For MHMC, a 230-bed facility with contrasting views of both the Manhattan skyline and New Jersey’s Meadowlands open space, the stimulus reimbursement comes in the midst of a significant transition. The hospital was recently purchased by MHA, a private equity group that has injected millions of dollars into an ongoing renaissance that is improving the physical facility, bringing in preeminent clinical specialists and transforming MHMC into one of the most technologically advanced healthcare organizations on the East Coast.

“The transition and ongoing enhancements at Meadowlands Hospital speak to owners, administrators and staff working collaboratively to maximize quality of care with the patient as the ultimate beneficiary. Medsphere is very pleased to play a part in that transformation,” said Medsphere President and CEO Irv Lichtenwald. “Congratulations to President and CEO Lynn McVey and her clinicians and staff on meeting Stage One Meaningful Use. We look forward to future developments at MHMC and to working with the hospital to meet all federal funding requirements.”

Importantly, MHMC administrators and clinical leadership are building on a sound platform of quality care. The hospital follows a concierge-style policy where all patient rooms are private, resulting in a zero percent infection rate. Thanks to a primary focus on cleanliness, MHMC is ranked among the cleanest hospitals in the U.S. according to patient feedback compiled by the Department of Health and Human Services for the Hospital Compare Web site.

“OpenVista was critical to MHMC improving both care and economic performance. We saved millions on OpenVista compared with other available EHR systems, and we were also able to rapidly meet Meaningful Use requirements,” said McVey. “The funds we saved on a comprehensive EHR have been freed up for other improvements we’re making, which makes OpenVista a fiscally responsible choice that facilitates benefits for both clinicians and patients.”

Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center joins other Medsphere hospital partners who have received federal stimulus funds. Most recently, California’s Kern Medical Center received more than $5 million from the federal government, with in excess of $11 million expected in total. Earlier, Texas’s Midland Memorial Hospital received $3.3 million of more than $7 million expected over the life of the Meaningful Use program. In late 2011, Hoboken University Medical Center, an MHMC neighbor, received about $3 million of an estimated $8 million in total federal reimbursement.

According to statistics provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), slightly less than 16 percent of all U.S. hospitals have met Meaningful Use requirements and received stimulus funds. As one of a select group of hospitals that have received federal reimbursement, Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center has demonstrated what a community hospital can accomplish with the right system, partners and commitment.

The community medical center will utilize OpenVista’s flexibility and comprehensive clinical support, as well as Medsphere’s  implementation process and clinical transformation services, to affordably improve care and secure the maximum federal stimulus reimbursement.

“For community hospitals like Stilwell Memorial–safety net care providers, essentially–the OpenVista EHR meets a need that the larger healthcare technology companies simply don’t. Medsphere’s track record and unique ability to quickly provide clinical transformation under an affordable business model is unmatched,” said Alan Adams, CEO at Stilwell Memorial. “We are excited to collaborate with Medsphere and look forward to the same success in clinical improvement and federal stimulus funding that other Medsphere partners now enjoy.”

Stilwell Memorial will now become a full participant in Medsphere’s Healthcare Open Source Ecosystem, where clinicians, administrators and other OpenVista EHR users share system enhancements, upgrades and best practices. As the Ecosystem continues to grow, additional contributions will improve care for patients at participating facilities.

“Medsphere is very happy to welcome Stilwell Memorial to our community of hospital partners focused on ensuring improved care through access to affordable EHR systems that benefit all patients, not just those fortunate enough to live near big, wealthy hospitals,” said Irv Lichtenwald, Medsphere president and CEO. “The team at Stilwell understands that cooperation and affordable information sharing improve both healthcare and healthcare IT. It’s this evolving attitude and level of collaboration that will keep healthcare from bankrupting the nation.”

Medsphere’s OpenVista EHR is the commercialized version of the VistA EHR created and developed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 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, OpenVista can be implemented much more quickly and affordably than traditional proprietary solutions.

Medsphere Systems Corporation has announced that the company has accepted an invitation to join the Open Source Electronic Health Record Agent (OSEHRA) community, adding the company’s experience with code convergence and implementation of VistA-based EHR solutions to the ongoing efforts of OSEHRA participants.

Established by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in August 2011, OSEHRA is focused on establishing a code repository to enable developer collaboration and contribution to architectural and Web-based enhancements of the VA’s VistA electronic health record.

The invitation from OSEHRA recognizes Medsphere’s long history of code convergence and open source development of VistA-derived health IT systems. While developing OpenVista®, a comprehensive EHR solution, Medsphere has also made software code and associated development tools available to the open source community, with more than 15,000 software downloads to date.

OpenEMR is a free and open source, practice management and electronic medical records (EMR) software application. The OpenEMR system has achieved complete Office of the National Controller of Health Information Technology (ONC) Ambulatory EHR Certification for 2011-2012 Meaningful U?? requirements and features fully integrated electronic medical records, practice management, scheduling, electronic billing, internationalization, and free support. Over 4,000 downloads of OpenEMR occur every month making it the popular alternative for those seeking a free electronic medical records system.

