Hospital Clients Grow 70%; Employee Base Doubles; Partnerships Formalized and Interoperability Forum Launched
NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ICA (www.icainformatics.com) announced today that 2011 saw strong growth in hospitals and clinics under contract for its CareAlign® Solutions suite, as well as significant product upgrades among its current client base. In addition, ICA’s employee base again nearly doubled in 2011 to meet growing demand and critical partnerships were formalized. The company views this growth as validation of the CareAlign suite as one of the top interoperability and health information exchange (HIE) solutions on the market today.
User growth occurred nationally, but clusters of growth exploded in Kansas, Illinois, and throughout Tennessee due to rapidly expanding physician participation and new client wins. ICA also formalized partnerships with Emdeon to provide EMR-lite capabilities, and with Peak 10 which enables the deployment of the CareAlign solution in a rapidly deployable SaaS model within the healthcare market. And critical to the increased excitement around ICA’s CareAlign solution, as well as setting the stage for 2012, was the restructured solution suite into five modules or volumes which helps healthcare entities address immediate market needs with rapid implementation and near immediate return-on-investment.
Significant Client Additions
ICA signed Central Illinois Health Information Exchange (CIHIE), which private labeled the solution Allcharts, and which serves over 1.3 million people in 20 counties in the Peoria, Bloomington, Champaign, and Decatur areas of Illinois. Allcharts includes 27 hospitals, 20 health departments, 2,800 physicians, 280 pharmacies, 12 labs and imaging centers and numerous ancillary healthcare providers such as rehabilitation centers, behavioral healthcare, long-term facilities and nursing homes.
ICA also signed, through its partner ACS, the state of Iowa and its 174 hospitals to develop a health information exchange to cover the entire state. Iowa e-Health, a collaboration of hospitals, consumers, healthcare providers, payers and others, created by Iowa’s Department of Public Health, will work with ICA and ACS to implement the Iowa Health Information Network (IHIN). The system will allow the patient and those who participate, such as hospitals, healthcare providers and payers including Iowa Medicaid, to safely and securely access vital patient health information records.
Interoperability Forum Launched
ICA also launched ICAetc, its free and open forum for vendors, to test interoperability with the goal of ensuring that multiple disparate systems are able to connect and communicate. ICAetc was created to help foster the adoption of IHE protocols by providing a free XDS infrastructure that is readily available to vendors for testing XDS.b and CCD compatibility. Current participants include Allscripts, Askesis Development Group, AthenaHealth, CPSI, eClinicalWorks, eMDs, Meditech, NextGen, Orion Health and Sage Healthcare Division.
Clients Upgrade and Expand CareAlign Solution Use
In addition, two current and long-time ICA clients upgraded and expanded their CareAlign offerings. Meridian Health in New Jersey upgraded to CareAlign 3.0 which gave it more robust features to enable the flow of continuity of care documents (CCD) both in and out of the HIE. And Middle Tennessee Health Connect expanded its HIE region to include Memorial Health Care System, Erlanger Health System and Parkridge Medical Center all in Chattanooga, TN. These client upgrades and expansions serve as further testimony to CareAlign’s effectiveness in the marketplace.
“In a year when the focus of the market was on EMRs due to the requirements of Meaningful Use, ICA had a year full of achievements,” said Gary Zegiestowsky, CEO of ICA. “We brought on new clients, launched an important forum for the industry to test interoperability requirements, and streamlined our product offering to better address our clients’ needs as they rollout health information exchanges in a variety of settings. In addition, we saw KHIN, our state of Kansas client, enroll over one thousand physicians in just six months to participate in its growing and very successful HIE. In addition to all of this we are well set up for 2012 with a more discreet product offering that aligns closely with clients’ market needs. Along with the validation provided by last year’s milestones, ICA enters 2012 with a full pipeline of client prospects, a solid partner base and highly organized and efficient technology development, client services and marketing capabilities. We are looking forward to further success in the coming year.”
About ICA
ICA was established to take innovative technology developed by Vanderbilt Medical Center to the broader healthcare market, and now delivers a comprehensive health information exchange (HIE) and care management solution to hospitals, IDNs, communities and states. This patient-centered modular approach offers immediate value and return-on-investment through the delivery of clinical information to the point-of-care improving quality while reducing costs. The solution suite, or volume set, includes CareAlign CareExchange, CareConnect, CareCollaborate, CareMeasure and CareManage. Each volume provides the technology necessary to progressively exchange clinical information, increase care collaboration and manage healthcare risk across the continuum of care with the goal of improving patient outcomes while reducing costs. Visit www.icainformatics.com; follow us on Twitter: @icainformatics; and Facebook.
CONTACT:
For ICA
Dodge Communications
Media Contact:
Jeff Nessler, 770-576-2573
[email protected]
KEYWORDS: United States North America Tennessee
INDUSTRY KEYWORDS: Practice Management Health Hospitals General Health
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