Press release:

CUSTOMER SUCCESS: MemorialCare Health System Improves Its Own IT Health

BMC Software helps major hospital network improve patient satisfaction

HOUSTON, July 16, 2012 – To serve a network of six leading hospitals across southern California, MemorialCare Health System (MHS) relies on highly specialized technology to diagnose and treat patients. For obvious reasons, it’s absolutely necessary that computer systems work flawlessly.

Streamlined IT operations are a key factor in making sure the hospital network runs smoothly. Before selecting BMC Software, MHS could not efficiently manage IT requests from all of its medical facilities. What’s more, the hospital system did not have an automated system to track computer and software assets in real time.

This collective gap in the MHS IT management capability had a direct and profoundly negative effect on customer satisfaction.

“Prior to selecting BMC Software, we had no way of determining the number of IT assets we had. We spent an exorbitant amount of time gathering this information and manually entering it into a database,” explained Terolyn Phinsee, project manager at MHS. “Today, our successful implementation of BMC Track-It! has produced a measurable increase in customer satisfaction, with an overall score of 95 percent for ‘quick response to issue.’”

The Challenge

MHS lacked an efficient method for tracking and assigning help desk requests between hospitals. The company also needed a way to track hospital hardware and software assets in real time, without inundating internal IT resources. Finally, MHS needed to ensure it was compliant with healthcare security regulations such as HIPPA Administrative Safegaurds.

The Solution

MHS reviewed a number of help desk solutions, including the FrontRange HEAT product. The hospital network selected the Track-It! solution from BMC Software for its superior customization capabilities, ease of use, flexibility and automated workflow.

Benefits

The BMC solution was in full production at MHS within eight hours. Once implemented, the organization experienced the following immediate benefits:

• Increased employee and patient satisfac­tion with IT service and support
• Real-time view of all computer and software assets across all six hospitals and the ability to assign work orders to techni­cians at any site
• Improved help desk agent workflow to quickly and efficiently solve IT problems and requests
• Improved compliance to healthcare regulations such as HIPPA

For more information on the MHS implementation and the BMC Track-It! solution, please visit:

• Read the full case study here
• Access the BMC Track-It! Customer Community
• Follow @BMC_TrackIt  on Twitter
• Become a fan of BMC on Facebook

Business Runs on IT. IT Runs on BMC Software.

Business runs better when IT runs at its best. That's why more than 20,000 IT organizations – from the Global 100 to the smallest businesses – in over 120 countries rely on BMC Software (NASDAQ: BMC) to manage their business services and applications across distributed, mainframe, virtual and cloud environments. With the leading Business Service Management platform, Cloud Management, and the industry’s broadest choice of IT management solutions, BMC helps customers cut costs, reduce risk and achieve business objectives. For the four fiscal quarters ended March 31, 2012, BMC revenue was approximately $2.2 billion.

Accenture Implements Madrid Healthcare Information Exchange With 15 Million Medical Records

Press release:

July 04, 2012

Accenture Implements Madrid Healthcare Information Exchange With 15 Million Medical Records

 

MADRID, Spain; July 4, 2012  – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Madrid Health Service have fully implemented the Madrid Electronic Health Record (HORUS) system that captures all patient information into a single, integrated record for 26,000 clinicians to access across all parts of the regional healthcare system. The system, with 15 million health records, was completed in 12 months.

 

“Madrid’s health system is enabling a single network for providers and citizens to access real-time clinical information,” said Baltasar Lobato, managing director for Accenture's health industry in Spain.  “The HORUS system is an effective response to recent public health changes that have enabled patients to select providers, as it consolidates health information, reduces duplication and coordinates patient care across multiple institutions.”

 

Using the Madrid Electronic Health Record system, medical professionals can instantly view a patient’s consolidated medical record from all parts of the healthcare system, including demographic information, clinical history, physician interactions, diagnostic assessments, medications, procedures and other health system interactions.

