PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA — Prisma Health, the largest healthcare provider in South Carolina, has been named the recipient of ECRI’s prestigious 2025 Health Technology Excellence Award. The annual award recognizes exemplary initiatives that enhance patient safety, reduce costs, or improve the strategic management of health technology.
Prisma Health earned the distinction for its innovative approach to building a resilient technology infrastructure and implementing disaster preparedness measures to support its rapidly growing network. With 19 hospitals across 12 campuses and recent expansions—including a merger and the addition of a new community hospital in Tennessee—Prisma Health’s proactive efforts have strengthened patient care and safety across its system.
Key elements of Prisma Health’s strategy included constructing a redundant regional network to ensure 100% uptime, enhancing cellular coverage in hospitals with a multi-carrier distributed antenna system, and redesigning Emergency Department workflows to implement a secure “tap-in/tap-out” login process for more efficient access to electronic health records (EHR). The organization also updated disaster recovery protocols, ensuring uninterrupted care during emergencies.
The effectiveness of these initiatives was put to the test in September 2024 during Hurricane Helene, which caused widespread power outages across the region. Thanks to Prisma Health’s enhanced infrastructure and resilience planning, the health system maintained access to EMRs, delivered continuous care, and restored operations quickly, outperforming many other regional healthcare providers.
“We are incredibly proud of Prisma Health’s technology team for their unwavering commitment to reliable, round-the-clock healthcare delivery,” said Daniel Leonard, Vice President of Technical Services at Prisma Health. “Their innovation, imagination, and collaboration with clinical, facility, and management teams have strengthened our infrastructure and workflows over the past five years. This recognition from ECRI reflects not only their technical excellence but also the strong partnerships that prioritize safety, continuity, and seamless transitions throughout our system.”
ECRI praised Prisma Health’s accomplishments, highlighting its leadership in combining technology with comprehensive planning to ensure patient and clinician safety.
“Prisma Health has demonstrated a system-wide commitment to safe, innovative technology deployment,” said Dheerendra Kommala, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at ECRI. “Their integration of reliable infrastructure, intelligent access solutions, and rigorous continuity planning have enabled uninterrupted care every day, even during natural disasters. Prisma Health not only protected their patients and clinicians – they established a blueprint for resilience that the entire healthcare community would do well to emulate.”
Prisma Health’s achievements underscore its dedication to advancing healthcare delivery while preparing for the challenges of tomorrow, setting a benchmark for excellence in health technology innovation.
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