CARLSBAD, California - June 8, 2009 - Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading provider of open source healthcare IT solutions, announced today that the new 11-bed Blue Mountain Hospital in Blanding, Utah, will implement Medsphere's OpenVista electronic health records (EHR) solution to improve clinical outcomes through automated patient care and enhanced communication. As a rural acute and primary care facility, Blue Mountain Hospital plans to fully deploy OpenVista in only three months, demonstrating that any hospital can rapidly implement an enterprise EHR to enhance patient care and customer service.
"Even though we are a small hospital, we believe that our patients deserve the best of care," said Lorin MacKay, chief executive officer at Blue Mountain Hospital. "With the national focus on health technology to improve the healthcare system, Blue Mountain is proud to be one of the few hospitals in the U.S. to implement an EHR system. With the strong commitment from our healthcare providers and Medsphere's support, we are excited to offer our patients high-quality healthcare by using the latest health technology available."
The flexibility offered by open source technology gives Medsphere the ability to implement and tailor OpenVista to the specific needs of Blue Mountain, which offers crucial medical services to residents of the Four Corners region encompassing sections of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.
"Medsphere commends the insight Blue Mountain displayed by choosing OpenVista and the excellence in patient care the solution supports," said Michael J. Doyle, president and CEO of Medsphere. "Our ability to implement OpenVista quickly and efficiently will enable Blue Mountain to provide enhanced patient care as soon as possible. The partnership with Stockell also demonstrates both the true interoperability of the solution and the flexibility of the open source approach. We look forward to the tremendous contribution Blue Mountain can make to the Medsphere's Healthcare Open Source Ecosystem."
In addition to Blue Mountain, West Virginia's state hospitals, Midland Memorial Hospital in Texas, Wyoming's Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County and Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn all share best practices and improvements on OpenVista code at Medsphere.org, the portal for the ecosystem where Medsphere users communicate and collaborate to help improve healthcare.
Genuine Interoperability
Through open source technology, OpenVista permits Blue Mountain to implement additional technology applications that interface easily with the EHR, creating a comprehensive end-to-end solution. Stockell's Revenue Cycle Information System (RCIS) InsightCS®, will work with OpenVista at Blue Mountain to create efficiencies system-wide, from the patient registration process and treatment to accurate billing and revenue collection.
"We are pleased with the opportunity to provide our full suite of advanced Patient Access and Revenue Cycle Management solutions to assist Blue Mountain Hospital streamline administrative processes, improve patient and provider satisfaction, and expedite and improve the revenue cycle," said Rick Stockell, president of Stockell Healthcare Systems.
This year has been significant for open source healthcare IT solutions nationally. Blue Mountain Hospital's announcement follows West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller's (D-WV) introduction last month calling for the use of proven open source EHRs to improve patient care. The Rockefeller bill, called the Health Information Technology Public Utility Act of 2009, would require the federal government to develop standards for an interoperable health IT system and create an open source electronic health records solution available to all healthcare providers at little or no cost.
OpenVista is the commercialized version of the VistA EHR created and developed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) over 20 years ago and credited with helping turn the agency into a national leader in quality patient care. Using open source code available from the VA through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), OpenVista can be implemented much more quickly and cost-effectively than comparable vendor proprietary solutions.
About Blue Mountain Hospital
Blue Mountain Hospital is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization established to construct and operate a 45,000 square foot critical access hospital in Blanding, Utah. The new facility is designed with the latest medical technology to provide primary and acute care services to the diverse residents of the Four Corners region. The 11-bed hospital will have an operating suite containing two operating rooms, emergency department, three labor delivery rooms, state-of-the-art diagnostic center, renal dialysis, clinics, pharmacy, and physical therapy. In addition, the facility will have a Native American Traditional Medicine Center, which was designed with collaborative input from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Navajo Tribe Chapters on the Utah strip. The unique design of the facility enables future expansion plans to be implemented without compromising medical service.
About Stockell
Stockell Healthcare Systems, Inc., founded in 1980, is a privately held company based in St. Louis, Mo. Stockell Healthcare Systems is the developer and marketer of InsightCS®, a complete end-to-end Revenue Cycle Information System (RCIS) solution that improves the "efficiency of care" for forward-thinking hospitals and healthcare organizations. More information about Stockell Healthcare is available on the Internet at www.stockell.com or by calling 800-786-3525, ext. 186.
About Medsphere and OpenVista
As a disruptive force in healthcare information technology, Medsphere is revolutionizing the industry by delivering commercially supported Open Source software based on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' proven VistA EHR. The product of 20-plus years of development and more than $8 billion invested, VistA enabled the transformation of the VA into the nation's most efficient and clinically effective healthcare organization. Currently VistA contains roughly 2.1 billion clinical documents, 2.76 billion orders, and 1.51 billion images. As the commercialized version of VistA, Medsphere's OpenVista is a portfolio of products and professional services for hospitals, clinics and integrated delivery networks. OpenVista is currently used by over 20,000 individuals, including 2,500 physicians and contains hundreds of thousands of medical records. Medsphere addresses healthcare's capital constraints through an innovative business model:
- A unique subscription-based pricing model minimizes upfront costs.
- The Healthcare Open Source Ecosystem and Medsphere.org portal coordinate a unique grassroots community of customers/subscribers, partners and developers driving OpenVista innovation and providing a parallel development and support structure.
- Medsphere's experienced team of healthcare technology professionals and unique suite of implementation tools deliver a fluid transition to a comprehensive healthcare information technology solution.
Founded in 2002, Medsphere is backed financially by Azure Capital Partners, Thomas Weisel Venture Partners and EPIC Ventures (formerly the Wasatch Venture Fund). Medsphere clients include Midland Memorial Hospital, Midland, Texas; West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (WV DHHR); Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County, Rock Springs, Wyoming; Lutheran Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York; and the federal government's Indian Health Service. For more information, visit http://www.medsphere.com and http://www.medsphere.org.