St. Joseph Health System Selects Microsoft’s Azyxxi to Optimize Treatment Decisions

St. Joseph Health System has selected Azyxxi, the Microsoft unified health enterprise platform, making it the largest community-based hospital network, and the first on the West Coast, to adopt the platform to date. The multihospital health system joins the ranks of other prestigious organizations that have chosen Azyxxi to improve organizationwide access to clinical and patient data using existing IT investments.

Microsoft Corp.’s Azyxxi offers a new way to capture, store and present information, enabling healthcare systems to unlock data sitting in clinical, financial and administrative silos across organizations. As a result, caregivers can spend less time looking for information and more time providing high-quality care to patients.

Accessible on computers, tablet PCs and handheld devices, Azyxxi provides real-time responses to clinical, administrative and research-specific questions. Equipped with decision-support tools, the platform can also help physicians determine the best treatment options. Dr. Clyde Wesp, chief medical information officer for California-based St. Joseph Health System, views Azyxxi as one of the primary pillars in the hospital network’s initiative to leverage technological advancements to improve the quality of patient care. “Azyxxi is an indispensable tool that will take our existing systems to the next level and keep St. Joseph Health System on the forefront of information technology, delivering the best possible care to the communities we serve,” Wesp said. “With Azyxxi, all our physicians — those in the hospitals, community-based and in group practices — will have virtually instant access to a patient’s health information, thereby increasing connectivity between providers and improving care for patients.”

Initial installation of Azyxxi will begin early in 2008 and take place across all 14 acute-care hospitals, three home-health agencies and multiple physician groups throughout St. Joseph’s three regions — Northern California, Southern California, and West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. A more robust installation of Azyxxi will take place at two hospitals, with a full rollout across the health system by the end of 2009.

“As the first West Coast-based health system to install Azyxxi, St. Joseph Health System represents a significant addition to the list of prominent hospitals using the state-of-the-art data management solution,” said Steve Shihadeh, general manager of sales, marketing and partners for the Health Solutions Group at Microsoft. “St. Joseph Health System is a perfect example of how Azyxxi can help a diverse health system with locations in multiple states by aggregating information for real-time decision-making and ultimately bringing improved care to the communities it serves.”