Informatics Corporation of America (ICA; www.icainformatics.com) announced today that the Memphis-based MidSouth eHealth Alliance (MSeHA) has signed a multi-year contract with ICA to provide its commercial CareAlign™ solution for continued HIE capabilities. In 2004, MSeHA was initially awarded an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) grant in collaboration with the Vanderbilt Medical Center’s Regional Informatics team to develop data sharing capability within the Memphis community, with the primary goal of assisting with the management of the “safety net” population served by the 16 hospitals, their emergency departments, and primary care practices within the community.

 “As the grant-funded demonstration period comes to a close, MSeHA looked to ICA for migration from the demonstration software platform to their commercially available CareAlign™ product,” says Burt Waller, Chairman of the MSeHA Board and CEO of Christ Community Health Services.  “With the signing of this contract, MSeHA begins a new era of ownership, accountability and sustainability. This is a significant step for the MSeHA as it moves from the five years of success supported by the Memphis-based healthcare participants and Vanderbilt’s Regional Informatics team to a self- sustaining HIE with expanded capabilities to meet the new ARRA HITECH requirements and evolving healthcare reform legislation.  This transition shows that demonstration dollars can successfully sow seeds of ongoing achievements at a local, state and regional level.”

 To date, MSeHA has logged over seven million encounters (130,000/month) for over  2.8 million total patients – one of many milestones, which also include:

• An aggregated longitudinal medical record available at all 14 emergency departments and all participating primary-care locations.
• The aggregated database now contains over 5 years of data.
• Data is now readily available for use by approved MSeHA members when treating/caring for patients.
• The MSeHA database contains nearly 42 million chart documents including such medical information as acute care discharge, emergency department and outpatient encounter summaries; radiology reports and laboratory results.

The Memphis health care facilities include 16 hospitals with 14 emergency rooms and 16 primary care sites, with clinical information residing in a diverse set of health care information systems, including: AllScripts, HeartLab, NextGen, Cerner IDX, RxClaim, HBOC McKesson, HealthPRO and Meditech MAGIC.

“ICA looks forward to working with MSeHA in the transition from a demonstration project to a commercial HIE model,” states Gary Zegiestowsky, chief executive officer of the ICA. “We recognize the hard work, expertise and collaboration that occurred during the formation, solution development, deployment and support of the demonstration over the past five years between the MSeHA participants and the Regional Informatics team, and look forward to a smooth transition to the CareAlign™ solution to meet MSeHA’s ongoing needs.”

Waller concludes, “The Vanderbilt Regional Informatics team and ICA have served MSeHA well and is an example of how health care information can be managed to control costs and help improve patient care by using aggregated data to identify specific medical conditions, determine corresponding treatment patterns, and provide the groundwork for quality health care reporting.  We look forward to our expanded relationship and the use and benefits of the full featured CareAlign™ solution.”

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. ICA is unmatched in its ability to deliver a cost-effective, proven solution that leverages complete data to aid decision-making and improve patient outcomes.  ICA’s CareAlign™ Solution provides a clinical intelligence engine empowering HIEs to leverage existing core systems to construct a longitudinal patient record.  CareAlign™ also delivers provider/patient portals, secure clinical communication, NHIN compliant interoperability, EHR-lite and population management tools.  Visit www.icainformatics.com

About the MidSouth eHealth Alliance

The MidSouth eHealth Alliance was established in 2004 with $12 million in combined grants from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the State of Tennessee. It is a community-wide health information exchange in the Memphis, Tennessee area allowing providers to share patient information from inpatient, outpatient and emergency room encounters across multiple clinical facilities, including emergency departments, inpatient facilities, and ambulatory clinics. Current participants include Baptist Memorial Hospital in Collierville, Baptist Memorial Hospital – DeSoto, , Baptist Memorial Hospital – Memphis, Baptist Memorial Hospital – Tipton, Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women, Christ Community Health Services, Memphis Children’s Clinic, Memphis Health Center, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare – Germantown, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare – Children’s Medical Center, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare – North, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare – South, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare – University, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare – Fayette, Saint Francis Hospital – Memphis, Saint Francis Hospital – Bartlett, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, The Regional Medical Center at Memphis, Health Loop Clinics, and UT Medical Group.

