Newsroom

Newsroom

Cincinnati Children’s Named One of Six Innovation Leaders in U.S.

Medical Center Also Earns Top Honors For Element of Electronic Medical Management System

Monday, January 01, 0001

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has earned inclusion in the InformationWeek 500. InformationWeek named Cincinnati Children’s one of six Innovation Leaders in the United States, earning top honors in the Information Security / Privacy category for a component of its electronic medical management system.

Cincinnati Children’s was recognized for a software application called Secure Authentication, which uses fingerprint readers and pass code generators to ensure medication safety and comply with Ohio State Board of Pharmacy regulations for security. Secure Authentication regulates who can prescribe medication and creates a "paper trail" of who administers the medication. The new technology allows greater security than do user names and passwords and provides "greater assurance that the transaction was carried out by an authorized person. In complying with the regulations, Cincinnati Children's design went beyond the board's strict security requirements, allowing the hospital to gain approval for its authentication plan on the first try."

"We have always had secure access to all of our systems, both clinical and financial -- the guiding principle being that users have the security level to access all of the information and functions they need to be able to do their jobs in compliance with all licensing and regulatory requirements,” says Tony Johnston, assistant vice president and chief technology officer at Cincinnati Children's. "Secure Authentication added an additional level of validation of the identity of the system user."

Secure Authentication is a component of a hospital-wide electronic medical record being implemented at Cincinnati Children’s called Epic. The system is being built in collaboration with Epic Systems, which makes software for managing patients' health data, prescription processing, billing, and other tasks. The goals of the project are to streamline patient care management, increase the accuracy and accountability of caregivers treating patients, and support the clinical informatics group. The project has been underway since 2007 and is expected to be completed by 2011.

Cincinnati Children’s was also ranked 118 in the magazine’ ranked list of Top 250 Innovators.

"For 20 years, the InformationWeek 500 has honored the most innovative users of business technology," said InformationWeek Editor-in-Chief Rob Preston. "Year after year, InformationWeek 500 companies harness technology to improve efficiency, boost productivity, drive revenue, and establish a competitive advantage. We applaud this year’s winners, and the CIOs and other executives whose ingenuity and risk taking are at the center of business technology innovation."

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is one of America’s top three children’s hospitals for general pediatrics and is highly ranked for its expertise in digestive diseases, respiratory diseases, cancer, neonatal care, heart care and neurosurgery, according to the annual ranking of best children's hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. One of the three largest children’s hospitals in the U.S., Cincinnati Children’s is affiliated with the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and is one of the top two recipients of pediatric research grants from the National Institutes of Health.

For its achievements in transforming healthcare, Cincinnati Children's is one of six U.S. hospitals since 2002 to be awarded the American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize® for leadership and innovation in quality, safety and commitment to patient care. The hospital is a national and international referral center for complex cases, so that children with the most difficult-to-treat diseases and conditions receive the most advanced care leading to better outcomes.