Grande Ronde Hospital named health category finalist at honors laureate event
Contact: Mardi Ford
ACCEPTING THE AWARD FOR HEALTHCARE INNOVATIONS IN NORTHEAST OREGON: Jim and Jan Mattes and Doug and Susie Romer at the 2012 Computerworld Honors Laureate Program Gala in Washington, D.C.
LA GRANDE —June 25, 2012—Grande Ronde Hospital was named a Laureate Finalist in the Health Category at the 2012 IDG Computerworld Honors Program Award Gala held June 4 in Washington, D.C. From a field of 20 Laureates, Grande Ronde Hospital (GRH) was chosen as a Finalist for the 21st Century Achievement Award for recognition of its efforts in using remote presence technology to improve the cost of, and access to, specialty medical care for rural Northeast Oregon patients
Jim Mattes, GRH CEO and President, and Doug Romer, Executive Director of Patient Care Services for GRH, attended the event at the invitation of IDG Computerworld, Inc. held June 04 at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C. They were among 200 guests from all over the world.
"We were honored to have the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with so many innovative and dedicated individuals from around the globe. The level of expertise and achievement these people brought to this program was extremely impressive," said Mattes.
"Only after seeing the level of competition in this program did we fully realize the unprecedented honor of just being named a 2012 Laureate," added Romer. "I can't begin to tell you what it meant to be sitting there in that crowd and have them announce Grande Ronde Hospital, La Grande, Oregon, had also been chosen as one of four Laureate Finalists for Health."
In March 2012, GRH was notified it had been named a 2012 Laureate for the honors program in the Health category after submitting an overview of its efforts over the past five years in leveraging remote presence technology. The overview also highlighted GRH's pioneering efforts early on with the Oregon Medical Board, state legislators, the groundbreaking development of new statewide and regional networking alliances as well as the specialty education and services brought into the region via GRH's Telemedicine program.
That submission was selected from more than 500 nominations from 25 countries as one of 200 honorees across 10 categories of 20 Laureates each. Of those 20, the top four Laureate Finalists and the winning 21st Century Achievement Award in each category were announced during the gala.
The top spot for the 21st Century Achievement Award in the Health category went to Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, Calif., for their work in early infant AIDS diagnoses in Kenya. In addition to GRH, the other three Finalists were Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, Ireland; for their work on an integrated in-house health information system for cystic fibrosis patients; Christiana Care Health System, Delaware, for their work on capturing information for provider feedback from a patient symptom self-assessment tool; and Wireless Reach for Qualcomm, San Diego, for developing wireless heart health screening and monitoring via Smartphone 3G networks for rural cardiac patients.
Read the case study outlining the history and progress remote presence technology at GRH here.