Client News: Celebrating Nursing Excellence at Wellspan Gettysburg Hospital (Gettysburg, PA)

WellSpan Gettysburg Hospital recently celebrated the Pathway to Excellence designation for nursing. From left to right:

• Angela Johnston, Interim Vice President, Patient Care Services
• Aimee Taylor, Administrative Assistant, Nursing Operations
• Kris O’Shea, Vice President, Nursing Practice and Clinical Informatics
• Marlene Crouse, Nurse Manager, Outpatient Services Unit
• Kim Shank, Clinical Educator, Nursing Administration
• Jane Oyler, Director of Professional Development, Acute Care Nursing Practice
• Cheryl Hale, Clinical Director of Process Improvement and Patient Safety, Medical Affairs

[Source:  http://www.wellspan.org/news/story/13847 ]

Press Release: T.J. Samson Community Hospital Implements Total Perioperative Automation with Unibased’s ForSite2020® ORMS Surgery Management Solution

Unibased Systems Architecture, Inc. (Unibased) announced today that T.J. Samson Community Hospital, located in Glasgow, Kentucky, has completed a successful implementation of its award-winning surgery management solution, ForSite2020® periOperative Resource Management System (ORMS), for the complete clinical integration of all areas and stages of the surgical process. ForSite2020® ORMS will provide T.J. Samson with improved operational efficiency, increased productivity, and an enhanced workflow with total perioperative automation for all areas including pre-admission testing; pre-operative services; intra-operative services with real-time surgical documentation and surgeon preference card processing; post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) support; and post-operative services with follow-up coordination.

Unibased’s ForSite2020® ORMS clinical documentation was implemented not only in the operating room but also in the endoscopy and bronchoscopy areas for those procedures as well. It was also deployed in the outpatient area and in the PACU area to offer complete perioperative automation for all surgical areas throughout the enterprise. ForSite2020® ORMS is expected to provide improved communication, ease of access, and the sharing of critical information across the enterprise for positive clinical and financial outcomes. T.J. Samson expects to see gains in efficiency with improved surgical resource coordination and management, faster and more complete surgical documentation, improved physician relations, and an enhanced patient experience while delivering more cases per day.

In similar settings, Unibased’s ForSite2020® ORMS has reduced the amount of time it takes to document cases and capture charges in the operating room by 81%. One client department manager indicated that charting and updating preference card quantities is now taking 5 - 6 minutes in ForSite2020® ORMS, as compared to staff spending an average of 23 - 26 minutes per case in completing a patient’s chart in their former system. Along with increased efficiency, clients have reported enhanced consistency of data and the streamlined standardization of information documented during surgical cases. The implications are increased productivity and higher surgeon satisfaction levels as nurses are spending less time charting and more time on direct patient care activities. Cancellations and delays are significantly reduced, allowing more cases per day and an increased bottom line.

About T.J. Samson Community Hospital: T.J. Samson Community Hospital is a 196-bed, acute-care facility, including sixteen skilled-care beds. The brand-new T.J. Health Pavilion, opened in 2013, provides outpatient services, physicians’ offices, and a walking track. Operating within the mission of offering a variety of health services to the region including acute care; preventive testing and treatment; community outreach activities; and partnerships with local health care providers, civic organizations, and public schools; T.J. Samson Community Hospital promotes and provides for the health and well-being of those they serve. As a regional healthcare provider, T.J. Samson Community Hospital takes pride in being good stewards of its available resources and utilizes them to anticipate and meet the health needs of the region by promoting health in its communities while delivering quality, appropriate, and compassionate care. For more information, visit: www.tjsamson.org.

Download PDF of Full Press Release Here 

ForSite2020® Tackles the Revenue Cycle

Unibased provides many financial advantages in its market-leading ForSite2020® revenue cycle and resource management solutions.  Check out this article recently posted:

"How Unibased’s ForSite2020® Tackles the Revenue Cycle Through Effective Resource Management Tools"
View at: https://www.facebook.com/unibased/posts/10153274320420386

Client News: Hendrick Health System Names New CFO

Hendrick Health System (Abilene, Texas) names Jeremy Walker as new Chief Financial Officer.  View Press Release

Press Release: Healthcare Information Technology Pioneer, Charles W. Kean, Retires After 43 Years

Charles W. Kean

Unibased Systems Architecture, Inc. (Unibased) announced that Charles W. Kean is retiring after 43 years in the healthcare information technology (HIT) industry. Recognized as one of the original HIT pioneers, Charlie helped shape the future destiny of GE Medinet, McDonnell Douglas Healthcare Division (now Boeing), Unisys, Ferranti, Motorola EMTEK (now Eclipsys Corporation), and Unibased. With an exceptional ability to develop innovative sales strategies in achieving plans and objectives, Charlie launched his career with his first major sale of the GE Medinet product to Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) and Hospital Affiliates, LLC in 1972. As Vice President of Sales for McDonnell Douglas Healthcare Division, Charlie repositioned the company with “turnkey” products in the late 1980’s, resulting in industry-leading market share and the eventual sale to American Express Healthcare Solutions which later became HBO & Company (McKesson). Other stops at Unisys, Ferranti, and Motorola resulted in major EHR contracts with the top academic healthcare organizations, setting the stage for CPOE promulgation. Prior to joining Unibased, Charlie was the National Accounts Director for Eclipsys Corporation, where he assisted in establishing the VHA HEALTHvision relationship, guiding the development of business strategy for physician and consumer portals. Charlie has spent the last 10 years at Unibased as Vice President of Sales and Client Relations, orchestrating ground-breaking access management and surgery management sales to some of the largest multi-entity healthcare organizations in the country.

