Becker's Hospital Review

68 CIO / HEALTH IT 'Best in KLAS' 2021 rankings: 6 insights By Jackie Drees E pic nabbed the No. 1 spot on KLAS Research's 2021 Overall Software Suite Rankings for the 11th consecutive year. For its annual "Best in KLAS" rankings, KLAS Research compiles in- sights gathered from clinicians and staff at more than 4,500 hospitals and 2,500 clinics about their software and products preferences. The report is based on more than 22,000 evaluations the firm completed in 2020. The overall software suite ranking is for vendors that offer a suite of prod- ucts clients would purchase to address their core IT needs, such as clinical and financial components. Here is a list of six award winners: • Best overall software suite: Epic • Best overall physician practice vendor: Epic • Best overall IT services firm rankings: Galen Healthcare • Best overall healthcare management consulting firm: Chartis Group • Best acute care EMR (community hospital): Meditech Expanse • Best ambulatory and post acute care behavioral health EMR: Cerner Mil- lennium Behavioral Health n UPMC develops AI tool to predict mortality for patients facing hospital transfer By Katie Adams U PMC researchers created a machine learning-powered tool that can rap- idly predict mortality for patients facing a transfer between hospitals to obtain higher-acuity care, the Pittsburgh-based health system announced Feb. 8. e research team used data from nearly 21,000 patients who were transferred to a UPMC hospital during a one-year period to create the tool, called SafeNET, short for "Safe Nonelective Emergent Transfers." Aer studying mortality risk tools currently used in intensive care units and admission settings, the researchers compiled a list of 70 independent variables used in one or more of these models, including vital signs, patient demographics and lab tests. ey then exam- ined UPMC billing data and inpatient EHRs to determine if those variables were record- ed by the receiving hospital, focusing solely on those available within three hours of a patient's transfer. e list of variables was then cut down to 54, and eventually 14 to create the SafeNET algo- rithm, which can rapidly predict in-hospital, 30-day and 90-day mortality for patients at the time of transfer and deliver the results to physicians in less than five minutes. "Our overarching goal was to provide much-needed information to front-line phy- sicians to trigger and inform shared decisions about the highest risk patients," Daniel Hall, MD, one of the researchers, said in a news release. "is tool could help to direct addi- tional resources to these patients to ensure that the plan of care is consistent with the patient's values and goals. Frequently, trans- ferred patients and their families don't under- stand the severity of the illness they are facing and have unrealistic expectations about the outcomes that a transfer for higher-level care will produce." n Washington health systems move COVID-19 vaccine clinics to Microsoft's campus By Jackie Drees K irkland, Wash.-based EvergreenHealth and Bellevue, Wash.-based Overlake Medical Center & Clinics are teaming up with Microsoft to move their COVID-19 vaccine operations to the tech giant's Redmond, Wash., campus. The vaccination site hosted at the Microsoft campus will be open to all eli- gible people in the community, according to a Feb. 3 Microsoft blog post. EvergreenHealth and Overlake will manage administration of the vaccines and will work with public health officials in Seattle as well as Washington's King County to scale vaccination efforts. Microsoft will provide technology, staffing resources and facility sup- port for the clinic. All vaccines will be administered by third-party healthcare professionals. Starbucks is also contributing to the clinic site by offering workflow optimi- zation and operational support. Microsoft will cover the costs of the vaccina- tion site, including staffing, supplies and administration costs. The vaccine clinic will be open to all uninsured Washington residents, and Microsoft said it will be open to all once the state's initial ramp-up phase is finished. n

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