NEPTUNE, N.J. & NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Informatics Corporation of America (ICA, www.icainformatics.com) and Meridian Health (www.meridianhealth.com) announced today that as of February 28, 2011, Meridian’s six hospitals in two counties along mid-coast New Jersey are connected via ICA’s CareAlign HIE solution. ICA will provide the technology and infrastructure for a multi-county regional Health Information Exchange (HIE) that serves over 250,000 people in Monmouth and Ocean counties.
Meridian Health is one of New Jersey’s most comprehensive not-for-profit health care providers offering a wide-range of health care services, including home care and hospice, skilled nursing and sub-acute care facilities, physician practices, rehabilitation and fitness centers, occupational health, home medical equipment and in-home safety technology, ambulance and medical transportation, as well as outpatient laboratory, imaging, and surgery centers. Meridian has six primary hospital locations: Jersey Shore University Medical Center and K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital in Neptune, Ocean Medical Center in Brick, Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, Southern Ocean Medical Center in Manahawkin and Bayshore Community Hospital in Holmdel.
“Meridian Health chose ICA’s CareAlign platform to implement an HIE across the continuum of care in a way that offers care providers easy access to pertinent and critical clinical information while supporting the patient safety, quality, and financial objectives of Meridian Health, its multi-county community and all its affiliated physicians,” says Margaret Quinn, M.D., chief medical information officer, Meridian Health. “Our recent merger with Southern Ocean Medical Center and Bayshore Community Hospital made it a top priority to ensure that individuals’ clinical records would follow them, regardless of where patients are seen,” she adds.
According to Chief Information Officer Rebecca Weber, Meridian Health is committed to improving the health and well-being of the residents of New Jersey by providing quality, patient-centered health care services. “A state-of-the-art, integrated patient clinical record will further enhance the quality and safety of care provided to our community, “ says Weber. “With the implementation of ICA’s CareAlign Solution, this integrated patient health record will be available to the physician or clinician whenever and wherever it is needed to deliver optimized patient care.”
The key is connecting the data, according to Bob Radvanski, director of information technology at Meridian. “ICA’s CareAlign solution enables Meridian’s health care facilities to connect internal and external health care data sources, aggregate the data, and convert it into usable information across the continuum of care, all while providing actionable information to the physicians through an intuitive portal, “ says Radvanski. “Our clinicians can now see information in one place from our six acute facilities, six emergency room departments, and multiple long-term care & rehabilitation facilities. In addition, we’re looking forward to using the solution’s analytics capabilities to provide better care and improve the overall health of our regional population.”
ICA Chief Executive Officer, Gary Zegiestowsky, agrees that Meridian’s objective to aggregate clinical information in order to provide a secure, longitudinal, configurable patient record for physicians and care providers has been met. “Physicians and clinicians can now remotely access information from across the HIE, with ICA ensuring adoption, reliability, and growth capabilities,” says Zegiestowsky. “Meridian can use CareAlign to optimize its clinical data by transforming it into a simple, streamlined tool that will greatly improve the physician’s ability to make better decisions with individual patients.” He adds, “This technology, now in use at HIEs throughout the country, will enhance Meridian’s ability to evaluate care provided and develop quality initiatives to constantly improve care within and across its system and other facilities.”
About Meridian Health
Meridian Health is a leading not-for-profit healthcare organization in New Jersey, comprising Jersey Shore University Medical Center and K. Hovnanian Children's Hospital in Neptune, Ocean Medical Center in Brick, Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, Southern Ocean Medical Center in Manahawkin, Bayshore Community Hospital in Holmdel, and Meridian Partner Companies that include home health services, skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers, ambulatory care, ambulance services, and outpatient centers. Meridian Health has consistently been rated among the top performing health systems in New Jersey for clinical quality, is one of the FORTUNE "100 Best Companies to Work For", and is the recipient of numerous state and national recognitions for patient care and nursing excellence, including the distinction of being the first health system in the country to receive Magnet designation for nursing. Most recently, Meridian was named one of the Top 100 Integrated Health System in the country. For more information, visit www.meridianhealth.com.
About Informatics Corporation of America (ICA)
Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) was established to take innovative technology developed by Vanderbilt Medical Center to the broader healthcare market and now delivers a comprehensive HIE solution to hospitals, IDNs, communities and states. Unmatched in its ability to yield cost effectiveness, improved patient care, and better outcomes, ICA’s CareAlign solution captures complete data to enhance the decision making process. ICA’s CareAlign intelligence engine empowers HIEs to leverage existing core systems to construct a longitudinal patient record. CareAlign also features provider/patient portals, secure clinical communication, NHIN compliant interoperability, EHR-lite and population management tools. Visit www.icainformatics.com; follow us on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/icainformatics; and Facebook: www.facebook.com.
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