AmeriPath Uses Oracle(R) Fusion Middleware to Create Seamless Integration for New Laboratory Information System

New System Enables More Effective Service, Reduced IT Management Costs and Accelerated Onboarding of New Labs.

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. - AmeriPath, Inc., a leading provider of testing and information services used in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and medical conditions, is using Oracle(r) Fusion Middleware to provide seamless integration of its new laboratory information system with its financial infrastructure and numerous patient record systems. The new system is helping AmeriPath deliver more effective service to its customers, while creating a more nimble IT infrastructure that allows the company to respond quickly to changing business needs and accelerate onboarding of acquired labs.

As the result of an aggressive acquisition strategy, AmeriPath’s legacy laboratory information system spanned several different platforms and required manual intervention for various business processes. The company launched an initiative in 2005 to create a new laboratory information system that would reside on a single platform and automate end-to-end processes from order entry through billing ? reducing IT complexity and management costs and enabling AmeriPath to more quickly assimilate acquisitions into the organization. The new Oracle-based system also reduces the need to re-key billing information by allowing AmeriPath to load and update the system automatically, helping to improve data accuracy and reduce administrative costs. In turn, fewer errors accelerate the reimbursement process for AmeriPath.

AmeriPath has deployed the system to sites in four of the 16 states in which it operates and will complete the initiative - involving implementation at more than 50 sites - in 2008.

Seamless Integration
AmeriPath’s new laboratory information system had to integrate seamlessly with multiple internal and external applications, as well as support HL7 messaging and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) electronic data interchange (EDI) transactions, and the unique way that each IT vendor applies these standards. The company used Oracle Fusion Middleware to integrate its new laboratory information system and its internal billing system, as well as link the system to physician and hospital electronic medical record and order entry systems.

“At AmeriPath, we are resolute that technology will not be a barrier to delivering better healthcare,” said Marlon Cortez, director of Business Integration at AmeriPath. “As such, we must be prepared to support any type of data sent our way. Several of the vendors that we considered could deliver the interoperability we required to accommodate multiple data formats. Only Oracle, however, could deliver interoperability as well as a robust activity monitoring environment that enables us to ensure full accountability of all transactions ? an imperative for any organization serving the healthcare industry in which professionals rely on accurate data to make critical treatment decisions.”

Streamlining Business Processes
AmeriPath’s new clinical laboratory information system uses Oracle BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) Process Manager, a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware, to transform incoming messages into an objective HL7 format so that the company can process them internally and re-transform the message for transmission back to the physician or hospital’s system. Oracle BPEL Process Manager offers a comprehensive and easy-to-use infrastructure for creating, deploying and managing BPEL business processes, which assemble a set of discrete services into an end-to-end process flow and can radically reduce the cost and complexity of process integration initiatives.

AmeriPath uses additional components of Oracle Fusion Middleware, including Oracle Application Server and the product family’s B2B gateways and Healthcare Adapters that streamline business process configuration, and Oracle BPEL Process Manager to accelerate the company’s ability to roll out the laboratory information solution to new sites and across additional vendor platforms. AmeriPath is in the process of implementing Oracle Business Activity Monitoring (BAM), another component of Oracle Fusion Middleware, to help monitor business processes and message pipelines.

“Organizations across the healthcare spectrum are focused on leveraging information technology to improve the delivery of care,” said Neil de Crescenzo, Group Vice President, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Oracle. “As a leading provider of services to the healthcare industry, AmeriPath is in step with this trend, deploying Oracle solutions designed to meet the rigorous requirements of the healthcare market to enhance service delivery to its physician and hospital clients, as well streamline its own business operations.”