Four N.J. hospitals among nation’s ‘Most Connected,’ U.S. News says

The list includes Hackensack University Medical Center, Morristown Medical Center, Overlook Medical Center in Summit, and St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick.

“HackensackUMC is honored to be listed among the Most Connected Hospitals in America,” said Robert Garrett, CEO and president, Hackensack University Health Network. “In today’s health care industry, technology has never been more important. Patients and their families have never been more engaged.

“Our information technology team, led by Vice President and Chief Information Officer Dr. Shafiq Rab, has done a tremendous job of connecting patients with providers to optimize their health care experience.”

“Digital connectivity has been a focus for our organization as health care becomes more reliant than ever on the real-time sharing of information across care settings and between physicians and patients,” said Linda Reed, vice president and chief information officer, Atlantic Health System. “Through our accomplishments and investment in information technology, we’ve been able to better coordinate care for our patients, not only among our hospitals, but with doctors and providers within the community.”

U.S. News & World Report said these hospitals are shining examples of how medical centers embrace the digital push — and are ahead of a majority of their peers.

“Overall, however, progress has been blocked, among other obstacles, by reluctance to share information with competitors, software from different vendors that can’t communicate, physicians who have pushed back at hospitals where they had to grapple with unaccustomed computerized routines and the expense, often exceeding $1 billion in large hospital systems, of retooling antiquated computers,” according to the publication.

Nationwide, 158 hospitals were on the 2015-2016 list.