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Medical Informatics
Rapid Implementation |
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Informatics Corporation
of America Launches with Rapid Implementation of First Client,
Bassett Healthcare
Other Topics: Medical
Informatics and Research Initiatives,
Medical Informatics Database
ICA
December 11, 2006
Company formed to take technologies developed at Vanderbilt
Medical Center to broad spectrum of providers
Nashville, TN -- Marked by the successful pilot
implementation of its first client Bassett Healthcare (Bassett),
healthcare information technology (IT) executive Gary M. Zegiestowsky, together with Vanderbilt Medical Center
(Vanderbilt), announced today the creation of a new clinical
software and solutions company, Informatics Corporation of
America (ICA). |
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The formation of
ICA began in early 2005 to take the proven informatics- based
tools and processes developed and used by physicians at
nationally renowned Vanderbilt to the broader healthcare
community. Through the utilization of technology, ICA empowers
clinicians to access complete patient information, to
communicate effectively with all participants in the care
process and to act on information based on evidence and best
practice.
Already using ICA technologies is the company's first client and
flagship health system, Bassett Healthcare in Cooperstown, NY,
which completed the production pilot implementation of ICA's
core aggregation solution in November of this year. Bassett
expects to roll this out across their entire delivery network by
early 2007.
"Today, one of the greatest unmet needs of clinicians and
healthcare organizations - from rural hospitals to major health
systems - is easy and effective access to clinical information
across all systems within a hospital or community of providers,"
says Zegiestowsky, Chief Executive Officer, ICA.
"This challenge is often attributed to incompatible, disparate
technology systems that lock valuable clinical information in
'silos', which complicates the care delivery process. By
building on and using all IT systems presently functioning
within an organization, ICA solves this problem by allowing
clinicians to tap into that valuable information and arming them
with tools necessary to act on this information." ICA's solution
integrates and builds upon the clinical systems and processes
across a delivery network to create a unified electronic medical
record solution. The core solution, typically implemented in
less than six months, involves aggregating all available patient
information and making it easily accessible to clinicians
anytime, anywhere. ICA aggregates all available clinical
information regardless of source or format - leaving no data
behind - as opposed to other aggregation solutions that provide
only a subset of patient information.
ICA's solution further expands upon this information foundation
by providing communication and workflow tools to improve
communications, facilitate data capture, track clinical metrics
and incorporate evidence to help clinicians more effectively act
on the information available to them. "The current healthcare
environment, with either paper or fragmented electronic
information tools, is increasingly unmanageable for providers
and patients," says Dr. Henry Weil, Medical Director for
Informatics, Bassett. "In ICA, we now have an unmatched solution
set that couples complete data aggregation and access tools with
workflow revolutionizing capabilities that enable decision
support." "Our key intention for proceeding with ICA's solution
was to create an efficient environment for our busy providers,"
adds Bertine McKenna, Ph.D., Executive Vice President and Chief
Operating Officer, Bassett. "We believe this system will reduce
chaos for providers, free up more time for the patient
experience, facilitate greater safety and quality for patients,
and provide expense control to our organization."
The Flagship Health System
ICA's flagship Bassett Healthcare is a rural health system
comprised of four hospitals, 23 community health centers and 14
school-based health centers, spanning an eight county service
region, or 5,000 square mile area, in central New York state.
The first phase of Bassett's implementation went live with the
production pilot in November, and the expanded implementation is
already underway.
"Our organization for many years followed a 'best in breed'
approach to IT - investing in varying state-of-the-art
technologies, with expenditures topping 7% of operating revenues
during the late 1990s," says Kenneth R. Deans, Jr., Chief
Information Officer and Vice President, Bassett. "Despite these
significant investments, we faced considerable compatibility
issues." "We chose ICA to answer these compatibility concerns
largely because its technologies were built by providers for
providers, in a real clinical environment. As a result, we are
not forced to solve compatibility issues while sacrificing
provider and customer usability - it's quite the opposite. We
are significantly enhancing usability and real-time access." "ICA
has taken a proven product and fine-tuned it for use by
healthcare organizations nationwide," adds Dr. William Streck,
President and Chief Executive Officer, Bassett. "Bassett is
committed to evidence-based practice, and this technology
clearly positions us for a future of integrated, evidence- based
care."
