MCG Health Receives WEDI’s 2021 Excellence in Health IT Award


MCG Health

MCG Health, part of the Hearst Health network

“We congratulate MCG Health on receiving this award and for working collaboratively with WEDI to educate and support industry stakeholders to promote the efficient exchange of healthcare information.” – Charles W. Stellar, President and CEO of WEDI

MCG Health, part of the Hearst Health network and industry leader in evidence-based guidance, has been announced as the recipient of WEDI’s 2021 award for Excellence in Health IT. WEDI (Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange) is the leading authority on the use of health IT to efficiently improve health information exchange, enhance care quality and reduce costs and is a formal advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). This honor recognizes an organization that has contributed to the advancement of health information technology (HIT) and made significant progress towards administrative automation. The award was announced at WEDI’s Annual Membership Meeting, held virtually on December 15, 2021.

In response to the challenges posed by the ongoing pandemic, MCG has deployed multiple clinical decision support solutions that help healthcare organizations successfully improve operational efficiency. These solutions include addressing nursing shortages, automating prior authorization decisions resulting in timelier treatments, and optimizing population health data to improve clinical outcomes. Utilizing new technologies such as artificial intelligence and SMART on FHIR, these platforms prioritize hospital casework based on patient-specific data in the electronic health record (EHR) and enhance clinical documentation between payers and providers. In addition, a major health plan in the Pacific Northwest was able to use MCG’s real-time prior authorization technology to reduce wait times on authorization decisions to an average of 20 seconds for over 200 well-defined medical policies. This meant patients could have their treatment begin immediately rather than after days or weeks.

Since 2019, MCG has also been an Associate Member of the HL7® Da Vinci Project, a group of industry stakeholders, leaders, and health IT technical experts working together to accelerate the adoption of HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (HL7® FHIR®). As part of that role, MCG held a free webinar series in 2021 to educate the payer and provider communities on the mutual benefits of implementing the new HL7® Da Vinci standards to reduce authorization burdens. These webinars drew nearly 6,000 healthcare professionals.    

“The MCG team is proud to be recognized by WEDI for our contributions to advancing healthcare interoperability and automation,” said Jon Shreve, President and CEO of MCG. “This award not only reflects the dedication and passion of MCG’s staff but also of the many health plans, hospitals, and alliance partners who have joined us on this journey.”

Charles W. Stellar, president and CEO of WEDI, added, “We congratulate MCG Health on receiving this award and for working collaboratively with WEDI to educate and support industry stakeholders to promote the efficient exchange of healthcare information.”

About MCG Health

MCG, part of the Hearst Health network, helps healthcare organizations implement informed care strategies that proactively and efficiently move people toward health. MCG’s transparent assessment of the latest research and scholarly articles, along with our own data analysis, gives patients, providers, and payers the vetted information they need to feel confident in every care decision, in every moment. For more information visit http://www.mcg.com or follow our Twitter handle at @MCG_Health.

About Hearst Health

The mission of Hearst Health is to help guide the most important care moments by delivering vital information into the hands of everyone who touches a person’s health journey. Care guidance from Hearst Health reaches the majority of people in the U.S. The Hearst Health network includes FDB (First Databank), Zynx Health, MCG, Homecare Homebase, and MHK (formerly MedHOK). Hearst also holds a minority interest in the precision medicine and oncology analytics company M2Gen. Follow Hearst Health on Twitter @HearstHealth and LinkedIn @Hearst-Health.

About WEDI

WEDI is the leading authority on the use of health IT to improve health care information exchange in order to enhance the quality of care, improve efficiency, and reduce costs of our nation’s health care system. WEDI was formed in 1991 by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and was designated in the 1996 HIPAA legislation as an advisor to HHS. WEDI’s membership includes a broad coalition of organizations, including hospitals, providers, health plans, vendors, government agencies, consumers, not-for-profit organizations, and standards development organizations. To learn more, visit http://www.wedi.org and connect with them on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Contact

Arri Burgess

MCG Health

Tel: 206 389 5405

Arri.Burgess@mcg.com

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