Alan D. Aviles Wins High Tech Honors

HHC President Alan D. Aviles receives CEO IT Achievement Award

Modern Healthcare magazine and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) have chosen HHC President Alan D. Aviles to receive the national 2007 CEO IT Achievement Award.

The award recognizes Aviles' outstanding success in harnessing the power of information technology to bring safe, effective, and efficient health care to 1.3 million patients. HHC is the only public hospital system in the country to achieve this distinction twice – the first through Elmhurst Hospital Center in 2003.

“The definition of success in clinical IT is the degree to which we use technology to help us improve health-outcomes by creating a culture and environment of patient safety in our facilities, ultimately making patient’s lives longer and healthier,” said Aviles. “This award is shared with every employee, whose cumulative efforts have helped to make HHC one of the most patient-centered and technologically advanced hospital systems in the country.”

Aviles was selected from a nationwide pool of more than 60 chief executives along with John Ferguson, President of Hackensack (N.J.) University Medical Center; and Michael Murphy, President of Sharp HealthCare, San Diego.

“It takes superior leadership and unwavering commitment to navigate the complex and lengthy process to deploy IT systems,” said Fawn Lopez, publisher of Modern Healthcare. “We congratulate this year’s recipients for their superior leadership, courage, dedication and vision. They are true champions of IT in healthcare.”

Through investments in advanced IT systems and ongoing patient safety initiatives HHC has:

• achieved a 10 percent reduction in overall patient mortality rates;
• provided every patient with an electronic medical record;
• developed an electronic diabetes registry that monitors 50,000 diabetic patients to improve management and control of their blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels;
• built a computerized asthma registry to monitor asthmatics and facilitate the use of asthma action plans to better manage the disease;
• trained 3,000 nurses in electronic medication administration, which ensures the right patient gets the right medication in right dose at the right time and by the right route; and
• distributed chip-embedded Smart Cards with personal health information to patients, enhancing continuity of care and providing key data in emergencies

June 2007