University of Colorado College of Nursing

Clinical Agencies

Health care informatics established partnerships with various clinical agencies throughout Colorado and across the United States. This is particularly important given federal initiatives to insure the meaningful use of electronic health records by 2014.

Here is a sampling of clinical agencies. Many have informatics specialists that work and serve as preceptors for our learners.

University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) is an academic teaching hospital associated with the University of Colorado. Our long-standing history with UCH had provided a wealth of learning experiences for our local students. UCH has received international recognition for excellence in nursing by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program® for the third consecutive time. The hospital is transitioning to EPIC and there are many opportunities for clinical experiences and research projects.

Centura Health is the largest health care network in Colorado formed in 1996 by sponsors Catholic Health Initiatives and Adventist Health System. Centura Health’s “System of Care” currently consists of 12 hospitals, seven senior living communities, 55 medical clinics, seven surgery centers, nine imaging centers, Flight For Life® Colorado and home care and hospice services. Informatics nurses from each of the hospitals participate in our healthcare informatics network and are under the leadership of Gerry Furlong, RN MS, a graduate of our program.

Children’s Hospital, an affiliate hospital of the University of Colorado, is consistently ranked as one of the top 10 children's hospitals in the nation. The Children's Hospital received Magnet Status from the American Academy of Nursing in October, 2005. Dr. Michael Kahn, associate professor in our informatics option serves as the Director of Clinical Informatics and Quality and Patient Safety at Children’s Hospital.

Denver Health is celebrating 150 years of service to the Denver community. They are leaders in transforming health care through health information tools. According to Greg Veltri, CIO, Denver Health has invested more than $300 million in ground-breaking information technology solutions since 1997, enhancing patient care through quality health care and efficiency. (150 Years of Level One Care for ALL).

Business Community

McKesson Provider Solutions is a long standing partnership. Several years ago, the College of Nursing joined forces with this company to create a unique partnership. The overall goal of this partnership is to provide leadership in the field of nursing informatics and the further development of nursing informatics as a discipline. This partnership was designed to share intellectual and social capital to advance nursing informatics through educational and research opportunities. The partnership also allows for the use of intellectual capital to brainstorm new developments, designs and to test the usability of new products.

Thomson Reuters is the leading provider of decision support solutions that help organizations across the health care industry improve clinical and business performance. It is built on the strength of leading health care brands including Medstat, MercuryMD, Micromedex, and Solucient. We work with the local office to participate in usability testing of nursing products and their Micromedex Academic Program.

Cerner Corporation provides a variety of health information technology solutions. Roy Simpson, vice president of nursing informatics, has served on our advisory board and is an associate faculty member. This organization provides an academic education solution that is used by many schools of nursing to educate their students using an electronic health record.