• Spok Unveils Two-Way Pager With Encryption Capabilities

    SPRINGFIELD, VA – November 30, 2016 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Spok, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Spok Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPOK) and the global leader in enterprise critical communications, today announced the availability of the T52 pager. The T52 pager supports communication with smartphones, pagers, handhelds, PCs, and other two-way devices, allowing care teams to stay connected regardless of the devices in use. With the enabled encryption service from Spok, the T52 is the only two-way pager on the market that supports secure messaging and helps healthcare organizations meet HIPAA compliance requirements.

    “Hospitals realize that pursuing one device for all types of roles and communications is not practical,” said Vincent D. Kelly, president and chief executive officer of Spok Holdings, Inc. “A broad, flexible, and device-neutral communications infrastructure is the best foundation for swift, cost effective care coordination. With encrypted communication options, like the T52 and Spok Mobile secure text messaging app, healthcare organizations can support device preference, while ensuring HIPAA compliance.”

    Spok has the exclusive rights to sell and service the T52, along with its one-way predecessor, the T5 pager. The T52 supports message encryption using the industry standard AES-128 encryption algorithm. Each device is programmed with a unique key. Messages are encrypted as they enter the Spok network and are sent over the air to the device, where they are decrypted for display to the user.

    The T52 also has a user-friendly interface and an easy-to-read screen with up to six lines of text for longer messages. In addition to having a long battery life and display-lock security features, it offers users the ability to review message delivery receipts and to remotely wipe data from a lost or stolen device.

    “With the T52, providers can send detailed messages containing protected health information in a secure manner and be confident that the message will be delivered,” said Kelly. “Pagers remain highly useful for clinical communications and a vital part of disaster preparedness due to the reliability of paging signals when cellular service is impaired. The addition of encryption capabilities only enhances their value.”

    About Spok
    Spok, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Spok Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPOK), headquartered in Springfield, Va., is proud to be the global leader in critical communications for healthcare, government, public safety, and other industries. We deliver smart, reliable solutions to help protect the health, well-being, and safety of people around the globe. Our customers send over 100 million messages each month through their Spok® solutions, and they rely on Spok for workflow improvement, secure texting, paging services, contact center optimization, and public safety response. When communications matter, Spok delivers. Spok delivers. Visit spok.com or find them on Twitter @Spoktweets.

    Spok is a trademark of Spok Holdings, Inc. Spok Mobile is a trademark of Spok, Inc.

    Contacts
    Spok, Inc.
    Jill Asby, 952-230-5363
    [email protected]

    Posted 11.30.2016

  • CHIME Applauds Health IT Provisions in 21st Century Cures Act

    ANN ARBOR, MI, November 30, 2016 – Statement by CHIME President and CEO Russell Branzell on the 21st Century Cures Act:

    Landmark legislation slated for a vote today by the House of Representatives would significantly improve the ability of hospitals and other providers to exchange accurate patient data and advance personalized care.

    The 21st Century Cures Act contains several provisions that directly impact health information technology policy. CHIME is especially encouraged that in a number of sections the bill addresses the critical issues of accurately identifying patients and matching them to their health records. The absence of national solutions for patient identification and patient matching not only pose serious risks to patient safety, but also lead resources being wasted on cleaning up duplicative medical records, as well as creating other inefficiencies. Among other things, the legislation would direct the Government Accountability Office to evaluate the current state of patient matching and determine what steps the Department of Health and Human Services could take to better ensure that patients are linked to their records. We believe that accurate patient identification is central to improving patient matching. CHIME expects to announce the winner of its National Patient ID Challenge early next year and welcomes the opportunity to work with GAO and HHS on improving methods for keeping patients connected to their information.

    The bill, which has bipartisan support, also reflects the growing need to develop a standards-based information exchange infrastructure. If we are going to improve information exchange and interoperability, we need to being the hard work of finalizing a set of standards that will help providers share patient information in a seamless manner.

