The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Health system is one of 254 hospitals and health systems out of 647 submissions nationwide to receive the Most Wired designation from the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) at their annual meeting Nov. 2. This marks the third consecutive year that MUSC Health has received the designation.

“Medical centers and health systems that are the most wired are also consistently higher performers on quality and safety measures,” said Patrick J. Cawley, MUSC Health CEO and vice president of health affairs, University. “To be recognized for the third time sends a signal to the diverse and widespread community that we are committed to providing excellent care to our patients and their families, and we’ll never stop innovating in order to deliver on that promise. As a provider, it’s not lost on me that we couldn’t do this without our very skilled and dedicated IT team members, and we thank them for their tenacity and hard work in helping MUSC Health achieve this recognition.”

The HealthCare’s Most Wired survey, an industry-standard benchmark study now in its 20th year, traditionally tracked the adoption of health care IT in hospitals and health systems. CHIME took over the Most Wired program and revised the survey questions and methodology this year to highlight strengths and gaps in the industry. The goal is to identify best practices and promote the strategic use of health care IT to elevate the health and care of communities around the world. According to CHIME, designated hospitals and systems do not simply stop at adopting new technologies.

“Healthcare IT has the potential to revolutionize care around the world, but to meet that potential it must be used strategically,” said Russell Branzell, president and CEO of CHIME. “The technology is important, but leadership and a strategic vision are equally important. The diversity of the organizations that earned Most Wired status this year shows quality care can be achieved almost anywhere under the right leadership. By sharing the best practices in Most Wired, we hope quality care will one day be available everywhere.”      

Michael Caputo, MUSC and MUSC Health chief information officer, who leads the information technology team, said, “It’s an honor to be named a Most Wired hospital again this year, and this is terrific recognition for our team’s continued effort to provide the best information services and support to our employees, faculty, students, and patients.” In addition to the IT team at MUSC, Caputo also wanted to recognize the efforts of those MUSC Health team members “who use our various IT products and their due diligence in making practicing good cyber security and working with us as partners as we continue to move the future of IT at MUSC forward.”

In addition to the Most Wired award from CHIME, Caputo was recognized by Integrated Media Publishing and AcumenIT with the South Carolina Chief Information Officer Lifetime Achievement award on Nov. 1 at the S.C. State Museum in Columbia. He was also recognized along with 13 other chief information officers as recipients of the SC CIO Award, which honors South Carolina-based CIOs, CISOs, CTOs, VPs of information technology, IT directors, etc., who have demonstrated the ability to work productively with business partners, align technology direction with a company's strategy, promote internal or external innovation, grow their information technology team, and demonstrate strong leadership and involvement in their community.