Client News: Unibased Clients Recognized by Healthgrades

Healthgrades has announced the Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence™ recipients for 2013. Unibased is proud to congratulate two clients that have been honored with the award… Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian (Newport Beach, CA) and Mother Frances Hospital – Tyler (Tyler, TX). This recognition places these hospitals in the top 5% of hospitals in the nation!

For more information, click here [PDF].

We extend our sincere wishes for a healthy and prosperous New Year in 2013!

Press Release: KLAS Enterprises Awards Unibased with a Decade of Outstanding Product Quality as ‘Best in KLAS’ for 10 Consecutive Years

According to the annual year-end "Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Services" report published on December 14, 2012 by KLAS Enterprises, LLC (KLAS), Unibased Systems Architecture, Inc. (Unibased) received the "Best in KLAS" [1] Award for the market segment of Enterprise Scheduling for its ForSite2020® Resource Management System (RMS) for the 10th consecutive year, reflecting for the first time in KLAS history a vendor that has achieved a decade of this award, demonstrating unmatched client satisfaction. The report singled out Unibased as a notable performance stating, “Unibased’s RMS was named the top Enterprise Scheduling system for the 10th year in a row.”

According to the report, “The ‘Best in KLAS’ categories represent software and services that currently provide the broadest operational and clinical impact to healthcare organizations. 14 companies are represented in 23 categories. The recognition signifies leadership in working with customers to resolve issues and match expectations to reality.” Unibased attained the highest overall score (91.3) of the 14 companies and 23 categories listed. In the Enterprise Scheduling category, Unibased competed with (in alphabetical order): Cerner, Epic, McKesson, QuadraMed, and SCI Solutions. Unibased also had the highest score in the Surgery Management category with its periOperative Resource Management System (ORMS), leading with the highest product quality rating of 7.9.

Cynthia J. Borders, Unibased Vice President of Client Services, stated, “We are grateful for our clients’ support over the years. Actually, our clients provide our products’ direction and priorities; even giving us detailed design requirements for new modules or features. Some act as an extension of our QA program as alpha test sites. We try to be highly responsive with upgrades, providing 3 to 4 major releases a year, but we do not require every client to be on the same release. Our development team is great and understanding of our clients’ needs. Our success is based upon expending the vast majority of our labor resources on client support. We expect to be just as successful over the next 10 years.”

About KLAS Enterprises, LLC: KLAS is a research firm on a global mission to improve healthcare delivery by enabling providers to be heard and to be counted. Working with thousands of healthcare executives and clinicians, KLAS gathers data on software, services, medical equipment, and infrastructure systems to deliver timely reports, trends, and statistical overviews. The research directly represents the provider voice and acts as a catalyst for improving vendor performance. KLAS was founded in 1996, and their staff and advisory board average 25 years of healthcare information technology experience. For more information, go to www.KLASresearch.com, email marketing@KLASresearch.com, or call 1-800-920-4109 to speak with a KLAS representative. Follow KLAS on Twitter @KLASresearch.

[1]  2003 - 2012 Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Services, December 2012. © 2012 KLAS Enterprises, LLC. All rights reserved. www.KLASresearch.com<

Download PDF of Full Press Release Here

Press Release: Brattleboro Memorial Hospital Implements Unibased’s ForSite2020® Resource Management System Amidst Hurricane Sandy

Unibased Systems Architecture, Inc. (Unibased) announced today that Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH), located in Brattleboro, VT, completed a successful implementation of Unibased’s market-leading ForSite2020® Resource Management System (RMS) in the midst of devastating Hurricane Sandy. Despite power outages and violent winds causing damage throughout the region, the go-live went on and did so successfully with no delay.

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital implemented Unibased’s ForSite2020® Resource Management System (RMS) enterprise scheduling and access management solution to provide the physician and patient community with an enhanced consumer experience, improved resource utilization and streamlined coordination of care. The integrated solution will provide efficient scheduling and resource management for all patient services and departments including radiology, rehab and oncology, as well as coordinate follow-up care and post-discharge appointments to reduce costly readmissions. The comprehensive ForSite2020® solution insures revenue growth by improving workflow, productivity, business processes and operational efficiency to reduce costs and increase financial performance.

