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Sacred Heart Health System Earns Most Wired Hospital Distinction
PENSACOLA – Sacred Heart Health System is one of only 22 health care facilities in Florida to be named a 2017 Most Wired Hospital, according to results of the 19th Annual Health Care’s Most Wired® survey released by the American Hospital Association. The distinction recognizes the use of technology to improve communication, patient safety and patient-provider relationships.
Most Wired Hospitals use smart phones, telehealth and remote monitoring to create more ways for patients to access services and capture health information. Technology is used at Sacred Heart to maintain electronic health records that contain a patient’s medical history, nurse notes, physician notes, results of testing and monitoring and other details of the patient’s health. Technology is also for supply tracking, medication tracking, providing a patient portal that gives patients access to their personal health information and using the internet to provide patient education.
In all of its applications, technology enhances patient safety at Sacred Heart in many ways. The hospital’s electronic orders entry system, for example, decreases the risk of error, provides greater clarity and legibility than handwritten orders and expedites care. Likewise, a system that transmits real time alerts when a patient’s lab values are outside normal readings allows providers to respond immediately with appropriate intervention.
A similar level of technology use and innovation at Providence Hospital in Mobile earned that facility Most Wired Hospital recognition, too. Sacred Heart and Providence are both part of Ascension, the largest non-profit health system in the U.S. and the world’s largest Catholic health system, operating 2,500 sites of care – including 141 hospitals and more than 30 senior living facilities – in 24 states and the District of Columbia.Seventeen Ascension hospitals and health systems were included in the Most Wired Hospital list.
HealthCare’s Most Wired® survey, conducted between Jan. 15 and March 15, 2017, is published annually by Hospitals & Health Networks. The 2017 Most Wired® survey and benchmarking study is a leading industry barometer measuring information technology (IT) use and adoption among hospitals nationwide. The survey of 698 participants, representing an estimated 2,158 hospitals – or 39 percent of all U.S. hospitals – examines how organizations are leveraging IT to improve performance for value-based health care in the areas of infrastructure, business and administrative management, quality and safety, and clinical integration. More information is available at
Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola is a 566-bed regional medical center that was founded by the Daughters of Charity in 1915. The hospital offers a Level II Trauma Center, a Cancer Center affiliated with MD Anderson Cancer Network, a Heart and Vascular Institute, The Studer Family Children’s Hospital at Sacred Heart, the regional center for high-risk pregnancy and the area’s most preferred Maternity and Women’s Center. Sacred Heart has been recognized for 17 consecutive years with the National Research Corporation’s Consumer Choice Award, selected by residents in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties as the area hospital with the best overall quality, reputation and doctors
About Sacred Heart Health System
On the Gulf Coast, Sacred Heart Health System based in Pensacola, Florida, and Providence based in Mobile, Alabama, are part of Ascension. Together, these Ascension healthcare facilities have served Gulf Coast communities for more than 160 years and they employ more than 6,600 associates. Across the region, Ascension provided more than $113 million in community benefit and care of persons living in poverty in fiscal year 2016. Ascension is a faith-based healthcare organization committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. Ascension is the largest non-profit health system in the U.S. and the world’s largest Catholic health system, operating 2,500 sites of care – including 141 hospitals and more than 30 senior living facilities – in 24 states and the District of Columbia. For more on Sacred Heart Health System, visit