Eastland Memorial Hospital and Hamlin Memorial Hospital Achieve Meaningful Use With Prognosis HIS EHR

HOUSTON, Nov. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Eastland Memorial Hospital and Hamlin Memorial Hospital are the latest in a series of head-of-the-pack hospitals that have leveraged the Prognosis Health Information Systems electronic health records solution to qualify for their share of the government's $27 billion incentive fund. So far, 14 rural and community hospitals have used the Prognosis HIS solution to meet the federal government's "meaningful use" requirements.

"With more than a dozen clients successfully attesting to meaningful use already, we are proving that our web native approach can bring about the results that hospitals need," said Ramsey Evans, CEO of Prognosis HIS. "More importantly, our innovation is supporting our nation's healthcare IT goals by making it easier for rural and community hospitals to leverage the power of technology.  All of this is happening at a time when larger hospitals are spending millions of dollars and often times multiple years implementing systems from other healthcare information technology companies."

To qualify for Medicare EHR Incentive Program monies, Eastland and Hamlin demonstrated and documented the meaningful use of certified Prognosis EHR technology by submitting data for 14 Core Set Objectives, five Menu Set Objectives and 15 Clinical Quality Measures to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Attestation System. Other hospitals across the nation that have already verified meaningful use with the Prognosis EHR include: Anson General Hospital, Beacham Memorial Hospital, Bibb Medical Center, Faith Community Hospital, Hemphill County Hospital, Ness County Hospital, Parkview Hospital, Pemiscot Memorial Hospital, Stamford Memorial Hospital, Seymour Hospital, Stonewall Memorial Hospital and Throckmorton County Memorial Hospital.

These healthcare providers are members of a leading group, as only 305 hospitals nationwide have qualified for Medicare incentive funds under the government program, according to a report presented at an October 12th meeting of the Office of the National Coordinator's Health Information Technology Policy Committee meeting.

Many of the other hospitals that have achieved meaningful use have had EHRs in place for years – and simply had to leverage the systems to meet various meaningful use requirements to qualify for the incentive funds. The hospitals using the Prognosis HIS system, however, just became a part of the digital movement. Most of these providers recently implemented the Prognosis EHR in less than 120 days and then successfully participated in 90 day meaningful use attestations.

Eastland (Texas) Memorial, a 52-bed hospital, for example, entered into a contract with Prognosis HIS in February, went live on the system on June 8, attested September 16 and received an incentive check on October 24.

"We evaluated many systems and we chose Prognosis because it meets the needs of community and rural hospitals so well. Because it is specifically built for our requirements, the software was relatively easy to implement," said Ted Matthews, Eastland's CEO. "The fact that Prognosis partnered with us so closely, however, made it possible for us to get through the entire system implementation and meaningful use attestation in just a matter of months, a great achievement considering the fact that implementation alone sometimes drags on for years."

ChartAccess® Comprehensive EHR is a web-native system and can be delivered via a cloud computing model. Intuitive and easy-to-use, the system offers built-in analytics and health information exchange capabilities, which can help hospitals provide high quality care.

Prognosis HIS also worked closely with Hamlin and Eastland to ensure that the hospitals could meet the government's meaningful use stipulations.

"Prognosis HIS worked with us every step of the way through the process, holding weekly conference calls and responding to our questions around the clock. They made us feel like we were their only customer – and that made the attestation process a really smooth one," said Jim Barnett, CEO of 25-bed Hamlin (Texas) Hospital.

In addition, a meaningful use dashboard made it easy to monitor hospital progress in relation to required meaningful use measures such as recording demographic data as structured data for more than 50% of patients, implementing at least one clinical decision support rule and ordering at least one medication order using a computerized provider order entry for at least 30% of patients.

"By offering a 'disruptive' system designed specifically for the needs of rural and community hospitals, we are making it possible for these providers to quickly experience EHR success. Traditionally, rural and community hospitals have trailed behind other providers in their implementations of technology but our innovative solution is helping to change the game," Evans said.

About Prognosis Health Information Systems

Prognosis Health Information Systems (PHIS), Houston, is committed to utilizing advanced 21st-Century technologies to help healthcare providers significantly improve the quality, safety and efficiency of patient care while also achieving better financial results. PHIS enables rural and community hospitals to utilize pure browser-based electronic health record (EHR) and financial systems designed to be fully operational in less than six months at a predictable, affordable cost. For more information, visit www.prognosisHIS.com. Follow us on Twitter (@PrognosisHIS).

SOURCE Prognosis Health Information Systems