-transparency and cost-analysis tools, access to data at the point of care, and tools to engage patients and their families throughout the care process.