The OpenEMR system was developed and is supported by the open-source development community with over 50 developer organizations having contributed to the project. One of the most prolific contribritors is ZH Healthcare one of only a few recognized OpenEMR Certified Contributors.  ZH Healthcare has offices in McLean, VA and Cochin, India and have engaged a staff of over 75 in the effort to make the OpenEMR system the best free EMR option for healthcare providers. “We have committed our resources in order to provide the healthcare community a system that is highly customizable and is based on the work flow of the provider” explains Shameem C. Hameed, Chairman of ZH Healthcare. “Since the beginning of the year we have made several significant contributions to the OpenEMR code base, including e-prescription connectivity and the off-site Patient Portal”. Substantial contributions were made in the areas of the OpenEMR user interface, the advanced payment feature, an updated billing manager, including the ability to have multiple billing facilities.

ZH Healthcare will continue to develop and contribute to the OpenEMR system. “We are pleased to be part of the OpenEMR community and are encouraged with the progress and implementation of the system, by providers in large and small practices” states Hameed. “There are several major implementations that will demonstrate the effectiveness of the system, including the recently announced decision of the Peace Corps to utilize OpenEMR.”

Designed in close collaboration with clinicians at Silver Hill, the OpenVista Multidisciplinary Treatment Plan (MDTP) coordinates mental health care across members of the care team and supports patient progress management, eliminating the need to scour and cross-reference a library of paper records. The new MDTP module enables better, more integrated, patient care through improved access to patient information from a variety of sources.“In addition to the comparatively low cost of the system, what initially attracted us to Medsphere and OpenVista was the open development process MDTP represents and the fact other psychiatric hospitals can benefit from our work”

For individual members of the treatment team, MDTP provides an immediate high-level account of the most pressing and relevant patient care issues. The first integrated treatment planning module built on the OpenVista platform, MDTP fits seamlessly into clinical workflows and enables clinicians and other care team members to plan, coordinate, and document individual components of the care plan and track progress toward overarching goals; MDTP also uses plan update prompts and notifications to support treatment team compliance with regulatory requirements. These enhancements will become available to Medsphere’s other behavioral health customers as a standard OpenVista module in future iterations of the system.

“When delivered effectively, healthcare is a collaborative process in which professionals work toward a common goal that serves the needs of the patient. Medsphere and Silver Hill Hospital have embraced that ethic as a cornerstone of our work together,” said Medsphere President and CEO Irv Lichtenwald. “The Multi-disciplinary Treatment Plan is the product of a very successful collaborative process that will, ultimately, benefit patients at Silver Hill and other mental health hospitals. In Silver Hill, we are fortunate to have a genuine partner that is fully engaged in the development process, allowing us to leverage the value of open source. ”

With Medsphere’s unique subscription-based business and developmental model, the company works closely with individual partner hospitals to develop new functionality and enhancements to OpenVista that are then incorporated into subsequent releases and made available to all customers moving forward at no additional cost. Medsphere also performs quality assurance and system testing of appropriate customer-developed enhancements before folding into later releases of OpenVista.

“In addition to the comparatively low cost of the system, what initially attracted us to Medsphere and OpenVista was the open development process MDTP represents and the fact other psychiatric hospitals can benefit from our work,” said Silver Hill President and Medical Director Sigurd Ackerman, MD. “We had regular input throughout the project and shared equally in brainstorming and decision-making. I really think this is how health IT solutions will be developed in the not-too-distant future. We feel like we’re on the cutting edge here, certainly for behavioral health if not the broader healthcare industry.”

The MDTP module is live at Silver Hill Hospital and will be incorporated into OpenVista releases later in the year. It is the first of several OpenVista development projects to be released this year through the collaborative efforts of Medsphere and the company’s hospital partners.

The MOSS HIE is built to be compliant with existing national standards. The fundamental objective of the Misys Connect™ Exchange platform is to provide a secure infrastructure to exchange patient health information in order to advance the quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare delivery through the coordination of care between community participants. The platform is a critical element of the HIE infrastructure that provides clinicians and other members of the healthcare community with the right information at the right time by making patient information available across organizational boundaries. It facilitates and streamlines the sharing of patient information throughout an HIE community.

During the IHE Connectathon, held in Chicago earlier this month, certifiers reviewed and passed each profile that MOSS had tested. This year, those components included:

•     Cross Enterprise Document Sharing (XDS Registry and Repository)
•     Cross Community Patient Discovery (XCPD)

Previously certified components from MOSS that comply with IHE profiles include Patient Identifier Cross-Reference and Patient Demographic Query (PIX/PDQ), Audit Trail Node Authentication (ATNA), and Document Metadata Subscription (DSUB) along with Cross-Community Access (XCA) and Cross-User Authentication (XUA).

The Misys Connect™ Exchange, which is the collection of the open source assets, is the first fully open source exchange offered anywhere in the world. The software is offered under the commercially friendly Apache v. 2.0 license. MOSS offers fully supported versions as part of the enterprise offerings.