NASHVILLE, TN – June 10, 2010 – “Five Key Elements to Successful Clinical Information Implementation,”  Thursday, June 17, 2010, 2 p.m. CT, a Webinar hosted by Informatics Corporation of America (ICA; www.icainformatics.com), will explore the five elements that significantly improve the potential for successful roll-out of clinical information systems (CIS) and explain how institutions can succeed even when faced with great adversity towards CIS adoption. ICA, a provider of comprehensive health information exchange (HIE) solutions to hospitals, integrated delivery networks (IDNs), communities, and states, invites physicians, clinical staff, health information technology specialists, and hospital administrators to register at www.icainformatics.com.

“While resource constraints may impact the growing number of CIS implementations, health care leaders should view this as a transformational opportunity that focuses on promoting the adoption of technology and altering patient care delivery – not simply an information technology event,” says John Tempesco, vice president, Clinical Services, at ICA. “CIS implementation includes all phases of an application’s life cycle, from planning through maintenance. This Webinar is designed to help prevent missteps during the critical phases of implementation and ensure success.”

Presented by Tempesco and Rhonda Harper, director of IT at Lourdes Hospital, an ICA client, the webinar will focus on five key elements:

1. Comprehensive Business Plan
2. Executive Commitment and Leadership
3. Realistic Expectations
4. Operational Ownership
5. Piloting and Refinement

Harper adds, “By including these five elements into the CIS implementation, overall implementation success can be achieved in terms of end-user adoption and satisfaction, increased productivity, and reduction of errors.  Participants will also gain some valuable insights from the Lourdes experience, with first-hand discussion of the implementation of the ICA comprehensive solution.  We will examine ways that the solution complemented the hospital system’s legacy health information system, and provided interoperability with various existing ambulatory electronic medical records.”

Developed by practicing physicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt Medical Center and implemented in both enterprise and HIE environments, ICA’s CareAlign™ provides:

• Provider and patient portal with secure clinical communication
• Standards-based interoperability (IHE, NHIN)
• EHR-Lite functionality (Ambulatory orders, ePrescribing, vitals and summaries)
• Population management, analysis and reporting (Disease dashboards)

“Thanks to our partnership with ICA, Lourdes is poised to meet the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) mandate for meaningful use because we are able to aggregate all major inpatient clinical systems, build on legacy systems, and streamline patient data from disparate sources into a single, unified record, accessible by caregivers where and when they need it,” Harper concludes.

About Informatics Corporation of America (ICA)
Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) was formed to take innovative technology developed by practicing clinicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt Medical Center to the broader health care market. ICA provides a comprehensive HIE solution to hospitals, IDNs, communities and states, including: a comprehensive clinical information engine; portal and communications platform; interoperability capabilities; EHR-Lite; disease management and analytics and reporting tools. ICA empowers caregivers to make informed decisions at the point of care with its standards-based interoperability to help health care enterprises achieve operational efficiencies across multiple providers and settings. Visit www.icainformatics.com.

“The IDC report predicts the paradigm shift toward collaborative care through HIE models, which we see as a pivotal opportunity to drive improvements in the quality of medical care delivery and patient outcomes,” says Gary M. Zegiestowsky, CEO of ICA, provider of a comprehensive HIE solution to hospitals, IDNs, communities, and state governments. “ICA’s CareAlign™ allows hospitals and integrated delivery systems to share data effectively to promote quality care and a healthier patient base; improve compliance by both patients and clinical staff; and communicate more effectively with patients and medical professionals.”

Developed by practicing physicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt Medical Center and implemented in both enterprise and HIE environments, ICA’s CareAlign™ provides:

• Provider and patient portal with secure clinical communication
• Standards-based interoperability (IHE, NHIN)
• EHR-Lite functionality (Ambulatory orders, ePrescribing, vitals and summaries)
• Population management, analysis and reporting (Disease dashboards)

“In support of the widespread changes ahead, ICA’s solution provides the ability to extend infrastructure from community to community and allow for a truly patient-centric environment,” says John Tempesco FACHE, vice president client services and marketing at ICA. “CareAlign™ supports the intent of meaningful use by providing the information physicians need to make informed decision at the point of care and the ability to monitor and report on care delivered. We look forward to being part of the new climate of ownership, accountability, and sustainability in our nation’s health care system.”

