Medsphere Applauds Final Meaningful Use Criteria as ‘Accelerator’ for National Health IT Initiative to Improve Healthcare

Experts available to discuss new standards and affordable means for hospitals to achieve meaningful use

Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading provider of open-source healthcare enterprise solutions, today voiced support for the official “meaningful use” requirements released by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. These recently announced requirements will be used to determine hospitals’ eligibility for millions in American Recovery and Reinvestment Actstimulus funds associated with deploying health IT solutions to improve patient care.

“Medsphere applauds the release of these official meaningful use criteria,” said Medsphere CEO Michael Doyle speaking from the company’s Carlsbad, Calif., headquarters. “Release of these requirements will help accelerate the nationwide initiative to use proven health information technology to effectively improve patient outcomes and safety, and reduce spiraling healthcare costs that threaten to sink our nation.”

Medsphere’s OpenVista electronic health record is an interoperable, integrated and comprehensive solution that leverages the government’s investment in the award-winning VistA EHR developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. OpenVista and Medsphere’s associated health IT services give hospitals a quick, affordable means to meet all of ONC’s meaningful use requirements in four key areas: clinical adoption, clinical decision support, health information exchange and health information reporting. Rapid implementation, a collaborative open-source model and other advantages enable hospitals to maximize federal stimulus dollars and use these payments to cover the costs of OpenVista.

Healthcare and health IT experts are available to address the implications of final meaningful use standards and other related topics:

• Medsphere President and CEO Michael J. Doyle: How hospitals can calculate the cost of an EHR solution and their expected ARRA return.
• Kern Medical Center CEO Paul J. Hensler, FACHE: How a 222-bed acute-care teaching hospital in Bakersfield, Calif., will save millions and meet meaningful use requirements in time to receive ARRA stimulus by 2011 (KMC began implementing OpenVista in December 2009).
• Midland Memorial Hospital Director of Information Systems David Whiles: How a 320-bed hospital in Midland, Tex., will report on clinical improvements—for instance, an 88 percent decline in central line infection rates—achieved since fully implementing OpenVista in 2007.
• Divurgent Healthcare Advisors Clinical Transformation Consultant Mary Lawrence Staley-Sirois: Best practices for hospitals planning to deploy EHR technology to meet meaningful use requirements.