Jon Farina, BMH Chief Information Officer, stated, “Unibased worked hand-in-hand with our implementation team to configure the system and set up the necessary bi-directional interfaces to Siemens MedSeries4®. Everyone’s hard work contributed to an incredibly smooth go-live, despite the devastation going on all around us.” 

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Press Release: Unibased Announces Newest Release ForSite2020® Version 7.07

Unibased Systems Architecture, Inc. (Unibased) announced that its latest software release, ForSite2020® Version 7.07, is now available and includes significant enhancements that will have a substantial financial impact for healthcare organizations. Unibased anticipates improved workflow and increased operational efficiency with new innovative features such as Microsoft® Outlook integration as well as ICD-10 compliance and enhanced patient payment estimation. 

The Microsoft® Outlook 2010 integration is a unique capability that will allow providers (physicians, therapists, technicians) to have an “at-a-glance” view of their upcoming schedules in their primary and familiar calendaring tool. This integration includes schedules (current, canceled and rescheduled) as well as appointment blocks and meetings made by the provider in their Outlook® calendar. Unibased anticipates enhanced physician satisfaction and increased loyalty by enabling schedules to be accessible any place the Outlook® calendar is available.  No other enterprise scheduling solution provider in the marketplace offers this cutting-edge integration.

For increased revenue through enhanced workflow, Unibased’s insurance verification and patient payment estimation capabilities are now even more robust with added flexibility and seamless coordination. In order to meet regulatory requirements, ForSite2020® now also allows for the collection of a diagnosis code as either ICD-9 or ICD-10 for proactive preparation and increased accuracy.

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Press Release: Unibased and Document Storage Systems Team for vxVistA Projects

Unibased Systems Architecture, Inc. (Unibased) and Document Storage Systems, Inc. (DSS, Inc.) have agreed to integrate product suites for the purpose of sales to hospital facilities utilizing the VistA Hospital Information System. DSS, Inc. integration software is used throughout the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and Native American/Alaskan Native Tribal facilities as well as several state behavioral health hospitals. The Unibased ForSite2020® solution suite has been used successfully for many years within the VHA. Each party will promote and sell the integrated product suite under a non-exclusive license as "ForSite2020® for VistA''.

Larry Weigel, Unibased Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration, indicated, "DSS, Inc. brings extensive governmental contracting experience and integration insights to various components of federal government medical software applications, especially VistA. Unibased brings an award-winning track record for enterprise scheduling and patient access within the VHA, multi-hospital IDNs, and community hospitals. Teaming with DSS, Inc. for new procurements will benefit both organizations. It is also noteworthy that approximately 40% of Unibased employees are veterans and many have personal experience as consumers of VHA services, so Unibased definitely has more than just a financial interest in serving the VHA."

Mark Byers, DSS, Inc. President and CEO, added, "The DSS, Inc. integration software, already well-established with VistA, will provide an expeditious technology platform to improve the consumer experience with VistA clients through multi-entity scheduling and efficient resource management. We are looking forward to working with Unibased, as we recognize their #1 status in the healthcare information technology market for enterprise scheduling. We expect to bring a superior solution to government entities and other facilities running VistA given the opportunity."

 

Download PDF of Press Release Here

Unibased ForSite2020® Modules – Integrated Pieces of the Puzzle to Manage Resources, Improve Care and Reduce Costs

Health information exchanges (HIEs) are gaining ground and growing more popular with every passing day. What can hospitals do to ensure that their physicians as well as the physicians in the service area have all the tools they need to communicate effectively and do business with the facility? Remembering that physician offices are in different stages of adopting current technologies, what is the answer to "how can we do business together" - no matter what their place is on the adaptation curve?  

An essential aspect of building and maintaining productive working relationships with physicians in the health system and the surrounding areas is communication. In today's healthcare world, several forms of communication are being utilized – some old, some new – and hospital have to be able to take in information in all forms and put it into viable use. 

The ability to send and receive data can change the way a hospital spends and saves money. Without the right technology in place, physicians and staff can spend up to:

• 2-3 hours per day scanning and indexing items
• 1 or more hours a day looking or searching for clinical information
• 1-2 hours a day waiting on the phone to schedule appointments

In a typical 8 hour work day, up to half of the day could be spent on not seeing patients, but doing research or waiting on hold.

