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IBM and Initiate Systems Selected to Build Patient-Information System for New Orleans’ Largest Health Provider


WEBWIRE

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Initiate Systems, Inc., a leading provider of master data management solutions for creating complete, real-time views of data about people, places and things, announced today that Ochsner Health System has selected them to improve the capabilities of its electronic medical record (EMR) system. Under terms of the agreement, IBM and Initiate will customize Initiate Patient™ (formerly known as Initiate Identity Hub®), an advanced Enterprise Master Person Index (EMPI) solution for the sharing and management of patient data in an environment of rapid expansion and across highly disparate patient registration systems.

Ochsner Health System is the State of Louisiana’s largest non-academic health system and also its largest private employer, consisting of seven hospitals, 32 health centers, fitness centers and a hotel. With more than 9,000 employees, 600 physicians, annual revenues of $1.2 billion and some of the most sophisticated EMRs in the region, Ochsner is one of the largest non-university-based medical training centers in the United States. The health system recently acquired three New Orleans community hospitals and is now in the process of merging disparate patient information and management systems to ensure the highest quality of care for its patients.

In addition to Ochsner’s recent growth, the health system is still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which caused a massive dispersal of population that is now trickling back into to the region.

“We needed a sophisticated EMPI that would help us manage through the chaos, accurately detecting duplicate patient records across our systems while maintaining the integrity of our data, so that patients can easily be cared for in any one of our facilities throughout the region,” said Chris Belmont, Ochsner Assistant Vice President, Corporate Information Systems. “We contracted with IBM and Initiate to take patient data from our hospitals and consolidate them under one ’master’ enterprise person index to achieve our goals of greater patient safety and satisfaction as Ochsner continues to grow.”

The enhanced solution will help Ochsner quickly add new hospitals and extend quality care to the outlying areas still reeling from Katrina’s devastation. Patient records from the new facilities will be accurately integrated into existing records, creating a master EMR for each patient that is available in real-time to all physicians.

“As New Orleans’ largest health system, Ochsner will be an institution the region can build around,” said Scott Harper, SVP and general manager, Healthcare Practice of Initiate Systems. “Our team is proud to deliver the high standard of software and services along with our partner IBM required to streamline Ochsner’s systems and enhance patient care while the revitalization of this region continues to move forward.”

To meet Ochsner’s requirements, IBM and Initiate will design and implement a robust, open-standards-based EMPI capability that provides a foundation for existing EMR systems. Ongoing benefits of the solution will include:

* Increasing patient safety through improved patient identification within and across disparate systems
* Enabling real-time decision-making by physicians in matters of patient care
* Enhancing patients’ registration experience by improving cross- facility data sharing
* Lowering administrative costs with systematic identity resolution
* Providing an information infrastructure for efficiently incorporating new facilities as Ochsner expands
* Supporting growth by creating a platform to quickly integrate and consolidate additional patient information

To build the new EMPI system, IBM will use the strength of its Prolink4 methodology to map out a process that ensures the successful implementation of Initiate Patient™ into this complex healthcare environment.

“Applying our proven Prolink4 approach to the Initiate EMPI software will help Ochsner align processes and technologies to enhance the performance of Ochsner’s EMR system, improve patient care and augment their analytics capabilities,” said Dan Pelino, General Manager, IBM Global Healthcare & Life Sciences Industry. “This project highlights our commitment to patient-centric healthcare delivery and our resolve to work with both partners and clients alike, integrating health analytics and service oriented architectures to yield significant, replicable improvements in patient care.”

Prolink4 is IBM’s process-centric, top-down project methodology that works to transform organizations from current to future states based on overall goals and objectives. IBM will apply a tailored version of Prolink4 to define and execute specific steps that ensure the implementation of Initiate Patient™, leveraging its experience with this process to ensure the rapid delivery of Ochsner’s EMPI system. Using IBM pSystem Servers with AIX, Initiate Patient™ can accurately identify, match and link disjointed, critical patient data, providing an end-to-end solution that combines systems scalability, real-time data review and consolidation, and advanced reporting, analytics and process, all of which will integrate into Ochsner’s business processes.



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