Eclipsys introduces Sunrise Enterprise 5.5 integrated software solutions for healthcare industry

Apr 12 2010

Eclipsys Corporation (NASDAQ: ECLP), The Outcomes Company^® today announced the availability of Sunrise Enterprise™ 5.5 — a rich suite of integrated software solutions that serves to differentiate Eclipsys™ and its client base within the healthcare industry. Sunrise Enterprise 5.5 represents a significant uplift to Eclipsys' leading electronic health record (EHR) solution and includes Helios by Eclipsys™, an industry-defining open architecture platform designed to promote enhanced exchange of data between disparate software systems while lowering total cost of ownership.

“We are very excited by our client response and interest in this new release of Sunrise Enterprise”

An Open Platform that Improves Data Integration, Reduces Costs and Eliminates Customized Interfaces

Helios by Eclipsys™ is the company's unique open platform strategy to deliver vendor choice and flexibility, by enabling clients and certified third-parties to natively integrate their applications with Eclipsys' enterprise solutions. Eclipsys clients can then utilize best-of-breed systems without the additional cost and complexity of customized interfaces. The result is improved clinician workflows, an enhanced organizational ability to embrace and extend current technology investments and more freedom to adopt the latest technology innovations by removing the constraints caused by waiting for a single vendor's development timeline.

A Meaningful Solution to Help Achieve Meaningful Use

Sunrise Enterprise 5.5 was crafted to alleviate two of healthcare's biggest challenges: how to promote physician adoption of technology and rapid technology innovation. A new, "highly intuitive" user interface, enhanced system responsiveness and a customizable workspace combine to transform the Sunrise Enterprise user experience. The significant system upgrade includes extended functionality designed specifically to help healthcare organizations meet the expected "meaningful use" requirements of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (ARRA), as well as to achieve Stage 7 in the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model.

Jefferson Regional Medical Center (JRMC), Pine Bluff, AR, will be the first Eclipsys client to go-live on Sunrise Enterprise 5.5, upgrading the entire hospital with a "big bang" activation scheduled for late April 2010.

"We are excited that Sunrise Enterprise is designed to deliver key workflow, reporting, interoperability and privacy standards to help prepare us for meeting the expected ARRA meaningful use criteria," said Patrick Neece, assistant vice president and chief information officer, Jefferson Regional Medical Center. "Beyond that, we foresee gaining multiple workflow efficiencies, as well as additional functionality to assist JRMC with moving forward from a HIMSS Stage 6 hospital to a Stage 7 hospital. Enhanced features that we will take advantage of immediately include the Continuity of Care Document for communication with surrounding hospitals and the state Health Information Exchange, Immunization Managers exchange capabilities with state registries and the additional portal features for enhancing communications with our patients. In total, we think Eclipsys has developed an unparalleled point-of-care solution to improve clinician workflows within the hospital and has addressed the need for improved collaboration and data exchange across the care community in support of improved patient outcomes --- which is a major component of ARRA and Meaningful Use."

A Customizable System to Improve the Speed and Accuracy of Care Decisions and Care Team Communication

In addition to upgrades to Eclipsys' fully integrated acute care EHR solution suite, Sunrise Enterprise 5.5 delivers extended functionality to the company's integrated scheduling, registration, pharmacy, ambulatory and emergency department solutions.

New features and enhancements in the Sunrise Enterprise 5.5 release include:

• "Smart alert" functionality based on physician experience or percentage change thresholds to help prevent alert fatigue
• Embedded clinical documentation interoperability and data exchange with use of industry-standard vocabularies to support improved continuity of care document functionality
• Ability to open and work in multiple patient charts simultaneously
• Enhanced documentation of allergies, intolerances and adverse events
• Access to clinician and patient portals, including patient access to electronic discharge instructions
• A new "sidebar" for single sign-on and context management with third-party systems
• An integrated analytics solution, Sunrise Clinical Analytics™, designed to intelligently extract and transform data at the right time from Eclipsys' EHR solution to automate quality reporting

"We are very excited by our client response and interest in this new release of Sunrise Enterprise," said Phil Pead, president and chief executive officer of Eclipsys. "We consider the new features and enhancements a significant differentiator for Eclipsys in the handling of care complexity and user customization, while remaining true to evidence-based practices. Our open platform foundation benefits our clients by enabling them to maintain the third- party applications they like and have invested in while integrating them onto a single platform. We believe this level of interoperability is unprecedented and that these capabilities are exactly what healthcare needs today to quickly accelerate technology adoption in support of improved safety, quality and costs."

A Client Base that Outperforms Its Peers

With a national spotlight on adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs), Eclipsys' acute care EMR received a No. 2 ranking in its category according to the findings of the 2009 "Top 20 Best in KLAS Award: Software and Professional Services" report issued by KLAS Enterprises, Inc. Eclipsys clients also rank No. 1 in composite performance across all Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Quality Measures. The study was based on data from HIMSS Analytics and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Hospital Compare site. In addition, Eclipsys clinical information systems are used by nearly 50 percent of the Magnet Recognition Program® hospitals, and Eclipsys clinical clients represent 40 percent of the facilities that the U.S. News and World Report ranked among "America's Best Hospitals" in 2009.