With workflow inefficiencies and disjointed processes such as this, it is easy to see why both patient and physician satisfaction can quickly spiral downward. Being fully aware of time-utilization issues and satisfaction rankings, hospitals and physicians’ offices need a way to "push" data where it needs to go, and have it get there without getting lost and without delay.

With ForSite2020® Fax Order Collection, Utilization & Storage (FOCUS), hospitals can receive physician orders from offices that haven't implemented electronic health record (EHR) technology. ForSite2020® FOCUS is a paperless fax management system that removes the stress of lost or incomplete orders by automating and improving the current process of physician faxed orders. This module allows a physician office without an EHR to "push" information to the hospital, which in turn allows the patient to be scheduled automatically with all the necessary information at the fingertips of the hospital's scheduling staff. No longer are physician or staff members beholden to making phone calls about missing faxes or misplaced orders, they can simply trust that the orders arrived at their destination just as they were sent out. In addition to offering connectivity to the HIE and other physician offices, ForSite2020® FOCUS can also help reduce costs in physician offices by up to $44,000 annually by improving workflow and efficiency, giving physicians and staff more time to treat patients.

For those physician offices that are in the process of converting, or have already converted to EHR technology, Unibased offers a physician portal: ForSite2020® Physician Order Collection and Enterprise Tracking (POCET). This module has the ability to not only create electronically signed, legible orders but can process faxed orders through intelligent OCR recognition – eliminating the need for interpretation and keying of an order. ForSite2020® POCET easily integrates with other EMR systems within the physician community, with the HIE itself and has the ability to take HL-7 messages. Having ForSite2020® POCET in place in physician offices will provide new access channels for a physician's referral base and reduce call center demand while, in conjunction with an EHR, helping to create a savings of $134,000 annually by streamlining the scheduling process.

With disparate information coming into hospitals through various different forms and avenues, and all requesting services at a certain time, hospitals need to be hyper-aware of how and when work requests are being handled. ForSite2020® Work Queue Management effortlessly creates a repository for all services throughout all departments, facilities, practices and clinics in the health departments, facilities, practices and clinics in the health system efficiently tracking and monitoring the continuum of care for enhanced productivity and increased revenue. Work Queue Management automatically interacts with all other ForSite2020® products and modules. Through this complete integration, ForSite2020® Work Queue Management allows providers to reach new operational heights by replacing manual, time-consuming processes with automated information "pushes", based on priority, to the most qualified and available resource. By reducing manual intervention, ForSite2020® Work Queue Management lessens the number of points of failure, resulting in a reduction of clinical, operational and financial errors. Hospitals can estimate an annual savings of more than $600,000 based solely on enhancing workflow processes.

Electronic connectivity strengthens relationships with physicians through good communication practices – the outcome being an increase in revenue as well as improving clinical decision-making and patient care by having access to information in a timelier manor. Unibased offers the same commitment to excellence in our modules as we do with the rest of our products. All of our products can be integrated into an HIE and EHR setting, and are fully customizable to the client’s needs.                                                                     

[Source: Medicity Issue Brief: Quantifying the Value Proposition for Electronically Connecting Hospitals and Community Physicians.]


Press Release: Jim Wilson Joins Unibased Board of Directors

James R. Wilson

Unibased Systems Architecture, Inc. (Unibased) announced today that James R. Wilson has accepted a seat on its Board of Directors.  Mr. Wilson is currently the CEO of Health Outcomes Sciences LLC (HOS), and formerly the President of Craneware, Inc., as well as served as an executive with Cerner and EDS.

Larry Covington, Chairman & CEO of Unibased, stated, “Jim brings over 30 years of experience in the healthcare information technology (HIT) market to the Unibased Board. Jim’s extensive executive experience in revenue cycle management, EMR and clinical research decision-support market segments compliments Unibased’s strategies related to surgery management, coordinated access to care, provider productivity and population management.”

Jim Wilson, CEO of HOS, added, “There is a direct relationship between revenue cycle management and complex clinical variables that lead to patient outcomes. Major providers are facing economic challenges that require competitive approaches to access to care and the efficient management of the most productive use of resources leading to quality outcomes. Unibased has been promoting this concept for many years. The Unibased reputation for quality and service is second to none in the industry, and I look forward to helping them formulate the appropriate tactics to leverage their products and services.”