About Informatics Corporation of America (ICA)
Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) was formed to take innovative technology developed by practicing clinicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt Medical Center to the broader health care market. ICA provides a comprehensive HIE solution to hospitals, IDNs, communities and states, including: a comprehensive clinical information engine; portal and communications platform; interoperability capabilities; EHR-Lite; disease management and analytics and reporting tools. ICA empowers caregivers to make informed decisions at the point of care with its standards-based interoperability to help health care enterprises achieve operational efficiencies across multiple providers and settings. Visit www.icainformatics.com.

NASHVILLE, TN/KALISPELL, MT – May 12, 2010 — Informatics Corporation of America (ICA; www.icainformatics.com), providing clinicians with a single technology solution for accessing, evaluating, and acting upon patient information across disparate systems, today announced that the expansion of its solution is successfully aggregating data from all core clinical systems across a wide variety of participants within the Health Information Exchange of Montana (HIEM).  The HIEM consolidates patient data from existing clinical information systems in medical facilities throughout a 13,200 square-mile area in western Montana, with the goal of improving quality, reducing duplication of effort, and facilitating communication across treatment settings through ICA’s CareAlign™ solution.

Today culminates a long journey of governance structure development, policy and procedure implementation, and technology deployment aimed at sharing health care information to improve care coordination and quality for patients within the Northwest Region of Montana.  Health care providers of St. John’s Lutheran Hospital, Northwest Community Health Center, Northern Rockies Medical Center, Glacier Community Health Center, Northwest Healthcare (including Kalispell Regional Medical Center), and North Valley Hospital now have a comprehensive view of patient information across the region to make informed decisions about each patient they treat.

“This achievement positions every member of the medical community participating in the HIEM to take the first steps in our efforts to support member efforts to achieve meaningful use criteria outlined by the HITECH section of ARRA,” says Kip Smith, executive director of the HIEM. “The infrastructure exercised today will allow the HIEM to support additional functionality and tools to benefit health care providers and patients in the years to come.  Our focus in the immediate future will be to foster further penetration within the medical community and nurture adoption within this group of participants.”

According to Gary Zegiestowsky, CEO of ICA, “While others in the nation struggle with how they will meet meaningful use criteria, the HIEM is continuing its frontier spirit by pioneering real life efforts to share medical information in a meaningful way.  No matter what final direction the government takes in this area, the HIEM will have the tools in place across a broad array of health care providers to meet the challenge.  The platform CareAlign™ provides them will allow for the addition of capabilities such as secure messaging, ambulatory order entry, disease dashboard, and patient portal/PHR integration capabilities.”

Zegiestowsky emphasized, in these uncertain times, the need for deploying systems flexible enough to meet evolving regulations and standards. “We’ve architected the CareAlign™ solution to meet the newest standards, remembering that the vast majority of systems in place are not capable of complying with them.  Our goal is to take what we can get and repurpose the data to meet evolving challenges and requirements.”

So far, user satisfaction is high. As John Maher, CEO of Glacier Community Health Center, says, “This system is great! One of my staff reported this morning that they were able to pull down reports from a surgical referral prior to the follow-up visit with our clinic without having to wait for the hospital to send them.”

About the Health Information Exchange of Montana (HIEM)

The HIEM includes Glacier Community Health Center and Northern Rockies Medical Center in Cut Bank; Northwest Community Health Center, and St. John’s Lutheran Hospital in Libby; St. Luke’s Community Hospital in Ronan; North Valley Hospital in Whitefish, and Northwest Healthcare’s Kalispell Regional Medical Center in Kalispell, as well as more than a dozen clinics across the region.

About Informatics Corporation of America (ICA)

Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) was created with nationally renowned Vanderbilt Medical Center to take innovative technology developed by Vanderbilt physicians to the broader healthcare market.  Today ICA is unmatched in its ability to deliver a cost-effective, proven solution that leverages complete data across clinical settings to aid decision-making and improve patient outcomes. Visit www.icainformatics.com 

“Nearly two years ago, we contracted with ICA to aggregate data from a multitude of in-place health care information systems and provide a tool that would allow physicians to monitor, assess, and treat patients across the various treatment settings in and around the Paducah area,” says Craig M. Slater, M.D., MBA, regional chief medical officer of Mercy Health Partners – Kentucky and chief medical officer of Lourdes Hospital. “Thus far, we have been very impressed by this system’s intuitive user interface and its ability to not only engage physicians by enhancing their workflow, but also to become a natural extension of their practice.”

