Valley General Hospital Selects OpenVista Electronic Health Record

Northwest community-based hospital cites affordability, interoperability, proven track record in choosing Medsphere’s open EHR solution

Monroe, Wash., and Carlsbad, Calif. – May 6, 2014—Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading provider of affordable and interoperable healthcare IT platform solutions, today announced that Washington state’s Valley General Hospital has selected the OpenVista® EHR system. The Snohomish County community hospital, located northeast of Seattle, expects to save roughly 50 percent on clinical IT costs with OpenVista while losing nothing in terms of functionality.

“Medsphere welcomes Valley General to our community of hospital partners that are improving clinical care in a financially responsible way,” said Irv Lichtenwald, Medsphere president and CEO. “Valley General understands that cooperation and affordable information sharing improve both healthcare and health IT. It’s this evolving attitude and level of collaboration that will keep healthcare from bankrupting the nation.”

OpenVista is fully certified by InfoGard for Meaningful Use 2014 and, combined with Medsphere’s proven and rapid implementation process, will enable Valley General to quickly qualify for federal stimulus dollars available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Medsphere’s subscription service pricing model—a pay-as-you-go structure with no huge upfront fees—will also mitigate financial pressure on the hospital.

"For a public hospital district like Valley General, the OpenVista EHR meets a need that solutions provided by large health care technology companies simply don’t," said Eric Jensen, FACHE, CEO at Valley General. “OpenVista allows us to improve patient care using a cost-effective EHR derived from an inspiring health IT success—the VistA system used at the VA. It allows us to pass along both value and greater efficiency of care to our patients.”

Medsphere's OpenVista EHR 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 through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from the VA and other federal agencies, OpenVista can be implemented much more quickly and affordably than traditional proprietary solutions.

About Valley General Hospital

Valley General Hospital serves East Snohomish County in Washington State. Since opening as a public hospital in 1960, Valley General has consistently met the health care needs of the community, including excellent emergency services, as well as growing surgical and specialty services. A patient and family-centered philosophy, combined with a commitment to advancing medical technologies, enables Valley General clinicians and staff to provide exceptional care for whatever life brings. Visit www.valleygeneral.com to learn more.

About Medsphere and OpenVista

Founded in 2002 and based in Carlsbad, Calif., Medsphere Systems Corporation comprises a dedicated group of clinical and technology professionals working to make quality health IT solutions accessible to organizations of virtually any size, shape or budget. Medsphere’s OpenVista® is a portfolio of clinical support products and professional services that leverages an electronic health record (EHR) system developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. This VistA EHR is widely credited with helping transform the VA into the nation's most efficient and clinically effective healthcare organization. OpenVista, the most fully commercialized VistA offspring, is a responsible reapplication of the VA’s $8.5 billion investment, which recent studies show have yielded $3.09 billion in benefits, primarily from the near elimination of medication administration issues and duplicate testing.  

Medsphere’s subscription-based pricing model enables hospital, clinic and integrated delivery network customers to pay for OpenVista from their operating budget with no upfront costs or back-end balloon payments. Expert implementation and other services facilitate fluid and rapid transition to a paperless clinical environment focusing on best practices and evidence-based medicine in six to nine months. Medsphere also actively nurtures the Healthcare Open Source Ecosystem, a global community of customers, partners, developers and other online collaborators who drive OpenVista innovation, and provide a parallel development and support structure.