Medsphere Congratulates Midland Memorial Hospital, 2009 American Business Awards Finalist

Press Release | Medsphere, Midland Memorial Hospital | June 11, 2009

-Seventh Annual Stevie® Awards to be Presented on June 22 in New York City

Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading provider of open source electronic health records, today announced that partner Midland Memorial Hospital (MMH) has been named a finalist in the Information Technology Team of the Year category for the 2009 American Business Awards, aka the Stevie Awards. The west Texas hospital was the first adopter of Medsphere's flagship OpenVista electronic health record solution and has since garnered awards and recognition, including Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics Stage 6 status, for realizing particular levels of automated patient care.

The American Business Awards are the nation's premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit entries to the ABAs — public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small.

Stevie Award winners will be announced during the annual gala on Monday, June 22 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. Six-hundred executives from across the U.S.A. are expected to attend.  The ceremonies will be broadcast on radio nationwide by the Business TalkRadio Network and hosted by Cheryl Casone of Fox Business Network.

"Midland Memorial, particularly our IT team, is honored to be recognized as a finalist for the Stevie Awards." said David Whiles, director of information services at the hospital. "As the only healthcare finalist in this category, we appreciate the attention the ABA organization is bringing to what's going on in such a crucial industry. Our patients are ultimately the beneficiaries of the changes we've made and living testaments to what electronic medical records can achieve."

More than 2,600 entries from companies in virtually every industry were submitted for consideration in more than 40 Stevie Award categories, including Most Innovative Company, Best Management Team, Best New Product or Service, Best Corporate Social Responsibility Program, and Best Corporate Environmental Responsibility Program.

"Medsphere is very pleased to once again congratulate David, his team, and all of Midland Memorial Hospital on much deserved recognition," said Medsphere President and CEO Michael Doyle. "American Business Award consideration for Midland demonstrates the overall effectiveness of the open source business model and confirms that a comprehensive clinical support system is available to all hospitals regardless of resources or geography."

In addition to being a Stevie Award finalist, 320-bed Midland Memorial has also been named a CIO 100 award winner, one of America's Best Hospitals, and the recipient of a U.S. News and World Report Performance Award related to improvements enabled by the deployment of OpenVista. OpenVista is the commercialized version of the VistA EHR created and developed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) over more than 20 years and credited with helping turn the VA into a national leader in quality patient care. Based on open source code available from the VA through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), OpenVista automates the patient care process for 1/3 the cost and in 1/3 the implementation time of proprietary solutions with no associated upfront costs.

Members of the Awards' Board of Distinguished Judges & Advisors and their staffs will select Stevie Award winners from among Finalists in final judging that will continue through June 3. Finalists were chosen by business professionals nationwide during preliminary judging in April through early May.

"Despite very tough economic conditions, many organizations and individuals continue to perform well," said Michael Gallagher, founder and president of The Stevie Awards. "The results of the 2009 ABAs thus far are a testament to the resilience, creativity, and hard work of American organizations, executives, and workers."