CommonWell Health Alliance Announces MEDHOST as New Member to Support and Advance Interoperability Initiatives

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- CommonWell Health Alliance (the "Alliance") – the health information technology (HIT) vendor-led interoperability effort – announced today that MEDHOST has joined as one of the newest Contributing Members of the organization. MEDHOST joins founding members Allscripts, athenahealth, Cerner, CPSI, Greenway, McKesson and Sunquest in the Alliance's work. MEDHOST provides a broad portfolio of enterprise, departmental and community engagement solutions and services to more than 1,000 healthcare facilities nationwide.

Through intuitive user interfaces and enhanced workflow, MEDHOST solutions are designed to improve the clinical, financial and operational performance of healthcare providers and to address the many challenges facing providers today. By joining the CommonWell Health Alliance as a Contributing Member and working with CommonWell's current service provider, RelayHealth, MEDHOST can bring even more value to its Customers by offering an additional interoperability solution to assist in better identifying and linking patients across care communities.

"The missions of CommonWell and MEDHOST are closely aligned, specifically that we both are focused on reducing healthcare costs while improving quality of care. We believe that an interoperable healthcare system is good for all stakeholders and ultimately benefits patients, and the care they receive, the most," said Craig Herrod, president of MEDHOST. "As a healthcare technology and services innovator, MEDHOST believes in CommonWell and views this initiative as an important strategic step for the healthcare industry as it works to connect communities of care."

CommonWell's shared vision with its members is to help improve people's health outcomes and ensure providers have secure, always-available access by connecting health data across systems and settings of care. Through the expansion of its membership base, spanning IT service providers and pharmacy, the Alliance continues to march toward the goal of making patient data available to providers and patients regardless of where care occurs.

MEDHOST joins CommonWell members to build upon the foundation of the Alliance's structure and work with other members and service providers to expand the network of services.

"We are excited to welcome MEDHOST to the Alliance; their experience with healthcare IT is a valuable addition as we continue to expand CommonWell's membership and add providers who utilize its services," said Jeremy Delinsky, chairman of the board for the CommonWell Health Alliance and chief technology officer, athenahealth. "We look forward to making 2014 a year of breaking down health data silos that prevent providers from delivering the highest-quality patient care."

If you are at HIMSS14, please join CommonWell Health Alliance at 12:30 pm ET today at CommonWell's booth #1389 as we welcome our new members and hear first-hand how they are planning to contribute to the universal interoperability mission.

The members of CommonWell Health Alliance invite health IT suppliers and others in support of their vision to join us in working together to provide trusted access to health information, in support of better, more cost-effective care for our patients and communities. Starting in July 2014, CommonWell will be offering two primary membership opportunities: Contributing and General Members. For more information on these membership levels, visit the CommonWell Health Alliance website or stop by CommonWell booth #1389 at HIMSS14.

About CommonWell Health Alliance
CommonWell Health Alliance is a not-for-profit trade association of health IT companies working together to create universal access to health care data. The Alliance is open to all health information technology providers who are committed to making patient's data available to themselves and providers regardless of where care occurs. Alliance members support the belief that provider access to this data must be built into health information technologies at a reasonable cost for use by a broad range of health care providers and the populations and people they serve.

To learn more about the CommonWell Health Alliance, please visit www.commonwellalliance.org, and read CommonWell Community blog. Also follow CommonWell on Twitter at @CommonWell, join us on the Alliance's LinkedIn page, and like the Alliance's Facebook page.

About MEDHOST
MEDHOST, Inc. provides market-leading enterprise, departmental and healthcare engagement solutions to more than 1,000 healthcare facilities. Our intuitive, easy-to-use and SaaS-enabled solutions are complemented by a robust suite of managed hosting, outsourcing and consulting services that are changing how clinicians and hospital leaders work and communicate, while generating notable operational, patient flow, care and revenue improvements. MEDHOST delivers value by enabling hospitals of all types and all sizes to better manage care and the business of healthcare, as well as meet evolving regulatory requirements.

Connect with MEDHOST on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

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SOURCE CommonWell Health Alliance