“This is 4th consecutive year for MOSS at IHE Connectathon.” said Konda Mullapudi, Director of Development at Misys. “Health Information Exchange is the next big thing in health information technology and will enable all the disparate EHR and EMR systems to work together so that coordination-of-care at the community-level will become achievable. Having our components certified at the Connectathon demonstrates that we conform to all the standards. By leveraging our open source community, we are able to keep our costs lower and pass on that value to our customers. And having Connectathon certification shows that our components are just as good as any proprietary vendor.”

Medsphere Systems Corporation and Kern Medical Center have announced that Kern has met the requirements for Stage One Meaningful Use with Medsphere’s OpenVista system, the enabling electronic health record (EHR), and has received more than $5 million in initial reimbursement from the federal government.

Affiliated with both the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UC Irvine School of Medicine, county-owned Kern Medical Center cares for more than 16,000 patients annually and includes affiliated clinics that cover more than 100,000 patients. The 222-bed central California teaching hospital ultimately expects to receive in excess of $11 million, covering the initial investment in OpenVista, from the federal government over the life of the Meaningful Use reimbursement program established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“Imagine that every county hospital in the United States chose the same responsible path as Kern Medical Center. Local taxpayers would enjoy better care and save millions compared to the cost of other EHR systems,” said Medsphere President and CEO Irv Lichtenwald. “And all county hospitals could be connected and sharing patient records and valuable best practices. Kern and CEO Paul Hensler deserve credit for leading the way among publicly supported hospitals, and Medsphere congratulates them on receiving federal funds.”

UBHC is one of the largest providers of behavioral health services in the country and includes an extensive network of inpatient and outpatient clinics. UBHC selected DSS’ mental health EHR to streamline and standardize its clinical documentation processes and related workflow in order to further improve the quality of care given to patients.

“We are extremely pleased by the smooth, successful launch of vxVistA and vxMHS. It can be a challenge to find software that supports efficient, quality care without putting added stress on clinicians. This successful launch reflects how the DSS system conformed to address our needs,” said Chris Kosseff, CEO of UBHC and Senior Vice President of UMDNJ. “In addition, the close collaboration between our focused team and the expertise of DSS helped to prepare our staff for the transition.”

DSS was chosen by UBHC’s review committee during an open bid process in April 2010. The Mental Health Suite was designed to meet the specialty-specific needs of mental health patients by allowing clinicians to create, edit and view interdisciplinary treatment plans while meeting governing organizational standards. In addition, the solution will allow clinicians to:

• improve patient safety through the documentation and tracking of long-term treatments and evidence-based psychotherapies;
• enhance communication across the continuum of care with real-time updates on clinical and group notes; and
• increase organizational efficiencies by customizing the system to establish UBHC standards, including preferred authorization tracking and reporting needs.

“This partnership marks the largest implementations of vxMHS in the country, and UBHC’s unique vision for safer and more robust delivery of mental and behavioral healthcare is inspiring,” said Mark Byers, President and CEO of DSS. “We feel this project further supports our ongoing dedication to deliver one-of-a-kind, customizable EHR solutions to specialists with distinct healthcare requirements such as behavioral health providers.”

As a long-term goal, UBHC plans to turn the mental health EHR integration into a statewide administrative service organization (ASO), offering hospitals and smaller behavioral health clinics a cost-effective infrastructure through which they can easily document, store and access clinical information. UBHC strives to bring greater mental health care accessibility and continuity of care to residents statewide–especially to those with severe mental illness or without the resources to afford treatment.

The vxMHS software integrates seamlessly with vxVistA, an open source platform based on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs proven VistA EHR foundation, as well as the billing software UBHC selected for the implementation, Stockell Healthcare Systems, Inc.

“We’re pleased to provide not only free software but an open source healthcare community where physicians can interact with other users and share their technology experiences. The healthcare IT industry is changing and many vendors who are charging physicians exorbitant fees for implementation and support will find it difficult to remain competitive in the next couple of years,” said Jude A. Pierre, MD, Managing Partner.

The PHYAURA community and open source software was built to create a collaborative platform for healthcare practitioners, developers, vendors and staff members aimed at improving the healthcare technology experiences and ultimately patient care. The PHYAURA community is a quick and easy way to read answers to commonly asked questions and post questions that have not already been addressed.

PHYAURA has partnered with key industry experts to provide solutions that supplement the community edition. Paid services such as e-prescribing, lab interfaces, and training add to the ongoing development of PHYAURA EHR. In addition, healthcare providers wanting to receive federal funding can sign up for PHYAURA’s online meaningful use version.

The PHYAURA EHR’s  community edition is ready to manage and includes:

• Practice scheduler
• Medical Billing and practice management software
• Note writer
• Superbill generator
• Daily journal for front office close outs
• Document repository
• Sync up data with OpenEMR
• Full control of your data
• Electronic remittance
• Claims management
• Referral Module

The site also includes a community forum that to date is fairly lightly used.

PHYAURA was founded by practicing physicians as a company dedicated to providing physicians with the resources, services, and HIPAA-compliant communication tools that merge the best practices of modern medicine with state of the art technologies of the 21st century.