Hoboken University Medical Center Selects Medsphere's OpenVista Solution to Improve Patient Care, Achieve Meaningful Use
New Jersey hospital chooses reliable and proven open source EHR to decrease costs, increase revenue and maximize ARRA stimulus money
Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading provider of open source healthcare enterprise solutions, today announced that New Jersey's 328-bed Hoboken University Medical Center (UMC) will implement Medsphere's OpenVista electronic health record (EHR) solution to affordably digitize patient records and improve clinical outcomes through automated patient care. Hoboken UMC becomes the newest participant in the Healthcare Open Source Ecosystem, where clinicians, administrators, and other hospital staff share and learn best practices for improving patient care from other OpenVista users.
The oldest continuously running hospital in New Jersey, Hoboken UMC was acquired by the city of Hoboken in 2007 and has since engineered a remarkable financial recovery culminating with the selection of OpenVista as the key to federal financial assistance. Hoboken UMC will fully and meaningfully deploy OpenVista by summer 2010 and become eligible for financial incentives as outlined by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). OpenVista is the commercialized version of the VistA EHR, which was created, funded and developed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and credited with helping turn the agency into a national leader in quality patient care.
"As effective care providers, we look to continually demonstrate our leadership in the healthcare industry and the communities we serve," said Spiros Hatiras, CEO of Hoboken UMC. "Implementing a proven solution such as OpenVista demonstrates Hoboken UMC's commitment to the best possible clinical care with a constant eye on return on investment. We evaluated all the available EMR solutions and selected OpenVista based on the system's track record and Medsphere's commitment to helping us achieve financial support from the federal government."
Under the terms of the contract, the implementation of OpenVista at Hoboken will provide practitioners with access to valuable clinical IT support: computerized physician order entry (CPOE) functionality, an inpatient bar code medication administration (BCMA) system, a closed loop medication management system, clinical alerts and reminder templates as well as reporting tools.
"Medsphere continues to work closely with progressive hospitals that want a proven EHR at an affordable price," said Michael J. Doyle, president and CEO of Medsphere. "OpenVista gives Hoboken UMC the assurance of investing in a proven EHR that has already demonstrated great value and excellent clinical outcomes at hundreds of hospitals."
NITHealth manages Hoboken UMC's entire information technology system and brings a wealth of relevant experience to the OpenVista implementation. NITHealth has already launched several major health IT initiatives, including a large scale data migration from St. Mary's Hospital (the precursor to Hoboken UMC) to the current campus and implementation of the first FDA-approved remote reading of sleep studies for a large research facility. Once OpenVista goes live, NITHealth will have added further strength to its expertise in VistA-based system implementation.
"We anticipate tremendous benefit from our ability to exchange data with other hospitals that participate in the Healthcare Open Source Ecosystem," said Lior Blik, president and CEO of NITHealth. "This is a pivotal time for Hoboken UMC and other hospitals around the country that are considering cost-effective HIT solutions. We are proud to be implementing OpenVista as part of our commitment to both minimizing upfront costs for hospitals and improving patient care."