The solution, known internally as the “ICAre Portal”, collects data from the hospital’s core information system, as well as laboratory, radiology, quality-assurance, ambulatory electronic medical records, and other supporting clinical systems, yielding a comprehensive longitudinal patient record. Less than six months from contract signing, implementation of a pilot solution allowed pilot participants to remotely view admission status, diagnostic results, clinical reports, and radiological images of their patients in the hospital. 

“The ICA solution is benefiting the community, the physicians, and our hospital because it helps us to improve efficiency and quality while promoting satisfaction among our patients, physicians, and staff,” says Steven Grinnell, regional CEO, Mercy Health Partners – Kentucky and president and CEO of Lourdes Hospital. “The 100 physicians who have adopted the secure clinical portal are able to view patient status from the multitude of clinical settings in which they operate, eliminating phone calls, faxing and paper chart searches.”

ICA’s solution extracts information that has been updated in real time from the source systems and displays it to physicians anywhere they have secure Internet connectivity.  The result is reduced administrative burdens on inpatient clinical staff and elimination of possible transposition errors.  Physicians can instantaneously access the latest results, medications and allergies, and acute and ambulatory encounter summaries. 

 Accomplishments to date also include:

• Aggregation of all major inpatient clinical systems
• Patient matching and longitudinal patient view
• Alerts and reminders functionality

About Lourdes Hospital

Lourdes is a 379-bed acute-care hospital serving the residents of western Kentucky, southern Illinois and northwest Tennessee.  Our mission is to extend the healing ministry of Jesus by improving the health of our communities with emphasis on people who are poor and underserved. Lourdes is a member of Catholic Healthcare Partners, ranked by Thomson Reuters as one of the Top 10 health systems in the U.S. in 2009.  We employ 1,400 associates and are committed to comprehensive benefits, including health care coverage for all regular associates, and competitive wages, including a just wage that exceeds state and federal minimum wages. True to our mission of service, Lourdes also provided more than $12 million in community benefit in 2009.  For more information, visit www.eLourdes.com.

About Informatics Corporation of America (ICA)

Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) was formed to take innovative technology developed by practicing clinicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt Medical Center to the broader health care market. ICA’s solution enables interoperability of existing hospital and clinic systems to deliver a comprehensive electronic health record and tools ranging from a physician portal to secure messaging to disease dashboards. By providing clinicians with a comprehensive longitudinal patient record, ICA empowers caregivers to make informed decisions at the point of care, helps health care enterprises achieve operational efficiencies, and facilitates patient care across multiple providers and settings. Visit www.icainformatics.com.

John Tempesco named Fellow at 67^th Annual ACHE Convocation in Chicago, IL

NASHVILLE, TN – March 25, 2010 – John Tempesco, vice president of Client Services and Marketing at Informatics Corporation of America (ICA; www.icainformatics.com), was named a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE; www.ache.org) at the 67^th Annual American Healthcare Executive Convocation in Chicago, Ill., on March 21, 2010. 

“John has truly earned the privilege to be named a Fellow and given the FACHE credential because he has made significant contributions to the advancement of his profession and continually exemplifies outstanding competency and leadership in health care management,” says Gary Zegiestowsky, CEO of ICA, provider of health care solutions to hospitals, integrated delivery networks (IDNs), regional health information organizations (RHIOs), and health information exchanges (HIEs). “We are fortunate to have John as a key member of our management team, and the entire ICA staff extends its congratulations.”

ACHE is the premier professional society for health care executives dedicated to improving health care delivery and advancing its members and health care management excellence. Its members are dedicated to ethical conduct, lifelong learning, leading by example, mentoring, and advocating diversity in the workplace and the community.

“I’m truly honored to be named a Fellow because it represents achievement of the highest standards of professional development,” Tempesco adds.

Recently, Tempesco co-authored a substantive white paper, “Health Care IT Investment Heightens Need For Effective Implementation: Introducing five key elements for successful roll-out of clinical information systems.” (http://www.icainformatics.com/news-and-events/white-papers/).  He is a prolific author, and has been published in many high-profile publications including: RT Image: The Green Three Rs of HIT; Healthcare Finance Management Association: Five Elements for Successful Clinical Information System Implementation; and ADVANCE For Health Information Executives, Making IT Investment Decisions During Economic Uncertainty: A Checklist for Maximizing Value.

