Nicholas E. Davies Ambulatory Care Award of Excellence
January 2007
In 2006, HIMSS announced the Davies Award of Excellence was extended to include all ambulatory physician practices. The purpose of this award is to recognize primary care practices that have succeeded with implementations of Electronic Health Records (EHR)
in their practices and to share their approaches and lessons learned more broadly.
The Davies Award Program was originally created by CPRI-HOST
in honor of Dr. Nicholas Davies, an Atlanta based physician who was committed to improving patient care through better health information management. He was a member of the Institute of
Medicine’s patient record study committee. In April 1991, he was tragically killed in a plane crash with Senator John G. Tower (Rep.) of Texas. His ideals live on through the Davies Recognition Program now managed by HIMSS. During its first eight years, the Davies Award Program focused on large health
systems and issued 18 awards for exemplary efforts. In 2003, the Davies Award Program expanded to include independent primary care practices, granting three awards during the inaugural year.
Recipients of the Ambulatory Care Davies Award will be invited to give their case presentation at the HIMSS Conference in 2008. The recipients must also agree to participate in a “lessons learned” panel discussion at the conference and sign a copyright agreement for including the application paper in the conference proceedings.
Who Can Apply?
Any Independent practice can apply for the award. Vendors may not apply but can assist by providing information or exhibits or by sponsoring research on the value an organization achieves through the EHR implementation.
Physicians and other staff in a qualifying practice need to be incorporating the EHR into routine care and the operation of the practice. Because the Davies Award measures success in terms of the value achieved through implementation, the practice also needs to
have been using the system long enough to describe—and provide evidence of— improvements in efficiency, quality, service, staff or patient satisfaction, as appropriate to the local expectations that led to the investment in the first place. This means fully implemented at all locations, and being used by all staff at least 3 to 4 months prior to submitting the application.
What Counts as an EHR?
The EHR in use must capture and manage medications, the problem list, and at least one other type of patient information (e.g., laboratory test results, notes) and provide some real-time
clinical decision support such as drug checking (drug duplication, drug-drug interaction, drug-allergy checking). This is the bare minimum functionality, and organizations with more robust EHR systems are likely to have a much more impressive story to tell about what they have achieved!
W hat Is Involved in Applying?
The application is an essay, such as what you might submit for publication. The Program Committee reviews submitted applications to select finalists and winners. Submission of an application indicates acceptance of the judges’ decisions. There is no appeal process.
The Davies Recognition Program is not intended to be used as a platform to market your organization’s EHR. The intent is to recognize excellence and share lessons learned, not to proliferate an application for financial gain. Papers are also published to highlight
accomplishments and share approaches and lessons learned. The appropriate length of the application is 10 to 15 pages. Longer
submissions are discouraged. Application deadline for 2007 is April 30, 2007.
Applications should be sent electronically to David Collins at dcollins@himss.org. Potential applicants are encouraged to contact David Collins, HIMSS, Manager, Davies Awards Program at dcollins@himss.org or 703-562-8817 for any questions.
Nicholas E. Davies Ambulatory Care Award
2003-2006 Recipients
2006 Nicholas E. Davies Ambulatory Care Award of Excellence
Cardiology of Tulsa
Alpenglow Medical, PLLC
Piedmont Physicians Group (PPG 775)
2005 Nicholas E. Davies Ambulatory Care Award of Excellence
Wayne Obstetrics & Gynecology
Southeast Texas Medical Associates
Sports Medicine & Orthopedic Specialists
2004 Nicholas E. Davies Ambulatory Care Award of Excellence
Old Harding Pediatric Associates Pediatrics @ the Basin North Fulton Family Medicine
Riverpoint Pediatrics
2003 Nicholas E. Davies Ambulatory Care Award of Excellence
Cooper Pediatrics Evans Medical Group Roswell Pediatric Center
