The New Zealand Ministry of Health has completed a nationwide survey of acute hospitals and their rankings according to the HIMSS electronic medical record adoption model (EMRAM) scale, which will now be used to develop a plan to help district health boards reach the highest score of level 7.

First announced by Health Minister Jonathan Coleman at the HINZ conference in Christchurch last year as one of four new initiatives of what is now being called Digital Health Work Program 2020, the project will eventually develop a “blueprint” for digital hospitals to guide investment decisions and to benchmark hospitals against others in New Zealand and around the world.