Recent News: Happenings in the MEDITECH & Health IT Community

HIMSS Expands Educational Offerings with PMI Training

CHICAGO, IL, October 19, 2010 — Expanding its offerings of distance educational opportunities, HIMSS announces it has been approved by Project Management Institute to become a PMI Registered Education Provider (REP), effective October 2010.

PMI REPs are educational organizations demonstrating capability of providing world-class and effective project management training. Through PMI’s rigorous quality criteria for course content, instructor qualification and instructional design, REPs provide the project management training necessary to earn and maintain Project Management Professional (PMP)®, Program Management Professional (PgMP)® and other PMI professional credentials.

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EMR Connectivity Discussed at Radiology Business Management Association 2010 Fall Educational Conference

FRISCO, TX, October 14, 2010 — Leaders from Corepoint Health, a healthcare integration software leader, and Austin Radiological Association (ARA), one of the largest providers of outpatient imaging in central Texas, successfully participated as presenters at the Radiology Business Management Association, also known as RBMA, which took place in Austin, Texas on September 25 – 29. The title of the session was Interfacing with Electronic Medical Records (EMRs):  Preparing Your Internal Workflow to Support External Growth.

Sonal Patel, vice president of client services at Corepoint Health, and Jason Wilson, software engineering manager at ARA, presented on EMR interfacing best practices and implementation approaches. The presentation provided insight to attendees on key steps when interfacing to EMRs, as well as other lessons learned from experiences in interfacing to EMRs leveraging an integration engine.

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MEDITECH to Open New Office in Freetown, Mass.

WESTWOOD, MA, October 5, 2010 -- Riverfront Business Park, LLC (Churchill & Banks) and Medical Information Technology, Inc. (MEDITECH) jointly announced today plans to enter into an agreement for MEDITECH to purchase approximately 135 acres of land at Riverfront Business Park in Freetown, Mass. The health care software provider, headquartered in Westwood, Mass., plans to build an estimated 180,000 square foot office building at this site, and employ over 800 people at this new facility. Construction is expected to start in 2011, once all Town and State approvals are obtained, with occupancy expected to occur in 2013.

"Working with Fall River Economic Development and Riverfront Business Park to help MEDITECH expand to our town has been a great experience," said Lawrence N. Ashley, chairman, Freetown Board of Selectmen. "MEDITECH is widely known as a company that gives back to the community and this is a fantastic opportunity for Freetown, for Fall River and for our entire region with the new jobs and the much needed tax revenue. The Board of Selectmen has worked hard with by-law changes and infrastructure work to attract companies like this. The positive results of the hard work of many is certainly proof positive that working with Fall River on a Regional level works and works well. At the end of the day, we all benefit."

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CCHIT Announces First ONC-ATCB 2011/2012 Certifications

CHICAGO, IL, October 1, 2010 -- The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®) announced today that it has tested and certified 33 Electronic Health Record (EHR) products under the Commission’s ONC-ATCB program, which certifies that the EHRs are capable of meeting the 2011/2012 criteria supporting Stage 1 meaningful use as approved by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).  Certification is required to qualify eligible providers and hospitals for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).  The certifications include 19 Complete EHRs, which meet all of the 2011/2012 criteria for either eligible provider or hospital technology, and 14 EHR Modules, which meet one or more – but not all – of the criteria.

CCHIT was among the first organizations to be recognized by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) as an Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ONC-ATCB). ONC-ATCB certification aligns with Health Information Technology: Initial Set of Standards, Implementation Specifications, and Certification Criteria for Electronic Health Record Technology published in the Federal Register in July 2010 and strictly adheres to the test procedures published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) at the time of testing.

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Providence Health, California Partners with Summit Healthcare to Implement Dictionary Management Technology for their MEDITECH 6.0 Migration

BRAINTREE, MA, September 27, 2010 – Providence Health & Services, California Region has successfully begun their MEDITECH 6.0 migration and have realized a need for integration and automation technology as they continue with their migration efforts. After an evaluation process, Providence has selected Summit Healthcare as their vendor partner to meet their dictionary management and data migration needs. They have purchased the Summit InSync and Summit Scripting Toolkit technology and are currently underway with the implementation phase.

As an IDN, Providence wishes to standardize dictionaries across all five California facilities with some immediate needs in the Pharmacy. One of the first projects will be to synchronize the Providence Tarzana Medical Center and a partner’s sub level facility, a pediatric unit both running the MEDITECH 6.05 platform. The Providence team realized the complexity of dictionary management especially with the clinical modules and needed to invest in robust, proven technology to carry them through their standardization process.

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Corepoint Health and Interface People Announce Partnership for Complete MEDITECH Integration Solution

FRISCO, TX, September 9, 2010 — Corepoint Health, a leader in healthcare integration software, and Interface People (IPeople), a leading software and services firm specializing in MEDITECH integration, announced today a partnership which offers a complete bidirectional interfacing solution for MEDITECH hospitals. This partnership leverages their unique interfacing expertise and significant MEDITECH customer base to deliver a unified solution to further simplify the complexities of healthcare integration.

Corepoint Integration Engine is a robust integration platform used to manage interface connections and facilitate communication of electronic data between healthcare vendor applications. For hospital information systems such as MEDITECH, an integration engine is particularly helpful with interface monitoring and management.

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