Incubation of ICA Technologies
"When we began the development of these technologies over ten
years ago, our goal at Vanderbilt was to improve the inefficient
paperwork and communication processes affecting the hospital's
ability to deliver cohesive care across the medical center and
its affiliated clinics and physicians' practices," says Dr.
Harry R. Jacobson, Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs at
Vanderbilt University, CEO of Vanderbilt Medical Center, and
Senior Advisor for ICA. Vanderbilt, one of the country's leading
research and teaching hospitals, is comprised of four hospitals,
120 outpatient practices, and 1,000 physicians. In FY2006,
Vanderbilt had roughly 47,000 admissions and over one million
outpatient visits.
Due to the size and diversity of practice areas at Vanderbilt,
as well varying IT systems, problems such as poor communication
among clinical staff and limited access to complete information
resulted in inefficient workflow and increasing medical error.
"We focused first on information aggregation and display,
instead of automation, to solve these problems," says Dr.
William W. Stead, Associate Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs
at Vanderbilt University, CIO and Director of Informatics at
Vanderbilt Medical Center, and Senior Advisor for ICA.
"We took data from the existing systems and aggregated it for
view in clinical workflow - much like the Internet has done with
varying information sources over the past decade. This was the
foundation of what became a family of technologies allowing us
to incorporate evidence-based and patient-centric care practices
into medicine."
Due to the success of the program, ICA was created to evolve the
information systems developed at Vanderbilt into a suite of
products for providers nationwide. Through a partnership and
licensing agreement, ICA retains the exclusive right to use the
products outside of Vanderbilt.
ICA Implementation Approach
For the past 15 years, hospitals have typically employed one of
two healthcare IT implementation strategies:
- "Best-in-Breed": Investing in the top IT products available
for each specialty or department, which leads to communication
and data integration issues.
- "Single Vendor Solution": Purchasing same-brand products that
allow for greater seamlessness and integration, which often
requires the elimination of existing systems.
"ICA provides a significant alternative to other products that
typically require replacing existing systems or provide limited
aggregation capabilities across those systems," says Jeff
Cunningham, Chief Technology Officer, ICA. "Our approach allows
healthcare providers to leverage the strengths of their IT
investments and to further expand those capabilities to provide
a fully integrated solution."
Using a "building block" approach to implementation, ICA
provides a base solution in four to six months at a cost that is
typically far less expensive than comparable solutions -
creating short-term wins for health organizations, while
building toward long-term value for providers and patients.
Company Leadership
Senior Management:
- Gary M. Zegiestowsky, Chief
Executive Officer - Former COO of a $500 million division of
Cendant and former Director in Strategy Consulting Practice of
Andersen Worldwide.
- Jeffrey D. Cunningham, Chief
Technology Officer - Former Partner and Senior Strategist for
Computer Science Corporation's (CSC's) National Customer
Solutions Consulting Practice and CSC's Global Healthcare
Solutions.
Senior Advisors:
- Harry R. Jacobson, M.D. -
Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs at Vanderbilt University,
CEO of Vanderbilt Medical Center. Member of the Society of
Medical Administrators and the Institute of Medicine.
- William W. Stead, M.D. - A
pioneer in the field of bio-medical informatics and CIO and
Director of Informatics at Vanderbilt Medical Center. Served
as Chairman of the Board of Regents of the National Library of
Medicine and as a Presidential appointee to the Commission on
Systemic Interoperability.
Board of Directors:
- Fred C. Goad - Co-founder of
Voyent Partners, LLC and former Chairman and Co-CEO of ENVOY
Corporation.
- Ron Hinds - Former CFO of
Renal Care Group.
- Thomas W. ("Tim") Lyles -
President and General Counsel of Mission City Management, Inc.
and President of MedCare Investment Funds.
- C. Thomas Smith - Former
President and CEO of VHA Inc.
- Gary M. Zegiestowsky - CEO
of Informatics Corporation of America
Informatics Corporation of
America (ICA)
ICA is a clinical software and solutions company created
with Vanderbilt Medical Center to take the proven
informatics-based tools and processes developed and used by
physicians at Vanderbilt to the broader healthcare community.
ICA's focus is to utilize technology to break down information
and communication barriers that hinder patient care - empowering
clinicians with the knowledge and tools they need to make
critical decisions, better and faster than ever before. For more
information, visit http://www.icainformatics.com. |
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