L.V. “Skip” Covington, Unibased Chairman and CEO, stated, “The ‘Charlie Keans’ of the industry will not and cannot be replaced. Charlie was a significant contributor to both the creation and growth of the HIT industry, initially selling time-sharing solutions, then moving on to financial service bureau solutions, and eventually to enterprise turnkey solutions. His HIT provider, vendor, and acquaintance contacts were his friends, much more than business opportunities. He will retain his long list of friends and stay in touch; and in that sense, will never really ‘retire’ from the industry. We wish Charlie all the best and thank him for his years of service, hard work, and dedication.”

Download PDF of Full Press Release Here 

ForSite2020® CASH -- Patient Portal Enhancements

New features have been added to Unibased’s ForSite2020® Consumer Access & Scheduling for Healthcare (CASH) patient portal. Reminder notices now allow for facility-customized reminders for both patient requests and patient schedules to provide improved patient interaction and decreased “no-show” occurrences. Also added are patient surveys, allowing patients to rate their experiences as well as schedule post-acute discharge related orders and services in an effort to reduce costly re-admissions. Unibased’s providers should anticipate increased market share and an enhanced bottom line.  For more information, visit: http://www.unibased.com/patientselfscheduling.html

Today we recognize the September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance -- we remember the innocent lives lost, and honor the first responders and men and women in uniform who have served and sacrificed to keep our great country safe.

All Americans are called to participate in our nation's continual recovery and renewal by serving in our communities. There are many ways to get involved. Visit:  http://www.serve.gov/

Client News: Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (Brattleboro, VT) has names new Director of Risk Management

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital officials announced the hiring of Mary Ellen Esser, RN as Director of Risk Management, Patient Safety and Credentialing.

Esser has more than 15 years of experience in the field of medical risk management, performance improvement and infection control. Most recently, she was the Interim Director of Quality for Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center, a 95 bed facility serving the needs of south-central New Mexico. Esser has also worked for major hospitals in both Washington, DC and Long Beach, CA and served as a consultant to health care facilities in Texas.

“Mary Ellen brings with her a depth of knowledge, experience and focus in the field of quality and risk management. BMH is very fortunate to have her on our team,” said BMH Chief Medical Officer, Kathleen McGraw, MD.

[Source: Brattleboro Memorial Hospital - Press Release http://www.bmhvt.org/news/bmh-hired-new-director-risk-management}

Press Release: Unibased Announces Solutions Aimed at Improving Provider Productivity and Population Management

Unibased Systems Architecture, Inc. (Unibased) announced major enhancements in recent software releases aimed at broadening communication and strengthening ties between patient, physicians, and major providers. Included with the Unibased ForSite2020® product suite is advanced workflow management, greater operational efficiencies leading to easier access, improved revenue cycle management, and an enhanced healthcare consumer experience. The new solutions are being installed in several locations, and include the recently announced bi-directional scheduling capability with Microsoft Outlook®.

Unibased’s ForSite2020® offers significant enhancements that will have a substantial impact on healthcare organizations. New and innovative features such as a streamlined orders list for inpatient and outpatient physician orders provides detailed and comprehensive information on the orders, including reasons they have not been processed by the provider and a call history with the number of call attempts to the patient and physician. This new feature displays orders collected from all sources including the HIE, HL-7 based orders, or faxed orders, and offers an at-a-glance summary of all open orders as well as a drill-down view for more detailed information pertaining to the order, patient, and/or procedure(s). The solution also converts image data, such as faxes, to discrete data while retaining the image for audit trail purposes. This improved workflow and enhanced accuracy minimizes lost orders and coordinates the scheduling of resources in the most efficient and expeditious way possible.

Other new and exciting enhancements improve productivity with an interactive and prioritized work list to expedite processes and workflow. The new functionality takes the existing work queue and groups tasks together as well as provides an escalation of idle items for a certain specified number of days. The check-in/check-out daily work list displays all work queues for a given patient on the list and the ability to schedule an appointment directly from that list for increased efficiency.

New features have also been added to Unibased’s ForSite2020® Consumer Access & Scheduling for Healthcare (CASH) patient portal. The ForSite2020® CASH reminder notices now allow for facility-customized reminders for both patient requests and patient schedules to provide improved patient interaction and decreased “no-show” occurrences. Also added to ForSite2020® CASH are patient surveys allowing patients to rate their experiences as well as schedule post-acute discharge related orders and services. Providers should anticipate increased market share and an enhanced bottom line.

L.V. “Skip” Covington, Unibased Chairman & CEO, states, “The Unibased challenge is to help the industry recognize that the vast majority of healthcare operational and consumer-related data remains in an unstructured format even after the industry-wide push on EHRs and HIEs. Productivity remains difficult to improve because actual workflow remains manual folder processing-orientated in many areas. Unibased captures, converts, links, stores, and analyzes both unstructured and discrete data, which leads to transaction workflow monitoring to insure expeditious processing of orders, modifications, patient and resource schedules, and general distribution of information to the appropriate areas. Unibased is currently focused on convenient consumer and physician access to services as well as the education of the patient regarding various options and related costs for all modalities including surgery. Where implemented, provider ROIs are significant and can be reached within a short time-frame while requiring minimal resources.”

Download PDF of Full Press Release Here

2013 NTT DATA Client Conference

Congratulations to our winner of the HDTV giveaway at the 2013 NTT DATA Client Conference, SUE ALLEN R.N., with Montgomery County Memorial Hospital in Iowa!  It was a great event in gorgeous San Diego, CA.  Thanks to all who stopped by our booth!