Recent News: PatientKeeper Continues its Strong Growth in the MEDITECH Hospital Market
Demand Fueled by the Need for Anytime, Anywhere Access to Patient Information and a Cost Effective Solution for Business Continuity
Boston, MA--July 16, 2008. PatientKeeper®, Inc.™, the leading provider of integrated physician information systems, announces that its MEDITECH customer base has grown to over 200 hospitals, representing a significant portion of the hospitals running MEDITECH in the United States. Across the nation, the market demand for PatientKeeper software is driven by a growing need among hospitals to improve the physician experience with access to data in MEDITECH and other ancillary systems, provide a cost-effective means of accessing clinical data outside the hospital, and to implement a robust business continuity solution to allow all clinicians to access data in MEDITECH when the MEDITECH system is not available.
PatientKeeper software has recently been implemented at a number of MEDITECH facilities including Ohio's Berger Health System, St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Maryland (a member of Catholic Health Initiatives), and Provena St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Illinois.
By adding the PatientKeeper Physician Information System as a layer on top of MEDITECH and other ancillary systems, hospitals deliver a unified view of patient information and provide their physicians with a tightly integrated suite of physician-centric applications. The Physician Information System gives physicians a modern browser-based view of patient data on tablets, laptops and PCs, and offers a mobile companion that runs on most major Smartphones and PDAs.
PatientKeeper's proven integration technology connects disparate systems that physicians typically access throughout their workday into a single physician portal. With a single sign-on, the PatientKeeper Portal enables providers to review clinical data from multiple sources —including lab and test results, EKG, PACS, fetal monitoring, Ambulatory EMRs and medication histories; hand off patients to other physicians at the end of a shift; and electronically sign medical record documentation. This improves physician satisfaction with hospital IT, provides cost-effective remote access to information for the affiliated physician community and extends the value of MEDITECH and other hospital applications.
"What impressed us most about PatientKeeper's portal solution is that not only does it provide a physician-friendly shell over MEDITECH, but it actually integrates clinical information into a physician-centric workflow,” said Andy Chileski, Berger Health System CIO. "Physicians rave about PatientKeeper's Portal and its usability. Some of the physicians have commented that our system now outshines those offered by some of the bigger tertiary facilities in the area.”
Another benefit of the PatientKeeper Physician Information System is that it provides redundancy for clinical information — an effective and economical solution to ensure business continuity during both planned and unplanned MEDITECH system downtime. This capability ensures that physicians and other caregivers will always have the information they need for patient care while supporting the JCAHO guidelines for continuous access to clinical information.
"We are very excited to add these hospitals and their physicians to our growing customer base,” said Paul W. Brient, PatientKeeper president and CEO. "The breadth and depth of our physician applications give our customers the opportunity to expand the capabilities they can offer their physician community to improve patient care. We look forward to working with them as they continue on this bright path.”.
More info: http://www.patientkeeper.com/news_and_events/press_releases/2008/07162008.html
Recent News: Goodall Hospital Connects Community Physicians Electronically to Successfully Obtain Patient Medication History for Medication Reconciliation using RcopiaAC by DrFirst
Rockville, MD--May 21, 2008. Goodall Hospital is pleased to announce that it has successfully linked community physicians with the hospital’s information network to efficiently obtain patient medication history, a key step toward meeting the Joint Commission’s requirement for medication reconciliation. Goodall’s innovative program involved providing subsidies to affiliated physicians for the purchase of DrFirst Rcopia e-prescribing licenses—a move that is encouraged by the recent revisions to the Stark laws. Goodall also partnered with DrFirst to make both these electronic prescription records and other sources of electronic medication history available within the hospital itself through the DrFirst Rcopia AcuteCare (Rcopia AC) medication history service. Through this comprehensive system, Goodall Hospital staff are able to query the physician network to obtain the medication history and allergies for a patient and present this information to a provider or staff member who completes the medication reconciliation process.
“Goodall has created an innovative ‘connected community’ by investing in technologies that serve patients, physicians, and the hospital itself. This solution not only assists Goodall in meeting important accreditation requirements, but also creates a safer care environment for patients,“ said G. Cameron Deemer, President of DrFirst. “Providers benefit, too, through a medication review process that provides a much more complete picture of their patients’ drug therapies. More information translates to fewer adverse drug events for patients.”