About Health Outcomes Science LLC:  Health Outcomes Sciences LLC is dedicated to providing innovative IT solutions that improve the quality of healthcare delivery. They focus on translating the latest advances in clinical research into decision-support products and services for physicians and their patients, healthcare organizations and other medical software developers.

Their solutions empower users to see complex relationships between clinical variables – such as comorbidities, sociodemographic attributes, biochemical markers and genomic determinants – and patient outcomes. Better understanding of these relationships allows patient care to be individualized in ways that previously could only be imagined.

Their interdisciplinary team of physicians, outcomes researchers and information technology experts pays special attention to creating user interfaces that are both intuitive and responsive, and that readily integrate into the workflow of the researchers who develop risk models and the clinicians who use them.

 

Download PDF of Press Release Here

Press Release: Unibased and Vitalz Agree to Co-Market Products and Services

Unibased Systems Architecture, Inc. (Unibased) and Vitalz (Tampa, FL) have formed a strategic partnership to co-market their respective products and services. Unibased has made a long-term commitment to integrate the Vitalz Healthcare Platform, a patient-centric community healthcare management solution, with the Unibased ForSite2020® family of products and services. 

According to Charles Kean, Unibased Vice President of Sales and Client Relations, “The Vitalz family of products is anticipated to complement the Unibased ForSite2020® strong presence in the healthcare consumer, physician, major provider interaction, and resource management markets. Unibased’s credibility, as demonstrated by 9 years of KLAS Top 20 [1] standings as well as its major account references, HIE integration and providing the missing piece required for disparate HIT product integration, will be supplemented by demonstrable elements of the Vitalz Healthcare Platform. Unibased is committed to the concepts of consumer population management and implications upon ease of access and revenue cycle management. In the short term, available elements of the Vitalz Healthcare Platform are expected to be integrated with the ForSite2020® Consumer Access & Scheduling for Healthcare (CASH) patient portal and eventually the ForSite2020® Physician Order Collection & Enterprise Tracking (POCET) physician portal. Over a longer term, Unibased will integrate all Vitalz components into its comprehensive enterprise access management system. Unibased will continue to provide a single source of the patient itinerary of services throughout the entire healthcare enterprise, eliminating intra-office and intra-facility conflicts which lead to consumer and physician inconvenience and subsequent reductions in enterprise revenue.”



David Weathers
Vitalz President

David Weathers, Vitalz President, added, “The Unibased marketing partnership is a key part of Vitalz’ plans to expand its market presence. Through this relationship, we will be able to offer Unibased clients the opportunity to be more competitive in today’s consumer-driven healthcare environment.  By leveraging the Vitalz platform, providers will communicate more effectively with patients and collaborate more efficiently with fellow providers throughout their communities. The Vitalz patient-physician portal is designed to tie together the disparate systems managing clinical data, personal health records, social networks and transaction services for the benefit of the provider-patient relationship. Ultimately, as with the Unibased solution, Vitalz’ goal is to positively impact patient care.”

About Vitalz:  Founded in 2008 by an experienced group of technologists and medical professionals, Vitalz partners with Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) such as hospitals, health systems and independent physician associations (IPAs) – along with their providers – to improve operational efficiencies, increase collaboration among providers, and enhance patient communications.  The Vitalz Healthcare Platform employs the latest technological innovations to offer its clients custom, cost-effective software and services that solve some of today’s most pressing healthcare issues:  IT systems integration, physician workflows, referrals, business continuity and support, and patient safety. Vitalz’ technology facilitates information sharing and secure messaging between disparate applications and helps client organizations achieve their Meaningful Use compliance goals.  Vitalz is certified for Stage 1 Meaningful Use through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) for timely access to patient information, and has implemented rigorous security standards to insure the privacy and security of the data in the network. Please visit www.vitalz.com for more information.

Download PDF of Press Release Here

^[1] 2003 - 2011 Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Services, December 2011. © 2011 KLAS Enterprises, LLC. All rights reserved. www.KLASresearch.com



Draft Stage 3 Meaningful Use Recommendations Expected in August

A work group of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT plans to release draft recommendations for Stage 3 of the meaningful use program by August. Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record systems can qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments.  (Unibased's ForSite2020® v7.0 is Meaningful Use Certified.)

[Source: iHealthBeat]
View full article at:
http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2012/7/10/stage-3-meaningful-use-drafts-could-be-released-by-august.aspx