Healthcare IT News - February 2009 - (Page 24) 24 Healthcare IT News February 2009 ■ www.HealthcareITNews.com NEWSBRIEFS MERgE hEalthcaRE ScRapS plaN to SEll chINESE uNIt Once troubled Merge Healthcare has reacquired its Chinese subsidiary, Cedara Software Shanghai Co., Ltd., in a continuing effort to pull back from the brink of bankruptcy. The company had planned to sell its overseas assets in a reorganization announced last year, but has now called off the deal. “As we have discussed on our two prior earnings calls, we believe in the growth of our core business on an international scale and therefore terminated the planned divestiture of our European operations in June,” said Justin Dearborn, the company’s CEO. Eclipsys adds new tools with Premise Bed management software adds real-time functions for stressed-out hospitals. By ErIC WICkluNd, Managing Editor ATLANTA – Jay Deady says today’s hospitals don’t need to add beds to meet patient demands – they just need to better manage what they have. Deady, executive vice president of client solutions for Eclipsys, says the Atlantabased provider of healthcare IT products has added that important piece to the puzzle with the acquisition of the Premise Corp., a Farmington, Conn.-based developer of patient flow solutions. The deal, he says, allows Eclipsys to add bed management, bed turnover and patient transport tools to its Sunrise suite of software. caRdINal hEalth RE-aFFIRMS plaNS to SpIN oFF uNIt Cardinal Health, based in Dublin, Ohio, lowered its fiscal year guidance for 2009 but re-affirmed plans to spin off its clinical and medical products branch into a standalone business later this year. “We’re continuing to proceed forward,” said R. Kerry Clark, the company’s chairman and CEO, during a conference call with investors. He said the company plans to file the appropriate forms by the end of the quarter and proceed with the spin-off this summer. The company expects to post a profit of $3.50 to $3.60 per share for the fiscal year ending in June, down from a previous forecast of $3.80 to $3.95 per share. The key, says Deady, is providing hospitals with information they can use immediately. “Data-mining is great for helping patients in the future. The challenge is it’s not going to be helping the patients who are in the beds today,” he said. “You want to be able to take information from underlying solutions and deliver results in real time.” According to a recent HIMSS Analytics study, 61 percent of the nation’s hospitals don’t have a bed management system in place, and yet the ROI is there. The Advisory Board Company, a research and analysis firm, has estimated that an average, 300-bed hospital that reduces the overall length of stay by one day can reduce nursing costs by $1 million to $2 million a year – the equivalent of adding 49 beds. In addition, the company said, the revenues generated by reducing the overall length of stay – through better use The Eclipsys booth at a recent Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference. of the hospital’s resources – amount to $1.2 million a year. The Yale New Haven Health System in Connecticut is a client of both Eclipsys and Premise. Deady said using Premise’s patient flow solutions helped the health system realize a savings equivalent to adding 30 to 50 beds. “The Premise solution has helped us prEmISE see page 27 Making a case for clinical quality “How much of a priority should be attached to improving provider transparency in each of the following areas (high priority, a priority, or not a priority)?” Sunquest, KLaS tout value of LIS By ErIC WICkluNd, Managing Editor OREM, UT – NuaNcE INkS dEal WIth IBM, acquIRES NEW FuNdINg Nuance Communications of Burlington, Mass., has entered into a technical services and licensing agreement with IBM to enhance and expand the company’s speech solutions, with new products expected to be available within two years. In addition, Nuance has announced that the global private equity firm Warburg Pincus has agreed to purchase $175 million of Nuance common stock, with proceeds to be used for general corporate purposes and potential merger and acquisition activity. 82% 53% 38% e ● Connect: GraPHS 0209 SOuRCE: COMMONWEALTH fuND HEALTH CARE OPINION LEADERS SuRvEy, NOvEMBER 2008 A recent report from KLAS indicates that 17 percent of hospitals with at least 200 beds are planning to replace their laboratory information systems within the next two years. That’s music to the ears of Richard Atkin. Atkin is the CEO of Sunquest Information Systems, a Tucson, Ariz.-based developer of laboratory information systems and one of several LIS ven- thE NEWS: KLAS releases report on ➔ LIS, hospital adoption. What It MEaNS: Providers are ➔ looking for integration, new tools in their laboratory information systems. dors poised to take advantage of the opportunity outlined by KLAS. In fact, the Orem, Utahbased market research firm rates Sunquest among the top LIS vendors for both large and lIS see page 28 Standard Register builds e-prescribing portfolio By ErIC WICkluNd, Managing Editor DAYTON, OH – MEdSyNERgIES joINS FoRcES WIth tExaS phySIcIaNS MedSynergies, Inc., an Irving, Texas-based provider of revenue cycle and practice management software, is partnering with the Texas Health Resources Organization for Physicians (THRP) to launch Texas Health MedSynergies. The new management services organization will offer physicians within the Texas Health Resources system a wide range of office management and other business services to support their practices. As part of the deal MedSynergies will constitute the foundation of revenue cycle management services. More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: VeNDorS 0209 ● Skeptics of e-prescribing say the system won’t work unless hospitals and pharmacists have access to all the information they need in making a prescription. Standard Register’s new service aims to do just that. The Dayton, Ohio-based provider of document and workflow automation services unveiled Rx History Capture last December and is now looking to install that service in hospitals. The system combines prescription data from the SureScripts-RxHub information network with hospital information systems to create a real-time snapshot of a patient’s prescription medication history. “This doesn’t change the hospital’s workflow. It enables clinicians to do a better job of collecting a patient’s medication history,” said Mick O’Grady, program manager for Standard Register’s Rx History Capture “this doesn’t change the hospital’s workflow. It enables clinicians to do a BEttER joB of collecting a patient’s medication history.” – Mick O’Grady solution. “Clinicians often walk into this process cold, with no knowledge of the patient’s history. It’s a huge pain to collect that information and have it be accurate.” “Having accurate prescription information for patients is fundamental to providing quality care. Yet, current processes for gathering medication history are inconsis- tent and error-prone,” added John Parmley, Standard Register’s director of health risk management programs. “They leave the door open to ADEs.” In a 2006 report requested by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Institute of Medicine concluded that at least 1.5 million adverse drug events (ADEs) occur in the United States each year, and referenced another study that indicated each ADE adds roughly $8,750 to the cost of a hospital stay. The report came out in favor of e-prescribing because it avoids the mistakes that accompany handwritten prescriptions, it’s tied into a patient’s medication history, and it follows the patient outside the hospital – to the doctor’s office, nursing home and/or pharmacy. “Medication history is about what a prESCrIBE see page 25 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com
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