About Informatics Corporation of America (ICA)

Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) was formed to take innovative technology developed by practicing clinicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt Medical Center to the broader health care market. ICA’s solution enables interoperability of existing hospital and clinic systems to deliver a comprehensive electronic health record and tools ranging from a physician portal to secure messaging to disease dashboards. By providing clinicians with a comprehensive longitudinal patient record, ICA empowers caregivers to make informed decisions at the point of care, helps health care enterprises achieve operational efficiencies, and facilitates patient care across multiple providers and settings. Visit www.icainformatics.com.

About The American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE)

The American College of Healthcare Executives is an international professional society of more than 30,000 healthcare executives who lead hospitals, healthcare systems and other healthcare organizations.

ACHE is known for its prestigious FACHE® credential, signifying board certification in healthcare management, and its educational programs including the annual Congress on Healthcare Leadership, which draws more than 4,000 participants each year. ACHE’s established network of more than 80 chapters provides access to networking, education and career development at the local level. Visit www.ache.org. ]]> http://www.icainformatics.com/2010/03/25/john-tempesco-vp-at-informatics-corporation-of-america-named-fellow-of-the-american-college-of-healthcare-executives/feed/ 0 http://www.icainformatics.com/2010/03/18/ica-hosts-webinar-for-ceos-physicians-hit-specialists-hierhio-administrators-health-care-organizations-march-31-2010-2-p-m-ct-register-online-at-www-icainformatics-com/ http://www.icainformatics.com/2010/03/18/ica-hosts-webinar-for-ceos-physicians-hit-specialists-hierhio-administrators-health-care-organizations-march-31-2010-2-p-m-ct-register-online-at-www-icainformatics-com/#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:57:06 +0000 rachel.fisher http://www.icainformatics.com/?p=783 NASHVILLE, TN – March 18, 2010 – “Navigating the Challenges of Meaningful Use to Identify Benefits,” March 31, 2010, 2 p.m. CT, a Webinar hosted by Informatics Corporation of America (ICA; www.icainformatics.com), will explore how to practically implement a community-wide solution that assists its healthcare participants to achieve the proposed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s (ARRA) criteria for meaningful use and bridge gaps in the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) by its provider community. ICA, provider of healthcare solutions to hospitals, integrated delivery networks (IDNs), regional health information organizations (RHIOs), and health information exchanges (HIEs), invites physicians, clinical staff, health information technology specialists, and hospital administrators to register at www.icainformatics.com.

“This webinar will outline how a comprehensive community-based solution can help participants in a community achieve ‘meaningful use’ in a way that truly improves the care delivery process and benefits the patients they serve,” says Jeff Cunningham, ICA’s chief technology and strategy officer. “This can be accomplished by adopting technology that overlays and augments decades of investments in healthcare technology and allows community participants to securely share information and coordinate care regardless of current system capabilities. We designed this webinar to help attendees view ARRA provisions on meaningful use as an opportunity rather than a stumbling block.” 

ARRA, physicians who demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHRs can receive up to $44,000 over five years under Medicare or $63,750 over six years under Medicaid; hospitals could receive up to four years of financial incentive payments under Medicare beginning in 2011, and up to six years of incentive payments under Medicaid beginning in October 2010.

To qualify for incentives, providers must adopt certified health information technology and use it in a manner that meets defined meaningful use requirements, which include goals to:

• Improve Quality, Safety, Efficiency
• Engage Patients and Families
• Improve Care Coordination
• Improve Population and Public Health
• Ensure Privacy and Security Protections

“The role of technology in health care is to improve care and deliver services more efficiently, not to create new barriers,” says Cunningham.  “Too often health care organizations invest time and money in solutions that do not support these objectives.  We believe that technology should support decisions at the point-of-care and enhance day-to-day functioning on every level.  The right technology solution in today’s health care environment can clearly facilitate a community’s ability to meet meaningful use requirements.”

About Informatics Corporation of America (ICA)

Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) was formed to take innovative technology developed by practicing clinicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt Medical Center to the broader healthcare market. ICA’s solution enables interoperability of existing hospital and clinic systems to deliver a comprehensive electronic health record and tools ranging from a physician portal to secure messaging to disease dashboards. By providing clinicians with a comprehensive longitudinal patient record, ICA empowers caregivers to make informed decisions at the point of care, helps healthcare enterprises achieve operational efficiencies, and facilitates patient care across multiple providers and settings. Visit www.icainformatics.com.

