Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) is one of 19 health systems in the United States to receive “Most Wired Advanced” designation in Hospital & Health Network’s (H&HN) “Most Wired” listing for 2016.

LVHN is the only health system in the region and one of four in Pennsylvania to receive the Most Wired Advanced designation. A total of 363 health systems (21 in Pennsylvania) qualified for the Most Wired list this year following a survey completed by representatives of about 40 percent of U.S. hospitals. It’s the 12th time since 2003 that LVHN ranks among the Most Wired systems, including the last 11 years in a row.

To receive the award, LVHN achieved high marks on a survey that examines how organizations are leveraging information technology to improve performance for value-based health care in the areas of infrastructure, clinical integration, quality and safety and business and administrative management.

“The Most Wired Advanced designation is a tribute to LVHN’s commitment to deploying and using the best health information technology available, particularly clinical information technology,” said Michael Minear, senior vice president and chief information officer for LVHN. “Building on years of advancements, over the last two years the organization has deployed the Epic electronic health record (EHR), which includes clinical software improvements across the continuum of care.”

The Epic EHR project at LVHN includes the rapid growth of the myLVHN patient portal, which supports more than 100,000 patients to view their medical records, share secure messages with their clinical providers, schedule appointments, renew prescriptions and pay their bills. Additional innovations in the patient portal include upcoming implementation of eVisits (a secure electronic clinical visit) and vVisits (two-way video encounters between patients and clinical providers).

“A key value from the Epic EHR is the ability to share patient records between care providers in the community,” Minear said. “LVHN has shared more than 250,000 patient records, both coming into LVHN’s EHR or going out to other care provider’s EHR systems. Sharing patient records across the community gives all providers a much more complete clinical record to manage patient care.”

Other H&HN designations LVHN has received include Most Wireless (2003; 2007-10), Innovator Award (2006, 2007) and finalist for the Innovator Award (2011, 2012).