The staff of Goodall Hospital has already seen benefits from the technology. In the Emergency Department, providers who otherwise would not have access to prescription information from primary care providers—or who are faced with unresponsive patients—now receive clinically relevant records of both medication therapy and allergic reactions. In these situations, Rcopia AC has provided potentially life-saving information and assisted in avoiding adverse reactions.
“One area that posed a concern initially was that industry standard medication reconciliation databases were returning less than a 50% hit-rate for medication histories. Since that data was beyond our control, DrFirst recommended a re-directed focus on our own affiliated providers to build a community of care by using Rcopia to write electronic prescriptions,” said Charlie Caruso, CIO for Goodall Hospital. “The lifting of the Stark Laws allowed us to provide Rcopia to active practice-based providers, and since then we have achieved a far greater return on medication history queries and allergy information results.”
This project supported Goodall’s desire to invest in technology that supports their Electronic Health Records strategy. DrFirst was chosen because of their strategic partnerships with MEDITECH and LSS, as well as their e-prescribing and medication reconciliation capabilities. The Emergency Department was chosen to pilot this approach because of the department’s significant patient volumes and great need for this information. The solution has now rolled out to other departments within the hospital.
More info: https://radium.drfirst.com/press/pr_goodall080521.htm
Recent News: Boston Software Systems Announces Boston WorkStation 9.7
New Release of Scripting Product Offers Expanded Capabilities for Graphical Applications, Connectivity to All Versions of MEDITECH
SHERBORN, MA--May 20, 2008. Boston Software Systems™, the leader in workflow automation technology to the healthcare market, today announced the latest version of its flagship scripting product, Boston WorkStationT 9.7, with added capabilities for graphical applications and new MEDITECH systems. The new version provides the best approach for connecting with Windows-based applications, and allows users to script to more systems and applications than other products in the industry, including being the only scripting tool that connects with the new MEDITECH Client/Server 5.6 and 6.0.
Boston Software Systems will introduce Boston WorkStation 9.7 at the 2008 International Medical Users Software Exchange (MUSE) Conference, Booth #1100, May 27-30 in Dallas, Texas.
"Smart" Connectivity to Graphical Applications
A new feature of Boston WorkStation is Smart, which expands the product's connectivity capabilities by taking a unique, non-positional approach to locating and interacting with graphical elements. This allows Boston WorkStation to see and do more than any other screen-based scripting tool. It is well-suited to work with Windows applications, browser-based applications, as well as Java applications and applets. Smart allows users to more easily script to many of the systems and applications used in the healthcare industry such as Siemens Soarian®, IDX GroupcastT, PeopleSoft, many practice management systems and any other Windows-based applications.
Smart allows healthcare vendors, who are regularly challenged to connect with Windows applications, to implement their solutions faster against a wider variety of applications and systems.
MEDITECH-Specific Features
Boston WorkStation 9.7 extends the standard connectivity of Boston WorkStation to MEDITECH Client/Server 5.6 and 6.0 users. These new MEDITECH versions are completely redesigned making any previously written scripts unusable. They also lack the scripting application programming interface (API) found in previous versions of MEDITECH systems, making it impossible for scripting tools that connect to MEDITECH via these APIs to function.
The new Navigate command affords MEDITECH users greater flexibility when working with character- and graphic-based menus to find an item based on its name. Rather than relying on arbitrary numbers or directional arrows to select an item, Navigate reads the screen to find the item a user needs. Navigate may also be used to look up lists where a script needs to find a text item.
General Usability Enhancements
Built-in support for all MEDITECH dialog boxes. Users do not need special commands or connections to handle dialog boxes as they write a script. Instead, users can see and script typical dialog boxes, such as Save As, Select Connection or pop-ups within NUI, as if they were regular MEDITECH screens.
A single, enhanced connection for MEDITECH MAGIC combines support for both 3.x and 4.x in a single command.
One-Touch Connect allows fast and easy connection to common applications, such as terminal emulators, Windows applications and Web sites.
Additional status reporting capabilities, including multiple output and progress reports on active scripts.
Screen Documenter automatically takes screen shots.