    The health IT provisions in the 21st Century Cures Act reflect the importance of being able to safely and securely share patient information across the care continuum, and the vital role that technology plays in improving patient outcomes and reduce healthcare spending. We stand ready to work with the administration to deliver on the promises of this important legislation.

     

    About CHIME
    The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 2,000 CIO members and over 150 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit chimecentral.org.

    Contact
    Matthew Weinstock
    Director of Communications and Public Relations, CHIME
    734.249.8917
    [email protected]

    Posted 11.30.2016

  • Healthcare IT Leaders Adds EMR Training & Activation Depth

    Experienced Epic Training Leader Joins Fastest Growing IT Staffing Firm in Healthcare

    ATLANTA, GA -November 29, 2016 — Healthcare IT Leaders, a national IT consulting and recruitment firm for leading healthcare employers, today announced the hire of Vicki Davis as Vice President for Training and Activation. In this role, Davis will help hospitals prepare and train their end-users for EMR activation, adoption and long-term success.

    Davis comes to Healthcare IT Leaders with 20+ years of healthcare and project management experience, including recent leadership positions at Stanford Health Care as the IT Program Director for Epic Beaker, and Providence Health and Services, where she was Senior Director, Epic Training and Deployment.

    She has led large-scale training and delivery teams and has overseen classroom-based and online learning programs for tens of thousands of end-users over the past decade. At Healthcare IT Leaders she will head up the company’s EMR Training and Activation practice offering the capability to deploy large-scale Go-Live and Support teams.

    “Vicki has played a key role in EMR implementation and training programs at some the nation’s most respected health systems. Her depth of knowledge in training and activation makes her a valuable resource for our customers who seek scalable solutions for EMR adoption and long-term success,” said Bob Bailey, Managing Principal.

    “Mergers and large distributed workforces require hospitals to adopt creative training and support strategies for EMR implementations and upgrades,” said Davis. “I look forward to offering our clients industry best practices combined with innovative learning tools to help them achieve their training and activation goals.”

    About Healthcare IT Leaders
    Healthcare IT Leaders is a national leader in IT workforce solutions, connecting healthcare provider and payer organizations with experienced technology talent for consulting and full-time hiring. Areas of focus include EMR, ERP, CRM and testing. Based in Greater Atlanta, the company is the fastest growing IT staffing company in the US, according to Staffing Industry Associates (2016) and has twice-ranked on the Inc. 5000 (2016, 2015). Healthcare IT Leaders has also been named a Best Place to Work by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and Staffing Industry Associates. Learn more at healthcareitleaders.com.

    Posted 11.30.2016

  • Nordic mentioned more than any firm for key success attributes in 2016 KLAS perception report

    MADISON, WI – November 29, 2016 — Nordic is pleased to announce that it has completed a minority recapitalization with Silversmith Capital Partners and a group of banks led by current lender Square 1 Bank. By successfully raising this growth capital, Nordic reaffirms its position as the nation’s largest independent EHR/IT advisory consulting firm and positions itself as an industry leader well into the future.

    The influx of capital will provide Nordic the resources to continue to expand and diversify, both organically and via Nordic’s potential acquisition of other firms, the services it provides to healthcare organizations. Those offerings include advisory, EHR implementation, optimization, affiliate solutions (including mergers and acquisitions), revenue cycle, managed services, data & analytics and population health.

    Another important reason for the recap is to enable investors and nearly 300 of Nordic’s employees to monetize a portion of their holdings as a return on investment for their hard work and commitment to Nordic since its initial recapitalization in 2012. It also allows Nordic to expand its equity participation program to all employees starting in 2017.

    “We’re excited to be able to maintain our growth trajectory on our own terms while many of our competitors are being bought and sold,” Nordic CEO Bruce Cerullo said. “It’s extremely important to us that we continue to focus on outstanding service to our consultants and excellent results for our clients as this will allow us to continue to grow without compromising the special culture we’ve created.”

