HIMSS Analytics is excited to announce that the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) used to evaluate healthcare services which are rendered outside of a hospital or acute care environment will now be named the Outpatient EMRAM or O-EMRAM. The rollout of this name change will occur over the coming months internationally.

Since 2010 HIMSS Analytics has been using the tool to benchmark physician practices and other points of care. The O-EMRAM was originally called A-EMRAM (Ambulatory) when developed in North America. When use of the model spread across the globe to Europe and Asia, HIMSS Analytics validators were quick to discover that the word “ambulatory” indicated many other meanings in those regions. Tina Hashim, HIMSS Asia-Pac Healthcare Advisory Services staff recalls “The first time I ever said ambulatory EMRAM to someone they actually thought we were validating ambulances of all things!” 

Since most of the organizations being validated were primary care practices, international teams began referring to the model as the Primary Care EMRAM or  PC-EMRAM. The challenge with this title is that the scope of the model is far more than just primary care practices. Specialty practices, urgent care clinics, and long-term care facilities also benefit from the data-driven O-EMRAM.

The model has been quite impactful, and as HIMSS Analytics Healthcare Advisory Services grow, it is important that the world can recognize and relate to the roadmap that so many are using. To date, HIMSS Analytics has provided EMRAM scores for 44,947 outpatient facilities, over 5,700 of which are Stage 6 and over 3,600 are Stage 7. While the percentage of organizations that achieve O-EMRAM Stage 7 varies greatly, the important mission of the model is to raise the bar for outpatient facility use of electronic medical records.