At HIMSS 2012 Siemens Demonstrates How Soarian is Connecting People to Connect Care

LAS VEGAS, Feb. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Siemens Healthcare (NYSE: SI), Malvern, Pa., will begin demonstrating how Soarian® is helping coordinate care delivery across the enterprise. At the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2012 Annual Conference and Exhibition, from Feb. 20 - 24, at the Venetian Sands Expo Center, Siemens will demonstrate its approach to coordinated care with a portfolio that comprises solutions across the entire care continuum.

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"We are observing a major re-alignment in care delivery such that hospitals will be accountable for not only providing care in the acute environment, but also with orchestrating services to improve the health of those with chronic conditions across a variety of settings," said John Glaser, PhD, CEO, Health Services Business Unit, Siemens Healthcare. "Through the use of health information exchanges, we see that hospitals are taking the lead in delivering information across a wide array of care venues such as the physician practice, long-term care facilities and rehabilitation centers. We can therefore help customers enable this transformation by creating a more unified electronic health record across the enterprise, while providing true next-generation revenue cycle solutions to help create a sustainable future for care providers."

Siemens recently launched a global, Healthcare Sector initiative entitled Agenda 2013, which has specific goals in the area of innovation, where Siemens will continue to develop next-generation IT solutions that are helping customers better coordinate care. Siemens Healthcare also recently acquired MobileMD™, a provider of the cloud-based 4D HIE™ solution, which provides secure clinical and administrative data sharing between all providers caring for patients within a community, regardless of location, EHR technology, or vendor. The HIE serves as an important connection in the way health IT is coordinated across the enterprise to achieve clinical and financial objectives.

Connecting care providers

Healthcare providers are shifting their focus to the challenges of delivering more coordinated care, while addressing the complexities of emerging payment models. Siemens addresses these needs with Soarian®, an enterprise health information system with integrated workflow technology that is built on a modern third-generation services oriented architecture that supports the needs of the entire care continuum. Soarian helps care providers coordinate clinical activities, proactively identify patient risk factors and escalate potential delays and adverse events.

With Soarian, physician practices can be connected to patient demographics, lab and imaging results, and CCDs can be sent directly to any ambulatory EHR. Soarian workflows extend beyond organizational boundaries, so they can connect more people in more places. For instance, a patient who is hospitalized with pneumonia can have their treatment information waiting at their primary care provider's office upon discharge from the hospital. Primary care physicians can also receive advance notice of the patients' status to better coordinate follow-up treatment, increasing high-quality care and increasing patient engagement.

Business intelligence

Siemens is also addressing the need for enhanced business intelligence so that hospitals can move beyond measuring and reporting on what has already occurred to predicting and preventing care episodes. The embedded business intelligence in Soarian pushes critical performance indicators to the desktop. These insights help healthcare administration to dynamically manage service lines to ensure greater profitability. Soarian Business Intelligence collects and analyzes both clinical and financial data as well as structured and unstructured data, from virtually any system. Soarian provides rapid access to detailed analytics on individual patients and patient populations so hospitals can better manage the risks associated with value-based purchasing, bundled payments, and accountable care.

Next-generation revenue cycle

To connect the entire enterprise and help organizations create a plan for sustainable financial growth Siemens provides Soarian Revenue Cycle. With embedded payor rules and an integrated contract engine, this next-generation solution connects the entire revenue cycle in order to help providers get clean claims out fast, get them paid fast and get them paid correctly. The comprehensive capabilities in Soarian Revenue Cycle can reduce the need for additional bolt-on financial applications. That means less cost and less complexity. And because Soarian is based on a modern, service-oriented architecture, hospitals can easily adapt as the business needs change.

Charlene Underwood delivers HIMSS keynote

This year, Siemens is proud to congratulate Charlene Underwood, MBA, FHIMSS, senior director of government and industry affairs, for Siemens Healthcare, on her role as Board chairperson of HIMSS. Underwood is the first executive from a major vendor to serve as HIMSS Board chair. In this capacity, she will deliver the opening keynote address on Tuesday Feb. 21, kicking off the 2012 Annual Conference and Expo. Charlene's accomplishment caps a three-decade-long career in healthcare informatics. Underwood is chair emeritus of the HIMSS EHR Association, and currently serves on the Health IT Policy Committee Meaningful Use Workgroup for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, within the Department of Health and Human Services.

"As healthcare providers face a perfect storm of impending changes in the regulatory landscape, there has never been more demand for accurate, comprehensive and interpretable information, the kind of information that HIMSS can provide," said Underwood. "I am honored to have the opportunity to serve as board chair. I look forward to using this role to encourage the collective membership of HIMSS to recognize their contributions to making a difference in health and healthcare as well as to 'give more' by sharing their own knowledge and best practices."

Siemens adding more health IT talent

Due to impressive growth in the health IT business, Siemens will be using the presence at HIMSS to recruit top-tier talent into the Health Services Business Unit and the North American Sales organizations. Siemens will support these objectives by sending a team of recruiters to implement this talent acquisition strategy by interviewing potential candidates for more than 350 opportunities. The workforce expansion in the Siemens health IT business is directly in line with one of the main pillars of the Agenda 2013 program, which focuses on continually strengthening Siemens through people development and talent acquisition.

Those interested in joining the Siemens Healthcare team and helping support the goal of providing solutions that improve virtually every part of the care process, that foster clinical collaboration and that provide access to patient data when and where it is needed, can visit Siemens booth #2423 to speak to a recruiter in person.

Follow Siemens LIVE from HIMSS at www.twitter.com/siemenshealth and at www.healthworkscollective.com

The HIMSS Press kit is available at www.usa.siemens.com/PR

Launched recently, Siemens Agenda 2013 program is a two-year global initiative to further strengthen the Healthcare Sector's innovative power and competitiveness. Specific measures will be implemented in four fields of action: Innovation, Competitiveness, Regional Footprint, and People Development.

The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology and hearing aids. Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimizing clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective. Siemens Healthcare employs some 51,000 employees worldwide and operates around the world. In fiscal year 2011 (to September 30), the Sector posted revenue of 12.5 billion euros and profit of around 1.3 billion euros. For further information please visit: www.siemens.com/healthcare.  

SOURCE Siemens Healthcare