    Since its inception, Nordic has produced exceptional growth with three straight appearances on the Inc. 5000, recognizing the fastest-growing privately held companies in the US. In addition, Nordic has been listed on the HCI 100 in each of the past three years as one of the highest-grossing healthcare IT companies in the nation.

    Throughout its rapid growth, Nordic’s stellar reputation for quality continues to expand. In 2016, KLAS has recognized Nordic as a top performer in Epic IT Advisory Services, Comprehensive Healthcare IT Advisory Services, and Optimization Services. Such growth and quality has been made possible with Nordic’s unique culture and focus on employees, as evidenced by Nordic’s inclusion on “best places to work” lists compiled by Becker’s Health, Madison Magazine and Modern Healthcare.

    About Nordic
    Based in Madison, WI, Nordic is the world’s largest Epic consulting firm and a trusted advisor to healthcare systems, connecting strategy through to IT execution. Nordic offers advisory services, Epic implementation, optimization, data & analytics, managed services, population health and affiliate extension solutions, including mergers and acquisitions. Renowned for excellence, Nordic helps clients improve the health of their patients and businesses while shaping the future of healthcare. In 2016 KLAS recognized Nordic as a top performer in Epic IT Advisory Services, Comprehensive Healthcare IT Advisory Services and Optimization Services. Nordic has also received elite KLAS rankings in Epic Staffing and Implementation Support since Nordic’s inception.

    Posted 11.29.2016

  • GetWellNetwork CEO to Present at 15th Arab Conference, New Trends in Hospital Management

    Michael O’Neil to speak on transforming the patient experience through interaction, engagement & empowerment

    BETHESDA, MD – November 29, 2016 — GetWellNetwork®, Inc., the leader in Interactive Patient Care™ (IPC) solutions, announced today that founder and CEO Michael O’Neil will present at the 15th Arab Conference, New Trends in Hospital Management, Dec. 5 – 7, 2016, at the Dusit Hotel, Abu Dhabi, UAE. The conference is being presented by the Arab Administrative Development Organization (ARADO) to raise awareness of involving the public and patients in the health care process, and promote their role as beneficiaries from health services.

    Keynote speeches will be delivered by former ministers of health and other health professionals from across the Middle East and Europe. In his presentation, O’Neil will describe how IPC can be used to transform the patient experience through interaction, engagement and empowerment. Attendees will learn how the latest research, thought leadership and best practices in patient and family engagement can help health care providers activate patients in their care to improve health and performance outcomes and streamline clinical workflows.

    Media Contact
    GetWellNetwork, Inc.
    7700 Old Georgetown Road, 4th Floor
    Bethesda, MD
    20814-2500
    Toll-free: 877.633.8496
    Local: 240.482.3200
    Fax: 240.482.3201
    Email: [email protected]

    Posted 11.29.2016

  • Statement on President-elect Trump’s HHS Nominations

    ANN ARBOR, MI, November 29, 2016 – Statement by CHIME President and CEO Russell Branzell on the selection of Rep. Tom Price, M.D., to be Secretary of Health and Human Services:

    Rep. Tom Price has been at the forefront of advancing important reforms to the nation’s health IT policy landscape. He was a leader in pushing for greater flexibility in the Meaningful Use program, including the 90-day reporting period. The shorter reporting period is a more realistic timeframe and will help hospitals stay focused on optimizing electronic health record systems for improved patient care. Dr. Price was also instrumental in 2015 in extending the timeline for providers to apply for hardship exemptions under the Meaningful Use program.

    Health information technology plays a pivotal role in virtually every aspect of healthcare and is moving us toward better, safer, more efficient care. Once they are confirmed by the Senate, we stand ready to continue our work with the leadership team at HHS, including Dr. Price and Seema Verma at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to develop policies that will better enable CHIME members to implement IT solutions that transform the nation’s healthcare system.

     

    About CHIME
    The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 2,000 CIO members and over 150 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit chimecentral.org.

