Malvern, Pa., September 21, 2009 - Ingalls Health System and St. Peter's Hospital are the latest healthcare providers to successfully launch Siemens Soarian Clinicals Healthcare Information System (HIS) in their facilities, another significant step by both to enhance patient care delivery processes, increase efficiencies, and reduce costs and errors through the use of innovative, enterprise-wide health information technology.
The nationwide push for greater adoption of health information technology as part of the larger healthcare reform movement is stronger than ever as the federal government moves closer to finalizing ‘Meaningful Use' criteria. In line with this, healthcare providers across the nation are seeking to enhance their use of health IT through partnerships with vendors who are committed to and capable of helping them successfully implement certified systems that will enable them to better streamline operations, improve the patient experience, and maximize potential benefits under the HITECH provision of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA).
For the Chicago-based Ingalls Health System, comprised of a 563-bed hospital and five outpatient centers, their June launch of Soarian Clinicals, Siemens' next-generation HIS that helps hospital staff manage patient data and processes across the enterprise, further extends their existing Siemens partnership and robust Soarian Health IT infrastructure. According to the provider, Ingalls is already seeing strong, measurable results through its ongoing use of Soarian Financials, Scheduling, Med Administration Check, Pharmacy, and Decision Support.
"Soarian continues to be an integral part of our strategy to create a healthcare environment that promotes quality patient care delivered in a cost efficient and state-of-the-art-manner, said said Vincent E. Pryor, senior vice president of Finance and chief financial officer at Ingalls. "With the workflow engine present within Soarian, Ingalls believes it has the potential to effectuate significant positive change in the delivery of healthcare in our market, while making the physician and patient experience better."
At Albany, New York's 437-bed St. Peter's Hospital, one of the region's largest healthcare providers with more than 4,500 employees and 600 physicians, there is equal momentum and energy. In late May, the facility - part of the comprehensive Catholic Health East network - brought Soarian Clincials live and in August, added Siemens Med Administration Check, an innovative solution that will help St. Peter's positively identify drug and patient using point-of-care barcode technology to help reduce the human element in medication errors and preventable adverse drug events at the time of administration. The hospital also has upcoming plans to install Soarian CPOE and Soarian Enterprise Document Management.
"St. Peter's is very excited to have up-to-date clinical systems supporting our patient care delivery, said St. Peter's CIO, Jonathan Goldberg. "Post live, it is very exciting to hear positive comments from the care providers, both nursing and physicians, regarding the clinical system's ease of use, quality of the content, and positive improvements it is providing to augment our ability to provide excellent patient care."
The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology and hearing aids. Siemens is the only company to offer customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source - from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimizing clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective. Siemens Healthcare employs some 49,000 employees worldwide and operates in over 130 countries. In fiscal year 2008 (to September 30), the Sector posted revenue of 11.2 billion euros and profit of 1.2 billion euros. For further information please visit: www.siemens.com/healthcare.