The list of the top 100 Most Wired Hospitals is compiled annually by Hospitals & Health Networks, the journal of the American Hospital Association. Fewer than 30 hospitals have made the list five or more times in its six-year existence.

Studies show institutions utilizing advanced information technology systems see greater operational efficiencies and improved patient care and safety.

At Ohio State, benefits also include enhanced support of research functions and increased opportunities for cost containment, according to Jeff Wilkins, interim chief information officer for OSU Medical Center.

“The Medical Center has embraced the use of technology to improve processes that touch on each of our missions: patient care, education and research,” said Wilkins. “Today, high-quality health care delivery requires not only the expertise of trained medical personnel, but also the support of high-tech applications that help ensure efficiency and patient safety. Ohio State has committed considerable resources to utilizing technology to its full potential and in the process has become recognized as a leader among peer academic medical centers for these efforts.”

Ohio State is aggressively promoting the use of technology at all levels of hospital operation. From using wireless technology to chart patients’ progress and transmitting patient records and images around the world to automatically ordering supplies for precisely timed delivery, the Medical Center is capitalizing on evolving and improved information technology systems that improve operations from the patients’ bedside to the loading dock.

The list of the 100 “Most Wired” hospitals and health systems appears in the July issue of Hospitals & Health Networks. The only other Ohio hospital to make the list of top 100 hospitals is Promedica Health System in Toledo.

The Ohio State University’s academic medical center includes the College of Medicine and Public Health, University Hospital, The Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, University Hospital East, OSU Harding Hospital, the Dorothy M. Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute, a federally designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, a network of community care sites and the Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital, to open in August.

The Ohio State University Medical Center has consistently been named one of America’s best hospitals by U.S. News & World Report magazine. Also, in the nationally acclaimed directory of “Best Doctors in America,” 145 of the 182 central Ohio doctors on the list are affiliated with OSU Medical Center.