Donna Hart, Chief Information Officer for the Cook County Health (CCH) recently received a Health Information Technology (HIT) Men & Women Award for enhancing patient care through health IT during the international Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference held in Chicago April 12-16. The award recognizes the year’s top nine health care IT executives and is presented annually by Healthcare IT News.

“In recent years, our health system has made significant strides in implementing cutting-edge health IT solutions, thanks in large part to Donna’s leadership,” said Dr. John Jay Shannon, CCHHS CEO.

“This award recognizes the hard work Donna and her team have put forth in leveraging technology to enhance the care we provide to the communities we serve.”

As CIO, Ms. Hart led the launch of a comprehensive patient portal, MyCookCountyHealth. Through the portal, patients can view lab results, medical documents, future appointments, request medication renewals and communicate with their providers.  The portal can foster increased patient engagement for the more than 319,000 individuals who receive care at CCHHS each year.

Ms. Hart also led CCHHS in achieving Stage 2 Meaningful Use for both hospitals and providers across the entire system in 2014. In achieving this milestone, CCHHS has enhanced continuity of care for its patients, increased provider communication and streamlined clinical processes.

Prior to helming CCHHS’ health IT initiatives, Ms. Hart served in the U.S. Army and Army Reserves for 30 years, achieving rank as Sergeant First Class and a graduate of Chicago State University.