    Contact
    Matthew Weinstock
    Director of Communications and Public Relations, CHIME
    734.249.8917
    [email protected]

    Posted 11.29.2016

  • Nuance Image Sharing Network Helps Focus Attention on Pediatric Patients

    Nuance Hosts National Pilot to Help Families Share Images through the Cloud & Donates $15,000 to Make-A-Wish® Illinois

    CHICAGO, IL – November 28, 2016 — Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced two important commitments to helping wishes come true for pediatric patients who will have a wish granted by Make-A-Wish®. On a national scale, Nuance will connect Make-A-Wish kids to the largest pediatric image sharing network in the US, Nuance PowerShare, to help them get the best care possible when traveling on wish experiences. Additionally, Nuance is donating $15,000 to Make-A-Wish Illinois to support children like Shane, an 11-year-old, who has wished to go to San Diego and take in all the local attractions this summer.

    When pediatric patients travel for fun or to see a specialist, medical images often do not go with them and that puts patients at risk, makes them harder to treat, causes delays in care, and exposes children to repeat testing and radiation. Physicians at Orlando Health, who were using Nuance’s cloud-based image sharing, saw an opportunity to leverage this Network more broadly to help kids visiting Florida theme parks as well as thousands of Make-A-Wish kids with life-threatening illnesses who travel each year to fulfill their wishes.

    Powering Wishes Through Technology
    “Hospitals In November, Nuance launched a dedicated Make-A-Wish PowerShare pilot program at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, part of Orlando Health, with plans to expand the Network to popular wish destinations across the country. This program enables pediatric care teams and Make-A-Wish families to upload their child’s medical images to the cloud making these records available to providers when these children visit a location and may need emergency care.

    “There is not a pediatric radiologist out there who has not treated a Make-A-Wish child, and none of them have had prior images unless families have brought them on a CD,” said Dr. Shoba Srikantan, a pediatric critical care physician at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and National Medical Advisor for Make-A-Wish. “We’re honored to be the first provider of this program combining Nuance technology with the Make-A-Wish program to alleviate this problem for these patients through a Make-A-Wish PowerShare account.”

    “Recognizing the value and importance of cloud-based image sharing to pediatric hospitals, Nuance is better connecting Make-A-Wish kids and physicians across the United States through Nuance PowerShare to support families and these important wish trips,” said Karen Holzberger, vice president and general manager of Nuance’s diagnostic solutions. “We are also donating $15,000 to Make-A-Wish Illinois as part of a fundraiser at RSNA16 to raise additional funds by encouraging radiologists who are in Chicago attending the scientific assembly to help support wish children by contributing to the local chapter.”

    To contribute to Make-A-Wish Illinois, either donate online using this Wish link or visit Nuance booth #2700 at the Radiological Society of North America Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting November 28-30.

    Nuance provides intelligent systems that support a more natural and insightful approach to clinical documentation, freeing clinicians to spend more time caring for patients. Nuance healthcare solutions capture, improve and communicate more than 300 million patient stories each year helping more than 500,000 clinicians in 10,000 global healthcare organizations to drive meaningful clinical and financial outcomes. Nuance’s award-winning clinical speech recognition, medical transcription, CDI, coding, quality and medical imaging solutions provide a more complete and accurate view of patient care.

    Nuance Communications, Inc.
    Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications. For more information, please visit nuance.com. Connect with Nuance on social media through the healthcare blog, What’s next, as well as LinkedIn, and Twitter.

    About Make-A-Wish
    Make-A-Wish grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. According to a 2011 US study of wish impact, most health professionals surveyed believe a wish-come-true has positive impacts on the health of children. Kids say wishes give them renewed strength to fight their illness, and their parents say these experiences help strengthen the entire family. Headquartered in Phoenix, Make-A-Wish is one of the world’s leading children’s charities, serving children in every community in the United States and its territories. With the help of generous donors and more than 28,000 volunteers, Make-A-Wish grants a wish somewhere in the country every 35 minutes. It has granted more than 270,000 wishes since its inception in 1980; more than 14,800 in 2015 alone. Visit Make-A-Wish at wish.org to learn more.