Rebecca Weber, Senior Vice President, CIO for Meridian Health, which has been named one of Fortune’s 2010 100 Best Companies to Work For and named Healthcare’s 100 Most Wired for the past ten years, states, “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.  Providing a state of the art integrated patient clinical record will further enhance the quality and safety of care provided to our community.  With the implementation of ICA’s CareAlign™ Solution, this integrated patient health record will be available to the Physician/Clinician whenever and wherever it is needed to deliver optimized patient care.”

Meridian Health, which includes Jersey Shore University Medical Center and K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital in Neptune, Ocean Medical Center in Brick, Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, and Southern Ocean Community Hospital in Manahawkin, is among the state’s most comprehensive not-for-profit health care providers, with health care services that include: home care and hospice agencies; skilled nursing and subacute care facilities; physician practices; rehabilitation and fitness centers; occupational health services; home medical equipment and in-home safety technology; ambulance and medical transportation services; as well as outpatient laboratory, imaging, and surgery centers.

ICA’s CareAlign™ analytics capabilities are based on technology developed over 17 years by practicing physicians and informatics professionals at Tennessee-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center. 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 five hospital systems and other facilities.

Gary Zegiestowsky, CEO of ICA, states, “Meridian is focused on the delivery of high quality care across its growing Integrated Health Network, and they selected our technology to support this expansion.  As Meridian broadens its discussions for a regional HIE in central and south Jersey, the ICA technology solution is an ideal fit because it has already demonstrated its value to HIEs in both rural and urban settings. Our track record for generating rapid, high physician adoption and demonstrable results is becoming a standard for the industry.”

About Informatics Corporation of America (ICA)

Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) was formed to take innovative technology developed by practicing clinicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt Medical Center to the broader health care market. ICA’s solution enables interoperability of existing hospital and clinic systems to deliver a comprehensive electronic health record and tools ranging from a physician portal to secure messaging to disease dashboards. By providing clinicians with a comprehensive longitudinal patient record, ICA empowers caregivers to make informed decisions at the point of care, helps health care enterprises achieve operational efficiencies, and facilitates patient care across multiple providers and settings. Visit www.icainformatics.com.

About Meridian Health

Meridian Health is a family of not-for-profit health care organizations 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 County Community Hospital, Manahawkin, and Meridian Partner Companies that include home health services, skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers, ambulatory care, ambulance services, and occupational health centers located throughout Monmouth and Ocean counties.  Visit: www.meridianhealth.com

“By leveraging the real-time, aggregate information collected, CPIPA can demonstrate the value of the practice management system (PMS) and electronic medical records to support members in increasing the quality of care for children, improving efficiency of individual practices and provide feedback on useful performance data”, says JoAnn R. Brundage executive director CPIPA, noting the organization’s mission to promote the health care of children by improving the quality and efficiency, and lowering the cost of delivering health care services.

ICA will work to integrate the existing PMS and Electronic Medical Record systems currently in use at the participating physician’s practice. 

 Gary Zegiestowsky, CEO of ICA, explains, “Initial reporting will begin with clinical results data on pediatric asthma patients and well visits,” says Zegiestowsky.  “With the addition of claims data from multiple carriers, Cumberland Pediatrics will have the ability to track physician practice trends. This functionality and adoption by an IPA further documents the value of our technology in multiple health care environments and expands our corporate footprint.”

About Informatics Corporation of America (ICA)

Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) was formed to take innovative technology developed by practicing clinicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt Medical Center to the broader health care market. ICA’s solution enables interoperability of existing hospital and clinic systems to deliver a comprehensive electronic health record and tools ranging from a physician portal to secure messaging to disease dashboards. By providing clinicians with a comprehensive longitudinal patient record, ICA empowers caregivers to make informed decisions at the point of care, helps health care enterprises achieve operational efficiencies, and facilitates patient care across multiple providers and settings. Visit www.icainformatics.com.

About Cumberland Pediatrics Independent Practice Association

CPIPA was founded in 2006 to engage in activities that promote the members’ health care practices by contracting with health maintenance organizations, preferred provider organizations, entities that contract with intermediaries on a capitated basis, and other similar organizations — and to assist the members in delivering quality health care to the public.  Visit http://www.cpipa.org/.