Case Study: North York General Hospital achieves HIMSS Davies Award for EHR excellence with Cerner

North York General Hospital wins HIMSS Enterprise Davies Award for EHR excellence

North York General Hospital (NYGH), a 419-bed community academic hospital in Toronto with more than 5,000 staff and physicians, set out to improve patient safety, quality and the overall patient experience by modernizing clinical workflows and reducing preventable errors. Facing low baseline rates for medication reconciliation and VTE prophylaxis, NYGH teamed with Cerner on a multi-year transformation to embed evidence-based practice into daily care and qualify for rigorous industry benchmarks.

Using Cerner’s eCare EHR—built around 350+ standardized electronic order sets, CPOE, targeted real-time alerts and closed-loop medication administration—NYGH drove major improvements: medication reconciliation rose from ~40–45% to 87–90% (estimated $31M cost avoidance, 2010–2016); VTE prophylaxis climbed from 50% to ~97%, preventing ~40 VTEs (~39% reduction, ~$1M avoided); and CLMA detected/avoided >11,000 potential medication errors (~$5.7M avoided). These outcomes helped NYGH earn the 2016 HIMSS Enterprise Davies Award.

North York General Hospital

Tim Rutledge

President and CEO