Acquisition is Key Step as Netsmart Leads Industry Transformation to Collaborative, Coordinated Care
GREAT RIVER, N.Y., Oct. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Netsmart, the leading provider of clinical solutions for health and human services organizations nationwide, today announced that it has acquired Sequest Technologies, Inc., based in Lisle, Illinois. Sequest provides the TIER® (Totally Integrated Electronic Record) family of clinical and practice management solutions, which will continue to be developed and supported as a Netsmart solution.
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The acquisition of Sequest supports Netsmart's commitment to deliver innovative solutions to providers across the entire human services continuum of care. The Complete ARRA-certified TIER solution is designed to meet the clinical workflow of substance use treatment and social services agencies, private inpatient psychiatric hospitals, child and family services agencies and smaller behavioral health provider organizations, helping all of these providers more quickly adopt an EHR and enhance quality of care.
"Our acquisition of Sequest aligns directly with the fast-evolving shift in the overall healthcare ecosystem to collaborative, coordinated care," said Mike Valentine, Netsmart chief executive officer. "To continue to be the industry leader, we must provide our clients with leading-edge clinical and practice management solutions specifically designed for their care settings and with clinical support for those care settings."
The Sequest acquisition also helps advance Netsmart's plans for a national clinical and operational benchmarking service. The service will enable providers to benchmark themselves against best practices, their peers, and to develop patient and organization-level predictive analytics. Participation of Sequest clients will enhance the benchmarking service by expanding the range of data delivered.
"One of the key drivers for this acquisition was Netsmart's ability and willingness to invest in the resources needed to assure its clients are full participants in an exciting, evolving healthcare arena," said William Connors, MSW, president and chief executive officer of Sequest, who joins Netsmart as senior vice president and general manager of the Child and Family Services and Substance Abuse business unit. "Without Netsmart's resources and willingness to invest for the future, we would have been confronted with the dilemma faced by many other small technology companies – how to make the significant investment necessary to equip our clients in important areas like meeting the next stages of Meaningful Use criteria, becoming involved in integrated health information exchanges (HIEs) and participating in accountable care organizations (ACOs)."
"In the bigger picture, it's not just about keeping up with healthcare reform, it's about embracing exponential change in healthcare," said Valentine. "The Sequest solutions, culture and team not only align well with our strategies, I believe they will accelerate them. Given their clinical focus, this acquisition extends our ability to help our clients evolve quickly toward the new clinical world of leveraging technology to drive better outcomes and the consumer experience for those they serve," said Valentine.
About Netsmart Technologies
Netsmart Technologies helps health and human services organizations transform care through the collaborative, coordinated management and exchange of clinical data across the care spectrum and through effective practice management that improves revenue cycle management. More than 18,000 client organizations, including 350,000 care providers and more than 40 state systems, use Netsmart products to help improve the quality of life for millions of people each year.
Netsmart clients include mental health and substance use treatment agencies, psychiatric hospitals, private and group mental health practices, public health departments, social services and child and family health agencies, vital records offices, and managed care organizations. Netsmart's products are full-featured information systems that operate on a variety of operating systems, hardware platforms, and mobile devices, and offer unlimited scalability.
Netsmart provides the solutions and expertise that help its clients meet all the criteria for Meaningful Use of an Electronic Health Record (EHR) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 and avoid the costly, time-consuming process of integrating solutions from multiple vendors.
Building upon Netsmart's Complete ARRA-Certified EHRs, Netsmart clients can also create a complete connected care environment encompassing e-prescribing and order entry, sharing clinical information and lab results, and using Web portals to provide secure and private consumer access to care information.
For information about Netsmart's full range of solutions for health and human services organizations, visit www.ntst.com or call 1-800-472-5509.
Avatar® 2011, CMHC/MIS 4.2 and Insight 7.1 are 2011/2012 compliant and have been certified by the Drummond Group, an ONC-ATCB in accordance with the applicable certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. This certification does not represent an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or guarantee the receipt of incentive payments.
TIER® v7.0, is 2011/2012 compliant (CC-1112-29620-1) and has been certified as a Complete EHR by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®), an ONC-ATCB, in accordance with the applicable Eligible Provider certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Avatar and TIER are registered trademarks.
SOURCE Netsmart Technologies, Inc.