Medsphere Systems Corporation and Stilwell Memorial Hospital today announced that Stilwell is now up and running on Medsphere’s OpenVista open source electronic health record (EHR). With full technical support for Stilwell clinicians, the hospital can focus on Meaningful Use Stage 1 process and patient care improvements as outlined in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The expectation, supported by the experience of other Medsphere customers, is that 34-bed Stilwell will see measurable improvements in community care enabled by their use of OpenVista. The comprehensive EHR will arm Stilwell clinicians with the tools to rapidly identify potential drug interactions, review family health history and confirm patient data at the bedside via bar code scanner.

“On behalf of Medsphere, I want to congratulate Stilwell President and CEO Alan L. Adams and his dedicated staff at Memorial Hospital,” said Medsphere President and CEO Irv Lichtenwald. “It’s been very clear to us since day one that the entire hospital was motivated in this project by their commitment to serving the needs of the city of Stilwell and the surrounding community. Improved patient care through affordable health IT is available to the thousands of essential community hospitals in this country, and Memorial Hospital is demonstrating to others how it can and should be done.”

Stilwell’s accomplishment is magnified because the hospital moved to electronic clinical support from paper. In addition to federal reimbursement through Meaningful Use, the hospital also looks forward to more financially manageable operating expenses as all upgrades, enhancements and support are included in Medsphere’s subscription-based pricing model.

“I am tremendously proud of the clinicians and staff here at Stilwell Memorial for the dedication and optimism they brought to this entire implementation process,” said Adams. “I won’t pretend for a minute that this was an easy or straightforward process. But we were resilient, and Medsphere was realistic and consistent in the guidance they gave us. This is something that hospitals nationwide are doing and should do, and we feel like Stilwell is proving that size and geography just don’t matter all that much.”

On the patient accounting and billing side, Stilwell will implement Stockell Healthcare’s comprehensive InsightCS Revenue Cycle Information suite. InsightCS incorporates Patient Access, Patient Accounting, Claims Management, Informatics and Reporting, and Clinical Exchange solutions for acute and mental health hospitals, and integrated delivery networks. Medsphere and Stockell have collaborated previously at other customer hospitals to enable data sharing between OpenVista and InsightCS.

In partnership with Medsphere, Stilwell is using OpenVista to closely track Meaningful Use requirements such as use of Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) for medication orders, and drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions. Medsphere and Stilwell collaborated during implementation and training on workflow process redesign, which will continue to ensure improved clinical efficiency and Meaningful Use success.

About Stilwell Memorial Hospital

Stilwell Memorial Hospital is an acute care facility located in Stilwell, OK, and run by Adair County Health Center. Stilwell Memorial is committed to providing quality health care regardless of color, race, or religion. An annual assessment of the hospital’s mission statement and goals enables Stilwell Memorial to ensure a continuing commitment to the community and individual patients.

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’s OpenVista at www.medsphere.com.