    Trademark reference: Nuance PowerShare Network, and Nuance PowerShare are registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names or product names referenced herein may be the property of their respective owners.

    Posted 11.28.2016

  • Nuance & Coordinated Care of Oklahoma Make Image Awareness a Reality for Healthcare Information Exchanges

    Cloud-Based PowerShare Network Advances Interoperability & Easy Exchange of Medical Images and Reports across Regions

    CHICAGO, IL – November 28, 2016 — Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced that it has enhanced its PowerShare Network capabilities in collaboration with Coordinated Care of Oklahoma (CCO) to make image awareness in Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) now a reality. CCO is the leading health information network of hospitals, health systems and physicians in Oklahoma.

    This evolution in HIE interoperability provides full access to and the seamless exchange of digital medical images and reports through the cloud plus real time awareness of patient’s prior medical images at the point of care. Nuance PowerShare for HIE provides clinicians with intelligent access to consolidated patient imaging records across systems and facilities in a way that immediately becomes actionable. This delivers clinical and patient advantages, and adds sustainability and profitability where HIEs have struggled in the past.

    “We went looking for data and image liquidity across our HIE and took a real world, nuts and bolts approach that we know will work, will be familiar to users and drive immediate value, said Dr. Brian Yeaman, chief administrative officer, CCO. “We looked to DICOM standards and the cloud as the most logical way forward. Since DICOM standards are the way all PACS systems currently handle images, it made sense to leverage it as a basis for this new evolution in HIE interoperability. To move images from one facility to the next, it’s important to do more than just move pieces of the image, and Nuance PowerShare provided a solution that is awesome with full access to records through the cloud.”

    The new PowerShare Network for HIE will improve the provider experience with an easy approach to cross regional HIE interoperability, which was difficult to achieve in the past. Connecting through PowerShare will enable a smarter, more proactive approach to patient matching between providers where patient data is retrieved and aggregated before a physician has to even ask for it. This cloud-based approach eliminates high costs, duplication of image storage and searching for patient records that may be stored in disparate systems or sites. CCO is deploying Nuance PowerShare for HIE to connect 10 facilities to start and will integrate this approach into an existing Cerner HIE environment. CCO is also driving a new and more profitable business model by delivering this value-added service to all of its members.

    “We are focused on delivering value to our clients, our providers and to our members in terms of reimbursement, and quality of services in a network. Nuance solved our problem because today we are able to exchange images across different PACS systems inside of one health system, as well as across multiple health systems, bringing that patient data including medical images and reports at the point of care,” adds Dr. Yeaman.

    Nuance PowerShare for HIE will be demonstrated at the Radiological Society of North America Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting (RSNA16), November 28-30 in Nuance booth #2700. PowerShare for HIE is available today, and more information is available by calling 1-844-835-6211.

    Nuance provides intelligent systems that support a more natural and insightful approach to clinical documentation, freeing clinicians to spend more time caring for patients. Nuance healthcare solutions capture, improve and communicate more than 300 million patient stories each year helping more than 500,000 clinicians in 10,000 global healthcare organizations to drive meaningful clinical and financial outcomes. Nuance’s award-winning clinical speech recognition, medical transcription, CDI, coding, quality and medical imaging solutions provide a more complete and accurate view of patient care.

    Nuance Communications, Inc.
    Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications. For more information, please visit nuance.com. Connect with Nuance on social media through the healthcare blog, What’s next, as well as LinkedIn, and Twitter.

    Trademark reference: Nuance PowerShare Network, Nuance PowerShare for HIE and Nuance PowerShare are registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names or product names referenced herein may be the property of their respective owners.

    Posted 11.28.2016

  • Health Catalyst Named to Deloitte’s 2016 Technology Fast 500 List of Fastest Growing North American Companies

    Attributes 998 Percent Revenue Growth to Customers’ Success in Driving Measurable Outcomes

    SALT LAKE CITY, UT – November 16, 2016 — Health Catalyst®, a leader in healthcare data warehousing, analytics and outcomes improvement, today announced it ranked 97 on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America.

    Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2012 to 2015. Health Catalyst revenue grew 998 percent during this period.

    Health Catalyst previously ranked 136th as a Technology Fast 500™ award winner for 2015.

    Health Catalyst CEO Dan Burton attributes the company’s growth to the increasing demand for technologies and processes that improve clinical and financial outcomes and enable healthcare organizations to thrive under the fast evolving system of value-based reimbursement. Burton said: “We are honored to be named among the nation’s fastest growing companies. This recognition is a reflection of our customers’ success in using Health Catalyst’s analytics platform to systemically improve clinical and financial outcomes.”

    The Health Catalyst Data Warehouse and Analytics Platform™ forms the information foundation for value-based performance at some of the nation’s largest health systems, serving more than 70 million patients overall. The company’s Technology Fast 500 ranking is one of several accolades received in the previous 12 months including:

    • The Inc. 500 2016 list of the fastest growing private companies
    • Fortune, “Best Medium-Sized Workplaces”
    • Modern Healthcare, “Best Places to Work in Healthcare”
    • Utah Business, “Best Companies to Work For”
    • Utah Business, “Fast 50 Companies”
    • Mountain West Capital Group, “Utah Top 100”

    Additionally, the respected healthcare technology research group, KLAS, in its November 2016 report on enterprise business intelligence vendors, gave Health Catalyst the highest overall score and the highest score for “proactive service.” The report marks the fourth time in three years that Health Catalyst has been recognized as a top performer in the healthcare BI market by KLAS.

    “This year’s Fast 500 winners showcase that when organizations are open to diverse perspectives and insights, they are able to create an environment for their employees and customers to see the possibilities and ingenious solutions that might lie ahead,” said Jim Atwell, national managing partner of the emerging growth company practice, Deloitte & Touche LLP. “Entrepreneurial environments foster change and innovation within businesses, and we look forward to watching these companies continue to drive change across all sectors.”

    About Deloitte’s 2016 Technology Fast 500™
    Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies – both public and private – in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2012 to 2015.

    In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company’s operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least $50,000 USD, and current-year operating revenues of at least $5 million USD. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America.

    As used in this document, “Deloitte” means Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Please see deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.

    About Health Catalyst
    Health Catalyst is a mission-driven data warehousing, analytics and outcomes-improvement company that helps healthcare organizations of all sizes perform the clinical, financial, and operational reporting and analysis needed for population health and accountable care. Their proven enterprise data warehouse (EDW) and analytics platform helps improve quality, add efficiency and lower costs in support of more than 70 million patients for organizations ranging from the largest US health system to forward-thinking physician practices. For more information, visit healthcatalyst.com, and follow them on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

    Contact
    Todd Stein
    Amendola Communications
    916.346.4213
    [email protected]

    Posted 11.28.2016

  • Promedica to Incorporate Cardiology in its Sectra Enterprise Imaging Solution

    SHELTON, CT – November 27, 2016 — International medical imaging IT company Sectra (STO: SECT B) announces that ProMedica is adding the Sectra Cardiology Module into its existing enterprise imaging architecture. Through integration with the Epic Cupid reporting module, physicians will have combined access to their patients’ complete imaging history for both radiology and cardiology. ProMedica’s twelve hospitals and six ambulatory surgery centers in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan provide 4.7 million patient encounters annually. All the facilities utilize Sectra PACS and, earlier this year, the Sectra VNA architecture was configured to prepare for the inclusion of cardiology and other non-radiology images. Cardiac catherization and cardiac ultrasound images will be viewed in the Sectra PACS and archived in the Sectra VNA.

    “ProMedica and Sectra have a long history of collaboration. The ability to easily access images from both radiology and cardiology will allow us to continue delivering excellent patient care and improve communication between disciplines,” says Debi Brobst, VP of Applications at ProMedica.

