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Hamilton General Streamlines Hospital Operations and Improves Patient Safety With Optio's Electronic Health Record (EHR) Solution

Posted on: Tuesday, 16 January 2007, 09:01 CST

Optio® Healthcare today announced that Hamilton General Hospital, a 34-bed facility in Hamilton, Texas, has selected Optio's subscription-based electronic health record (EHR) and forms automation solution suites to streamline operations throughout the hospital and improve patient safety, while proactively building a legal EHR solution that will evolve as government requirements are defined.

According to Michele Cathey, Chief Financial Officer, Hamilton General Hospital, the main reason for adopting Optio's multi-level EHR solution was the ability to access patient information at various touch-points throughout the facility.

"Optio's technology is the hub of our hospital's wheel. Everything circles around it throughout our facility and information is shared. The success of Optio's solutions will be intertwined with our own success in the months and years to come," said Cathey.

Patient safety was another important factor that swayed Hamilton General to choose Optio over alternate solutions. "We are implementing our pharmacy application at the same time we are implementing Optio's MedEx® suite -- both solutions will work together," explained Cathey. "Once we've generated the patient wristband at registration, we can ensure that patients receive the correct medication by scanning the wristband and then scanning the prescribed medications. Patient safety will be significantly improved," she added. "We'll know immediately if we have a discrepancy."

Hamilton General's CFO cited uncertainty surrounding future legal health record requirements as a secondary reason for selecting Optio's subscription-based EHR model.

"The federal government wants a legal EHR and we know it needs to be done, but no one has defined exactly what it's going to be. For us to go out and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to put a system in place... who is to say that this system is going to evolve and migrate into what the government requires in a few years?" said Cathey. "A cost-effective subscription-based system made more sense. We knew that we could count on Optio to continually update their technology to meet legal requirements," she explained. "And with Optio's integrated solutions, we can gradually add new components to improve document-driven processes as our hospital continues to grow."

"Optio is one of the first technology providers to deliver a legal EHR that meets the industry's current federal requirements," said Mike McGuire, Optio's senior vice president and general manager of healthcare sales and service. "This partnership underscores Optio's commitment to providing small hospitals with state-of-the-art solutions that not only improve document-intensive processes, but ensure that safety and legal compliance requirements are met, both now and into the future."

About Optio Software, Inc.

Optio Software (OTCBB:OPTO) with 25 years of experience and more than 5,000 clients, worldwide, provides software solutions dedicated to helping customers achieve unprecedented speed, accuracy, functionality and quality in their inbound and outbound document processes, while extending the value of their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Hospital Information Systems (HIS) applications. More than 5,000 organizations rely on Optio Software for innovative business process improvement solutions that allow them to reduce transactional activities and focus on core responsibilities. Headquartered in Alpharetta Ga., Optio Software maintains European, Middle Eastern and African headquarters in Paris, France and sales offices in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. For more information about Optio Software or to contact a local Optio sales consultant, reach us at 770.576.3500 or visit our website at www.optio.com.

About Optio Healthcare Solutions:

More than 700 healthcare organizations use Optio's affordable Electronic Health Record (EHR), forms automation, clinical document management and advanced labeling solutions to capture, format, scan, view, sign, and archive patient information. Optio's technology delivers real-time access to patient information throughout the continuum of care, while improving patient safety and ensuring compliance with industry requirements. For more information about Optio's leading-edge healthcare solutions, visit www.optiohealthcare.com.

© Copyright 2007, Optio Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Optio and Optio MedEx are registered trademarks of Optio Software, Inc. Other companies and products mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

Source: Business Wire

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