New emulator connections, including DynaComm, J. River, Lawson LID, Mocha, MultiView 2000 and Companion.
Pricing and Availability
Boston WorkStation 9.7 will be available in Q2 2008. The software is sold as a run-time or developer license, and as a site or enterprise license for use throughout an organization.
More info: http://www.bostonworkstation.com/news_events_integration_software/news_integration_software/boston-software-systems-announces.aspx
Recent News: Boston Software Systems Launches UNISON 3.0
Supports MEDITECH Client/Server 5.6 & 6.0 and Offers Network Configuration and Storage
SHERBORN, MA--May 13, 2008. Boston Software Systems™, the leader in workflow automation technology to the healthcare market, today introduced UNISON™ v3.0 with support for MEDITECH Client/Server 5.6 and 6.0, as well as network configuration and storage capabilities. Built on the Boston WorkStation™ technology, UNISON is a standalone application for hospitals using MEDITECH information systems to accelerate the development of a dictionary synchronization from 30 hours to 20 minutes, and schedule it to occur regularly without human intervention.
UNISON 3.0 offers MEDITECH Client/Server 5.6 and 6.0 users a way to easily synchronize data dictionaries. These new MEDITECH versions have completely redesigned screens and field locations, making any previously written syncs unusable. They also lack the application programming interfaces (APIs) found in previous versions of MEDITECH systems, making it impossible for most scripting tools that connect to MEDITECH via these APIs to function.
UNISON 3.0's network configuration and storage capabilities give hospitals greater flexibility by allowing them to run a synchronization from PCs throughout the organization or to develop a sync that reads dictionary information from a network drive. The ability to present accurate information to clinicians, nurses and administrators depends on the accuracy of the data dictionaries. Since drug, lab, pharmacy, pricing and hundreds of other data points change daily, updating and maintaining this information manually is a massive, time-consuming task. UNISON's added network capability allows hospitals to keep up with the high volume of changes in data dictionaries quickly and easily.
Guelph General Hospital Finds Dramatic Savings with UNISON
Guelph General Hospital (GGH), a 181-bed, acute care facility providing a full range of services to the residents of Guelph and Wellington County in Ontario, Canada, has been using UNISON extensively to sync dictionaries across four facilities. "Synchronizing from test to live has always been labor intensive," says Doug Mitchell, Integrations Analyst, Guelph General Hospital. "But without maintaining the two systems, we run into problems later on because it is necessary to effectively test new changes or enhancements before moving the dictionaries to the live environment."
Since working with UNISON, GGH has synchronized approximately 70 dictionaries for all four sites. Mitchell estimates that by using UNISON, GGH has saved about 40 percent of the time they had planned for dictionary building.
"I can't even imagine how much time it would have taken to get all the syncs done manually, and it would contain any number of errors," says Mitchell. "Even using traditional scripting tools would have been more difficult. UNISON is designed specifically for dictionary maintenance so it's much faster to develop and run the sync."
"Of the 70 dictionaries, some of the more critical ones like lab test were more difficult to synchronize than others due to variable screens and pop-up prompts. Automating the synchronization of just the Lab Test dictionary saved GGH 40 hours," Mitchell adds.
GGH recently implemented the third phase of its lab dictionary synchronization. By reusing the same sync that it had developed in November, staff could feed a different subset of tests, and the dictionaries were automatically synchronized. Users can now copy a sync as many times as necessary, saving weeks of time. UNISON has also allowed staff more flexibility when maintaining dictionaries by allowing them to synchronize as little as one data element, one screen of data or just certain sections of data.
"UNISON is a valuable addition to our product offerings, as it allows hospitals to provide consistent and current data to all departments. Based on customer demand and feedback, we have continued to offer enhancements that address specific and industry-wide needs," said Sara McNeil, President, Boston Software Systems. "Boston Software Systems is continuously applying innovative technology to enable hospitals of all sizes to operate more efficiently."
Availability & Technical Requirements
UNISON v3.0 will be available in Q2 2008. UNISON is a standalone application and does not require a Boston WorkStation license to operate. It must be installed on a PC, running a Microsoft Windows-based operating system.
More info: http://www.bostonworkstation.com/news_events_integration_software/news_integration_software/unison-30-launches.aspx