 

“It’s vital that health systems are collaboratively improving technology with their physician users,” said Zaida Sampedro Préstamo, directora general de Sistemas de Información Sanitaria, Servicio Madrileño de Salud. “More than 100 doctors serve on HORUS work groups to ensure new features complement clinical protocols and are enabling the most impact to patient care.”

 

The system enables patients to securely access and exchange their own healthcare information from remote locations.  While patient information is stored in local data databases across the region, citizens are given unique patient identifiers for accessing their own medical records in near-real time and managing privacy settings. The patient record includes clinical history (i.e. diagnosis, medication, vaccination, allergies), demographics and administrative summaries.

 

The Madrid Health Service (Servicio Madrileño de Salud - Sermas) provides healthcare services for the Madrid region, which is the third largest city in the European Union. The Madrid Health Service is a network of integrated and organized care services including more than 250 primary care centers, 35 hospitals and over 80,000 professionals across both primary and specialized care.

 

Learn more about Accenture’s work for Madrid Healthcare Information Exchange. 

Learn more about Accenture’s Insight Driven Health.

 

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 249,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries.  Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments.  The company generated net revenues of US$25.5 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2011.  Its home page is www.accenture.com.

 

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Accenture Awarded Contract Extension for Medical Imaging in the U.K.

News release:

May 10, 2012

Accenture Awarded Contract Extension for Medical Imaging in the U.K.

LONDON; May 10, 2012 – Accenture (NYSE:ACN)  has been awarded a one-year contract extension by the United Kingdom Department of Health to continue to provide Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) to National Health Service Trusts (NHS) in the North East and East of England/East Midlands that have chosen to extend their current service provision with Accenture. The contract will run until June 30, 2016.

Accenture’s PACS is a community-wide system that is used to electronically capture, view, store and distribute medical imaging (i.e. x-rays, MRIs) digitally rather than the old system of printing images onto film. This digital technology has benefitted more than 90 hospitals, helping to improve patient care.

Accenture will continue to manage the Central Data Store, which provides Trusts with a centrally-hosted, long-term image archive, until June 2016. This enables Trusts to postpone costs that would be incurred for ‘data localization’ – the process of moving their large imaging history in-house or to other providers.

Accenture has provided around-the-clock managed PACS service to the NHS since 2005 and this contract extension offers Trusts continuity of service at a time of change.

“PACS is an excellent example of how technology is helping to improve patient care by providing clinicians with easy access to medical images and enabling them to make decisions more quickly. Accenture provides a 24x7 managed service to enhance system stability and improve response time to resolving issues,” said Matt Oakley who leads Accenture's Medical Images Practice in the U.K. & Ireland. “Accenture is committed to delivering best-in-class, cost-competitive medical imaging solutions over the long-term for the U.K.” 

Accenture is working closely with Agfa HealthCare, the software supplier for PACS and the Central Data Store, and Hitachi Data Systems, which supplies storage for the Central Data Store, to deliver the service.

Learn more about Accenture’s Insight Driven Health.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 246,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments.  The company generated net revenues of US$25.5 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2011. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

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Institute for Emergency Service Novi Sad Boosts Efficiency with Microsoft Lync 2010

Institute for Emergency Service Novi Sad Boosts Efficiency with Microsoft Lync 2010

May 07, 2012

Dispatch center overhauls its paper-based documentation system, ensuring faster responses to medical emergencies.

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (eHealth Week) and NOVI SAD, Serbia — May 7, 2012 — The Institute for Emergency Medical Service (EMS) in Novi Sad, Serbia, has turned to Microsoft Lync 2010 for assistance with upgrading its once-antiquated dispatching system. Previously when patients called EMS, their details were taken down on paper and a dispatcher relayed that information to the teams in the field via radio station or cellphone. This approach was fraught with a number of challenges, which had a direct impact on the quality of service provided when every second can mean the difference between life and death.

