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Memorial Hermann Joins Forces With Healthvision to Extend Interoperability Exchange

Posted on: Friday, 16 December 2005, 06:00 CST

Healthvision, a leading health information technology company, today announced an agreement to implement an extension of their Interoperability Exchange(TM) to Memorial Hermann of Houston, Texas. The exchange electronically links all members of the patient care team including physician EMRs, hospitals, labs and other stakeholders for the purpose of sharing clinical data among all care team providers and forming a complete electronic health record (EHR), according to Scott Decker, president and CEO of Healthvision. Memorial Hermann will be live on the exchange in December 2005.

Healthvision designed the exchange specifically to create an interconnected, comprehensive electronic health record of both inpatient and ambulatory data. That data is then delivered to everyone on a patient's care team either through their office-based EMR applications or through Web-based viewers. Healthvision's proprietary architecture insures private and secure data exchange while providing a patient-centric data repository from multiple sources.

"In order to meet our ultimate goal of an electronic patient record for everyone, the healthcare technology industry must create an interoperability layer and standards for all vendors to follow. Our delivery system moves the healthcare industry great strides toward that end," said Decker.

This will be Memorial Hermann's strategic program to seamlessly deliver reference lab information in real time directly to physicians using either Healthvision portal or Allscripts EMR (electronic medical record) solution.

Memorial Hermann is calling this delivery method, ePostOffice(TM) because the results are delivered to each individual physician in the place and manner they want, whether that is to their existing office-based EMR, a web based results viewer or via a printer. With ePostOffice, when the lab results are ready, the Healthvision system automatically routes the results based on physician preferences and the relationship that a physician has with the patient.

"ePostOffice is a huge step toward an interoperability solution," stated David Bradshaw, VP Marketing & Communications and CIO of Memorial Hermann. "We are live with the ePostOffice system as of this month. We currently have over four million patient records in our database, so a system that can intuitively deliver volumes of crucial lab result information to the appropriate caregiver in real time is invaluable to us. This will be an enormous move toward a truly useful and efficient interoperable system that will benefit everyone."

The project also includes the capability to auto-print results directly to medical office printers, and/or distributes results to physician practice EMR systems.

About Memorial Hermann

With 12 hospitals located in the Texas Medical Center and throughout the greater Houston area, Memorial Hermann is a vital healthcare resource known for world-class clinical expertise, quality patient care, leading edge technology and innovation. Memorial Hermann takes a holistic approach to health care, offering programs and services that address the physical, social, psychological and spiritual aspects of wellbeing. To learn more about Memorial Hermann, visit www.memorialhermann.org.

About Healthvision

Healthvision creates Connected Healthcare Communities by helping market leaders quickly and cost-effectively plan for and deliver patient-centric information via shared information exchanges. Healthvision's capabilities cover the spectrum of needs ranging from a suite of strategic consulting services to web-based infrastructure and applications -- all designed to enhance decision-making and effectiveness. The Healthvision e-Health Interoperability Platform and applications improve access to clinical information and enhance coordination and collaboration of care.

The company's Web-based infrastructure, e-healthSOURCE, is the most widely used in the industry, hosting more than 8.5 million unique patient records. Additionally, more than 350 healthcare organizations use the company's solutions to make health care easier for their key audiences - a number that represents more than 30,000 clinicians (including 11,000 physicians), thousands of patients and millions of consumers. A privately held company, based in Irving, Texas, Healthvision was formed in July 1999. For more information, visit www.healthvision.com.

Source: Business Wire

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