    Sectra’s complete enterprise imaging offering is modular and supports the most image-intense departments— radiology, pathology, cardiology and orthopaedics. Being built on the same technical platform, customers can easily extend a departmental solution to create a comprehensive VNA and enterprise image management solution without major investments or the replacement of existing components.

    Sectra at RSNA
    Meet Sectra at the ongoing RSNA trade show, booth #6113, and learn more about how Sectra supports radiology in exceeding the expectations of referring physicians and their patients. Read more and book a meeting at sectra.com/RSNA.

    About ProMedica
    ProMedica is a non-profit healthcare organization serving northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan. Driven by the mission to improve patient’s health and well-being, ProMedica offers a full range of diagnostic, medical and surgical specialties. For more information, visit promedica.org

    About Sectra
    With more than 20 years of innovation and 1,700 installations, Sectra is a leading global provider of imaging IT solutions that support healthcare in achieving patient-centric care. Sectra offers an Enterprise Image Management solution comprising PACS for imaging-intense departments, VNA and Cross Enterprise Workflow solutions. Read more about Sectra and why Sectra PACS is ‘Best in KLAS’, sectra.com.

    Contact
    Andrea Sowitch, Vice President of Marketing
    Sectra North America
    [email protected]
    203.925.0899 ext 268

    Torbjörn Kronander, President and CEO
    Sectra AB
    [email protected]
    +46 705.23.5227

    Posted 11.27.2016

  • Baptist Health South Improves Documentation, Quality & Appropriate Reimbursement with Nuance CDI

    Unique Program Engages Physicians & Drives $45 million in Appropriate Reimbursement at Five Affiliated Hospitals

    BURLINGTON, MA – November 22, 2016 — Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced that Baptist Health South Florida has realized $45 million in increased appropriate reimbursement since the implementation of Nuance Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI), which optimizes the accuracy and efficiency of physician documentation and communication of patient care. Not only did Baptist Health significantly improve financial outcomes, it improved the tracking and reporting of patient’s clinical conditions, which more than doubled metrics including severity of illness (SOI) and risk of mortality (ROM) to directly impact quality of care and treatment decisions.

    Baptist Health South Florida deployed Nuance’s CDI program across its five hospitals in October of 2011. The improved accuracy and completeness of physician documentation generated a 13% increase in Case Mix Index (CMI) across the system, which translated to $45 million in appropriate reimbursement over the course of four years. The system’s largest hospital alone saw a 14% CMI increase and a financial impact of $26.5 million, supporting the care of sicker patients than originally documented.

    “The goal of the CDI program is to make sure the final codes accurately reflect the complexity and severity of a patient’s illness, promoting accuracy and higher quality of the medical record,” said Dr. Lorena Chicoye, corporate medical director of managed care at Baptist. “Once the Nuance clinical documentation program was up and running, it was amazing how much more documentation we were able to capture and the greater specificity we experienced. Now, our documentation more accurately reflects the high quality patient care our physicians are delivering.”

    Better Insights into Patient Care
    Through Nuance’s Advanced Practice CDI™ program, Baptist Health more accurately documented the disease acuity of its patient population, which doubled its reporting of severity of illness from 8% to 17.1%, and the mortality risk from 7.7% to 14.5%. Clinicians are now able to provide a more complete and detailed picture of a patient’s health to recommend better treatment plans, provide better patient outcomes and more accurately reflect quality especially when publicly reported.

    “Nuance is focused on helping clinicians advance quality of care in their communities while also supporting the business of healthcare by helping organizations successfully transition to value-based payments (VBP)” said Satish Maripuri, executive vice president and general manager of the Healthcare Division, Nuance Communications. “Nuance’s award winning clinically-focused CDI approach leads to better overall quality ratings and patient care along with tangible financial outcomes, which directly impact how providers are paid. Baptist Health South Florida is a great example of what a Nuance CDI program can do.”