The first challenge was the quality and accuracy of data verbally taken from patients by call center operators and written down on paper, the second was that all the data then had to be manually entered into a facility computer by a person from administration who was not initially involved in the collection process, which inevitably meant inconsistencies occurred, and the third problem was that this approach meant it was practically impossible to gather statistical data that could be analyzed and evaluated for research purposes.

“Our dispatching center is the vital link between citizens who are in need of emergency care and medical response teams,” said Dr. Nenad Aracki, chief of the Institute for Emergency Medical Service. “The process in place was out of date, burdensome and directly impacting the ability of employees to do their jobs effectively.”

Through an application developed by Microsoft Gold Certified Partner CPU, patients’ calls arrive automatically, providing the caller’s name, address and phone number to the responding operator along with call history and detailed information about the patient’s previous calls. The operator can then enter patient data into the application, supported by Lync 2010, give the patient call a priority (1: red, 2: yellow, 3: green), and determine if the police or fire department need to be dispatched.

If a caller’s emergency is a matter of life or death, the operator can distribute information within three to five seconds, and if callers want to know the status of an intervention in progress, they can get an answer.

“We managed to shorten certain time parameters, specifically the call center response time,” Aracki said. “As we receive more than 650 calls on a daily basis, any savings in time is valuable. Now the operator can receive and distribute any information with just a few mouse clicks and within seconds.”

CPU also developed an application for EMS based on Lync 2010 that records the exact time when a call is initiated, how long it lasts, how long it takes for information to be distributed to the field unit, when the responders arrive at the patient’s location and the length of time of the medical intervention.

“Since the majority of our patients suffer from chronic diseases, they call frequently,” said Dr. Srdjan Cobanov, chief of the dispatching center. “This new system enabled us to go through previous patient calls, and now it is easier for our dispatchers to diagnose, triage and send the EMS team to that patient.”

More information on the EMS’s deployment of Lync is available in the Microsoft customer case study and the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Nuance Closes Acquisition of Transcend

BURLINGTON, Mass., – April 27, 2012 – Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced that the company has closed the acquisition of Transcend Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRCR), a leading provider of medical transcription and speech editing services.

The combination of Nuance and Transcend will significantly improve the way patient data is captured, processed and used across the small- to mid-size hospital market, which comprises approximately 90 percent of hospitals in the U.S. Nuance will build upon Transcend’s market leadership among this group of hospitals, expanding its customer base through the delivery of voice-enabled and Clinical Language Understanding-powered (CLU) solutions that help healthcare organizations of all sizes achieve Meaningful Use and accelerate the transition to ICD-10.

The combined company’s offering will aid healthcare organizations’ chief financial officers to lower costs associated with the administration and management of traditional clinical documentation and medical transcription processes, allowing them to prioritize core business activities, financial goals and patient care initiatives.

The company will provide guidance on the financial impact of the acquisition in conjunction with its second quarter 2012 earnings release on May 10th.

Transcend Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRCR) provides premium quality transcription and clinical documentation services to the healthcare industry. Its services encompass a wide range of solutions - people, products and processes - designed to turn medical dictation into meaningful electronic documents. Transcend provides its clients with exceptional quality, turnaround time and service so that they can focus on what matters most – their patients.  For more information, visitwww.transcendservices.com.

Nuance Healthcare, a division of Nuance Communications, is the market leader in providing clinical understanding solutions that accurately capture and transform the patient story into meaningful, actionable information.  Thousands of hospitals, providers and payers worldwide trust Nuance voice-enabled clinical documentation and analytics solutions to facilitate smarter, more efficient decisions across the healthcare enterprise.  These solutions are proven to increase clinician satisfaction and HIT adoption, supporting organizations to achieve Meaningful Use of EHR systems and transform to the accountable care model.  Recognized as “Best-in-KLAS” 2004-2011 for Speech Recognition we invite you to learn more, http://www.nuance.com/for-healthcare/index.htm.

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world.  Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications.  For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.