BIRMINGHAM, Ala. & SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading provider of open-source healthcare enterprise solutions, today announced a new contract with Cooper Green Mercy Hospital in Birmingham, Ala., for implementation of the OpenVista® electronic health record (EHR) and associated clinical transformation services. The county-owned medical center will take advantage of OpenVista's comprehensive clinical support and Medsphere’s rapid implementation process to affordably improve care and secure the maximum federal stimulus funding.
"OpenVista is the financially responsible choice, especially for a county facility, and requires Cooper Green to sacrifice nothing in terms of clinical IT support as compared with much, much more expensive systems," said Dr. Sandral Hullett, CEO at Cooper Green Mercy Hospital. “We selected the most clinically proven system in order to qualify for the first year of [American Recovery and Reinvestment Act] ARRA meaningful use payments. With OpenVista, we are able to achieve both our clinical and financial goals, and that was not possible with other choices.”
Under the federal ARRA legislation, eligible hospitals that implement and meaningfully use an EHR by the 2011 deadline can receive millions of federal dollars through increased Medicare reimbursements through 2014. Incentives decrease annually and become penalties for hospitals that have not implemented an EHR by 2015.
“As a community facility with finite financial resources, Cooper Green is exactly the type of hospital Medsphere values most in transforming healthcare,” said Mike Doyle, Medsphere president and CEO. “Healthcare will evolve through grassroots change at the community level. We welcome Cooper Green to the OpenVista community and look forward to working with clinicians and staff as we tailor the solution to meet clinical needs and the requirements of meaningful use.”
Cooper Green Mercy Hospital will now become a full participant in Medsphere's Healthcare Open Source Ecosystem, where clinicians, administrators and other OpenVista users share both system enhancements and best practices. As the Ecosystem continues to grow, additional contributions will improve care for patients at participating facilities.
Medsphere's OpenVista 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 from the VA through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), OpenVista can be implemented much more quickly and affordably than comparable vendor proprietary solutions.
In addition to OpenVista, Cooper Green will also implement Stockell Healthcare Systems’ Insight CS financial and patient accounting solution. Medsphere and Stockell have previously collaborated on the implementation of a comprehensive, end-to-end system.
About Cooper Green Mercy Hospital
Cooper Green Mercy Hospital offers a complete range of health care services for the residents of Jefferson County, with its fees based on family size and income. On an outpatient basis, it offers a full range of primary care and specialty services, such as general surgery, urology, orthopedics, ENT, ophthalmology, obstetrics and gynecology, cardiology, pulmonary, nephrology, and hematology/oncology. Cooper Green Mercy Hospital also offers inpatient services, a fully staffed and accredited emergency room, rehabilitation services, a complete range of diagnostic services, and social services. All care is provided by full-time, Board-certified staff physicians working with physicians in training from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Services that are not provided directly at Cooper Green Mercy Hospital, such as cardiac catheterization or bypass surgery, are coordinated through UAB Hospital. In addition to the clinics located in the Medical Center District, Cooper Green also operates two primary care clinics based in the community. These are located in Forestdale and Southtown.
About Medsphere and OpenVista
Founded in 2002 and based in Carlsbad, Calif., Medsphere Systems Corporation is an award-winning organization 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.
Learn more about Medsphere at www.medsphere.com / www.medsphere.org.