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Guadalupe County Hospital Selects Phoenix Health Systems' Total IT Solution and Medsphere's OpenVista
Phoenix IT outsourcing combined with Medsphere's open-source EHR solution will help 10-bed New Mexico hospital improve patient care and safety, control costs, qualify for federal stimulus funds
SANTA ROSA, N.M., DALLAS AND SAN DIEGO—May 27, 2010—Phoenix Health Systems, Medsphere Systems Corporation and Guadalupe County Hospital today announced Guadalupe's selection of Phoenix's Total IT Solution featuring Medsphere's OpenVista® electronic health record. Phoenix IT expertise paired with Medsphere's open-source EHR solution will enable this 10-bed Santa Rosa, N.M., acute-care hospital to secure federal stimulus support for health IT implementation while improving patient care.
Selection of Phoenix and Medsphere by Guadalupe and similar facilities points to a pressing need among smaller, resource-challenged hospitals for cost-effective IT solutions.
"We are deeply committed to ensuring patients receive the best possible care," said Guadalupe CEO Christina Campos, who also serves as hospital COO, CIO and marketing chief. "This is particularly critical given our community's limited healthcare options.
"With Phoenix Health's IT support and our staff's commitment to quality, we can leverage a proven open-source health IT solution to transform our paper records into an electronic recordkeeping system that will help us more cost-effectively monitor and improve patient care, and qualify for maximum federal stimulus dollars."
Under the five-year agreement, Phoenix will provide Guadalupe with implementation and support services for OpenVista, as well as Phoenix's Total IT Solution, a comprehensive services set that encompasses all aspects of a true 24x7 IT solution: service desk, end-user device management, infrastructure support, application management and IT leadership. Implementation and support of OpenVista will enable the hospital to meet meaningful use requirements for stimulus funds made available through the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Under ARRA legislation, eligible hospitals that implement and meaningfully use an EHR by the 2011 deadline will receive millions of federal dollars through increased Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements between 2011 and 2014. The incentives become penalties for hospitals that have not implemented an EHR by 2015.
"Given size and funding constraints, small hospitals such as Guadalupe face challenges in terms of everyday operations, to say nothing of meeting ARRA requirements that even the bigger hospitals struggle with," noted Phoenix President and CEO Darin K. LeGrange. "Our Total IT Solution and Medsphere's OpenVista core clinical solution offer Guadalupe and similar facilities affordable access to a level of technological advancement previously only available to hospitals with greater resources.
"OpenVista gives us a proven, affordable and adoptable system to complement our Total IT Solution services. We are very pleased to be able to leverage this unique technology partnership to benefit rural Americans."
Guadalupe's OpenVista initiative marks Phoenix and Medsphere's second collaborative venture since the two partnered to offer small rural and community hospitals an effective and affordable health IT solution. In March they announced a contract with Washington state's Columbia Basin Hospital.
"Smaller hospitals like Guadalupe serve the underserved and play a crucial role in the fabric of rural societies," said Medsphere President and CEO Mike Doyle. "That's what makes this partnership with Phoenix so significant. Everyone, regardless of where they live, deserves the same quality of care and Medsphere is thrilled to engage with Phoenix to help make that a reality."
About Guadalupe County Hospital
Guadalupe County Hospital is a general medical facility providing adult and pediatric care. With a full-time staff of 25, including administrative staff, this 10-bed acute care hospital handles roughly 250 admissions and 2500 emergency room visits per year. Located in Santa Rosa, N.M., 117 miles east of Albuquerque on Interstate 40, Guadalupe serves the entire county of fewer than 4700 people.
About Phoenix Health Systems
Headquartered in Richardson, Tex., a Dallas suburb, Phoenix Health Systems is a national information technology solutions provider offering an integrated set of professional and technical services to community hospitals and other healthcare organizations. Through consulting and IT outsourcing, Phoenix enables any healthcare organization, no matter how small, to achieve such long-term objectives as administrative cost reduction, increased efficiency, improved patient safety and regulatory compliance.
About Medsphere and OpenVista
Founded in 2002 and based in Carlsbad, Calif., Medsphere Systems Corporation is an award-winning organization of clinical and technology professionals working to make quality health IT solutions accessible to organizations of virtually any size, shape or budget. Medsphere's OpenVista® is a portfolio of clinical support products and professional services that leverages an electronic health record (EHR) system developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. This VistA EHR is widely credited with helping transform the VA into the nation's most efficient and clinically effective healthcare organization. OpenVista, the most fully commercialized VistA offspring, is a responsible reapplication of the VA's $8.5 billion investment, which recent studies show have yielded $3.09 billion in benefits, primarily from the near elimination of medication administration issues and duplicate testing.Â
Medsphere's subscription-based pricing model enables hospital, clinic and integrated delivery network customers to pay for OpenVista from their operating budget with no upfront costs or back-end balloon payments. Expert implementation and other services facilitate fluid and rapid transition to a paperless clinical environment focusing on best practices and evidence-based medicine in six to nine months. Medsphere also actively nurtures the Healthcare Open Source Ecosystem, a global community of customers, partners, developers and other online collaborators who drive OpenVista innovation, and provide a parallel development and support structure.
Learn more about Medsphere at www.medsphere.com and the Ecosystem at www.medsphere.org.
Learn more about Phoenix at www.phoenixhealth.com.
Phoenix Media Contact
Christopher Madeira — Director, Marketing & Public Relations
Ph. 214.261.0660 • email cmadeira@phoenixhealth.com |
