NextGen Healthcare Information Systems wins MS-HUG 2010 Innovation Awards for Interoperability/HIE

Mar 3 2010

NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Quality Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:QSII) and leading provider of healthcare information systems and connectivity solutions, today announced it has been recognized as a winner of the Microsoft® Healthcare Users Group (MS-HUG) 2010 Innovation Awards in the category of Interoperability/HIE. The award was presented jointly to NextGen Healthcare and Doylestown Hospital, a comprehensive, community-focused, multi-facility organization serving patients and families in suburban Philadelphia, for its use of NextGen® Health Information Exchange—formerly NextGen® Community Health Solution (CHS)—to launch the Doylestown Clinical Network (DCN). The companies were honored yesterday at an awards ceremony held at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Annual Conference & Exhibition in Atlanta.

“While few health information exchanges have achieved true success, the Doylestown Clinical Network is demonstrating positive results including time savings and an increase in the quality of patient care”

Doylestown Hospital utilizes NextGen Health Information Exchange to facilitate secure data exchange among DCN participants, which includes more than 400 independent physicians practicing in 42 specialties at more than 100 practices. This data exchange has enabled Doylestown Hospital to realize greater overall patient care efficiency and quality. Specific benefits include:

• Efficient, error-free communication. NextGen Health Information Exchange provides a secure central repository for patient data exchange, eliminating potential errors from re-keyed information. DCN participants access clinical data via either an automatic method—data is automatically imported into patients’ electronic charts—or a manual method that allows them to review data categories individually before importing them into charts.
• Medication management. Doylestown Hospital earned a five-star safety rating in part because NextGen Health Information Exchange provides patient medication profiles and a complete medication database updated quarterly, with formulary compliance checking for accurate electronic prescription generation.
• Diagnostic speed and accuracy. DCN providers view active problem profiles—categorized as “resolved” or “unresolved”—for each patient, documented by physicians across the care continuum. Date of onset and resolution for each problem is listed. Providers also see all current and historical diagnostic studies, reports and images (e.g., x-ray, ECG).

In addition, DCN physicians have realized time savings per patient encounter simply from the ability to access current medication lists, freeing valuable time for more thorough discussion and exam. Shared documentation of histories, physicals, and progress notes via pre-built, problem-based templates decreases documentation time while also aiding accuracy.

“Being recognized for our use of NextGen® technology is a tremendous honor,” said Richard Lang, vice president and CIO for Doylestown Hospital. “The interconnected technologies can streamline workflow and empower physicians to create comprehensive, longitudinal patient charts for more timely and accurate decisions at the point of care. The end result is the ultimate goal - more efficient, better quality patient care.”

“While few health information exchanges have achieved true success, the Doylestown Clinical Network is demonstrating positive results including time savings and an increase in the quality of patient care,” said Steve Aylward, general manager, U.S. Health and Life Sciences, Microsoft. “NextGen Health Information Exchange, utilized by DCN, is a great example of how technology built on Microsoft’s .NET platform can provide interoperability without requiring practices to have similar initial IT configurations.”

“NextGen Health Information Exchange is a proven platform for facilitating connectivity across communities nationwide,” said Scott Decker, president of NextGen Healthcare. “We applaud Doylestown Hospital for sharing in this MS-HUG recognition with us and for demonstrating how our technology really pushes the envelope to enhance content driven-clinical workflow.”

Now in their 13th year of rewarding excellence in healthcare technology, the Microsoft HUG 2010 Innovation Awards showcase organizations that promote breakthroughs by enhancing the quality of patient care, reducing costs, streamlining clinical and business processes, driving interoperability, improving productivity and workflow, and enabling informed decisions. Award contestants are evaluated on how they provide significant business benefits to healthcare organizations and improve patient care.

Source NextGen Healthcare