    Physician Engagement Drives Gains
    Once Nuance CDI was implemented, physicians could receive clarifications and make adjustments on diagnoses while patients were still in their care before details were missed. This improved the documentation process, and also improved education and physician response rates, thereby capturing more accurate severity and mortality rates, which ultimately impact the quality outcomes of hospitals. By instilling CDI best practices, the Baptist team went from a 20% response rate from physicians to a 95% response rate and most agree to recommended improvements for their documentation.

    In addition to using innovative tools that facilitate documentation in real-time, Baptist Health employed international physicians as clinical documentation specialists. Because they are physicians, they have the clinical knowledge essential to help translate clinical speak into documentation requirements that are important in patient charts to support ICD-10 codes and quality metrics.

    “We use international physicians as clinical documentation specialists because doctor-to-doctor communication works best when making suggestions about what they should do differently,” said Dr. Chicoye. “We recruit physicians who are medical graduates, ready and waiting to get into residency programs. Using the physicians as clinical documentation specialists has reduced physician resistance to CDI, because they use the same clinical terminology and can speak with authority.”

    Nuance provides intelligent systems that support a more natural and insightful approach to clinical documentation, freeing clinicians to spend more time caring for patients. Nuance healthcare solutions capture, improve and communicate more than 300 million patient stories each year helping more than 500,000 clinicians in 10,000 global healthcare organizations to drive meaningful clinical and financial outcomes. Nuance’s award-winning clinical speech recognition, medical transcription, CDI, coding, quality and medical imaging solutions provide a more complete and accurate view of patient care.

    Nuance Communications, Inc.
    Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications. For more information, please visit nuance.com. Connect with Nuance on social media through the healthcare blog, What’s next, as well as LinkedIn, and Twitter.

    Trademark reference: Nuance Clintegrity, Nuance CDI, Nuance’s Advanced Practice CDI program are registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names or product names referenced herein may be the property of their respective owners.

    Posted 11.22.2016

  • Best of Breed or Single Vendor Strategy in Radiology Imaging? Sectra Rated #1 in Customer Satisfaction Regardless of Approach

    SHELTON, CT – November 21, 2016 –- International medical imaging IT company Sectra (STO: SECT B) has the highest customer satisfaction in the industry according to a new report from analytics company peer60. The report—Ideal Imaging Configuration: The Tug-of-War Between Enterprise and Best of Breed—shows that Sectra’s customers consistently express the highest satisfaction regardless of IT approach. It also shows that regardless of the customer preference for overall solution architecture, Sectra is the best partner.

    “Sectra has impressed once again with a very high Net Promoter Score among its PACS customers. No one else seems to be engendering this much loyalty. The fact that Sectra can maintain high scores with both IT approaches is unique,” comments Chris Jensen, Executive Vice President of peer60.

    The report is based on feedback from 276 top decision-makers among North American healthcare organizations. It sets out to investigate the extent to which the market has adopted a best of breed approach in imaging compared to an enterprise imaging approach (PACS, VNA and viewer from the same vendor), the reasons behind adopting each strategy, and the satisfaction among these care providers.

    “At Sectra, we are passionate about supporting our customers in delivering the best possible care. Their level of satisfaction with us and our solutions is our single most important metric. Being rated number one by customers in this new report makes me incredibly proud,” says Torbjörn Kronander, president and CEO of Sectra.

    For three consecutive years in the US and two consecutive years globally, Sectra PACS has also been awarded “Best in KLAS” for highest customer satisfaction according to “Best in KLAS: Software & Services Report” for 2015/2016, 2014 and 2013. This new report from peer60 confirms Sectra’s earlier successes.

    Read the full report from peer60 “Ideal Imaging Configuration: The Tug-of-War Between Enterprise and Best of Breed”: peer60.com/report/ideal-imaging-configuration-2016

    Sectra at RSNA 2016
    Meet Sectra at RSNA, booth #6113, to experience Sectra’s view of patient-centered cancer care, and find out how we support radiology in exceeding the expectations of referring physicians and their patients. Read about Sectra at RSNA

    Posted 11.21.2016
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