INTEGRIS Implements Amalga To Improve Care Coordination, Patient Engagement And Care Quality

OKLAHOMA CITY and BELLEVUE, Wash., July 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- INTEGRIS Health, Oklahoma's largest health care system, recently implemented Amalga from Caradigm, a Microsoft Corp. and GE Healthcare company, to improve quality of care through enhanced care coordination and patient engagement. Amalga is a health intelligence platform that integrates patient health information stored across multiple care settings, allowing clinicians to more rapidly gain critical insights about patients and identify opportunities to improve care.

As health care providers shift from episodic care to ongoing management of patient populations, new requirements have emerged for integrated care processes, greater insight and engaging patient experiences. These delivery system reforms require health care providers to address gaps and integrate data across silos of care delivery to help enable better care coordination and patient engagement.

"INTEGRIS, like many health systems across the country, implements initiatives that increase quality, remove costs, eliminate procedural duplication and establish vehicles through which patients can more easily engage with their health records," said Bruce Lawrence, president and chief executive officer of INTEGRIS Health. "Amalga augments our already advanced technology capabilities and makes it possible for us to empower physicians, other clinicians and patients themselves with greater information accessibility."

INTEGRIS Health launched Amalga, which allows caregivers to view and analyze consolidated health information for individual patients and patient populations, through its acclaimed Advanced Cardiac Care program; implementation across the INTEGRIS system will follow in the coming months. Amalga also powers INTEGRIS' newly implemented advanced readmissions management program to help INTEGRIS reduce the number of preventable patient re-hospitalizations within 30 days of discharge. Amalga allows physicians to more easily identify those patients at highest risk of readmission and implement care plans upon discharge designed to reduce that risk.

INTEGRIS will also engage Amalga's connectivity with Microsoft HealthVault, a personal health application platform, to offer patients the ability to store personal medical information generated during visits to INTEGRIS hospitals or clinics. Accessible from any Internet-connected device, patients may copy their medical data to the myintegris.com personal health record (powered by HealthVault and Get Real Consulting's InstantPHR patient engagement platform) and share it with caregivers as desired.

"Health care reform requires health systems to do more than ever with less," said Michael Simpson, Caradigm chief executive officer. "INTEGRIS is a leader in the use of advanced technology; we're excited to demonstrate the power of our solutions to help INTEGRIS enhance care coordination and patient engagement."

About INTEGRIS

INTEGRIS Health is Oklahoma's largest health system and one of Oklahoma's largest employers with nearly 8,500 employees. INTEGRIS operates 11 hospitals, nearly 100 clinics, rehabilitation centers, mental health facilities, independent living centers and home health agencies throughout the state. Six of every 10 Oklahomans live within 30 miles of an INTEGRIS facility or physician.

For more information, visit www.integrisOK.com.

About Caradigm

Formed by GE Healthcare and Microsoft Corp. in June 2012, Caradigm is a 50–50 joint venture focused on enabling health systems and payers to drive continuous improvements in care. Caradigm software is designed to make it easier for healthcare professionals across care settings to use data to gain critical insights, collaborate with each other and with patients, and to develop and implement innovative care solutions. Amalga, eHealth Information Exchange and Vergence — and applications built by partners to extend these products — give clinicians, administrators and finance teams timely access to key information, helping them to take steps to solve some of healthcare's biggest problems, including chronic disease management, preventable hospital readmissions and hospital acquired conditions, and to advance integrated, accountable care. Caradigm is headquartered in Bellevue, Wash. For more information about the company, visit http://www.caradigm.com.

SOURCE Caradigm