OpenVista 2.0 Radiology improves patient care and staff workflow
23 April 2009
Medsphere Systems Corporation, a provider of Open Source healthcare
IT solutions, has announced the release of an enhanced OpenVista
Radiology Application, the second in a series of OpenVista 2.0 releases
that upgrade the robust electronic health record (EHR) solution for the
commercial healthcare market.
OpenVista Radiology 2.0 incorporates auto check-in, automatic
printing of radiology requisition reports, improved work lists, enhanced
picture archiving and autofax capabilities. The application also
automatically checks in patients and assigns them case numbers on the
day of exams, which frees technicians to perform other duties by
eliminating manual check-in. Collectively, these enhancements
significantly raise the level of patient care and improve staff work
flow in hospitals that implement OpenVista.
The release of OpenVista Radiology by Medsphere follows last week’s
introduction of the OV Meds Application as part of the same 2.0 release.
Workflow will also improve with the enhanced OpenVista Radiology
Application, which features a single screen tracking board that displays
all radiology orders regardless of status. Users can view all patient
orders, including those pending but not yet scheduled, enabling more
efficient workloads and staffing requirements.
As a particular benefit to hospitals implementing OpenVista,
Medsphere has enhanced the Radiology Application through a link to
Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS). Users can click on
the PACS link in the patient record to view crucial clinical images such
as X-rays and scans.
“The enhancements available through both the Meds and Radiology
applications are targeted to specific commercial sector needs, and we’re
not done yet,” said Michael J. Doyle, president and CEO of Medsphere.
“The Healthcare Open Source Ecosystem and our ongoing improvements to
OpenVista ensure that patient care at our customer hospitals is
constantly elevated.”
The debut of OpenVista 2.0 comes at a significant time for
healthcare. Aside from reducing preventable medical errors and improving
patient care, US hospitals and physicians are scrambling to become
automated and be eligible for nearly $20 billion in Medicare/Medicaid
payments (stimulus funding made available by the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act) for the adoption of electronic health records. From
2011, stimulus incentive payments decrease annually over the following
five years, when they will be phased out entirely.
“Medsphere can bring hospitals live before January 2011 with an
affordable, quality solution,” Doyle said. “Proprietary vendors simply
can’t meet this deadline.”
OpenVista is the commercialized version of the VistA EHR created and
developed by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) over more than
20 years and credited with helping turn the VA into a national leader in
quality patient care.
OpenVista technology uses Open Source code available from the VA
through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Medsphere implements and
supports the technology and works collaboratively on updates,
enhancements and modifications with the Healthcare Open Source
Ecosystem, a community of healthcare facilities, developers, value-added
resellers, clinicians and other interested parties dedicated to
improving patient care through Open Source tools.
OpenVista last year enabled Midland Memorial Hospital in west Texas
to be named a Health Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS)
Analytics Stage 6 facility for 1/3 the cost and in 1/3 the time of
alternative solutions. Through the Stage 6 designation, HIMSS Analytics
recognizes healthcare facilities that have implemented healthcare IT
solutions and achieved established levels of automated patient care and
clinical process improvement.
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