Netsmart Technologies Introduces Netsmart Customer Innovation Award to Recognize Outstanding Use of Technology to Impact Quality of Care

GREAT RIVER, N.Y., Jan. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Netsmart Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise-wide software and services for health and human services organizations, today announced the launch of the Netsmart Customer Innovation Award. The award will recognize an organization for its use of Netsmart software and services in new and creative ways to effectively address local needs, achieve organizational goals, and respond to regulatory and reporting demands.

"Our customer community of more than 18,000 is the largest in the industry and provides us with a tremendous example of dedicated professionals providing high quality care to millions of people every day," said James L. Conway, chief executive officer, Netsmart Technologies. "This award will recognize an exceptional example of that effort, as well as the important role of information technology in that success."

The Netsmart Customer Innovation Award is open to all Netsmart customer organizations, with the winner selected based on level of innovation, impact on care, scale and financial impact. The winning entry will be selected by a distinguished industry panel that includes: Linda Rosenberg, MSW, president and CEO, National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare; Don Hevey, president and CEO, Mental Health Corporations of America; and Mark Covall, president and CEO, National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems.

Netsmart will award $10,000 to the winning organization or their foundation. The winning organization will also receive two complimentary registrations to the Netsmart CONNECTIONS2010 Customer Conference May 3-6, 2010 in San Diego. Four entries will be selected for Honorable Mention and each receive one complimentary CONNECTIONS registration. Deadline for entry submissions is Friday, February 19, 2010. Complete entry guidelines are available at http://www.ntst.com/awards

"Like our customers, we embrace innovation and are pleased to offer an award to acknowledge exceptional innovation among our customers," said Conway. "We're proud to be the first health and human services technology provider to introduce a host of innovative capabilities, including a certified electronic health record, consumer Web portal, behavioral health-specific e-prescribing, pharmacy management and order entry," said Conway. "We are also the only provider in our sphere of service to provide the solutions needed to help its customers meet the evolving definition of 'meaningful use' under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009."

For information about Netsmart Technologies' full range of solutions for health and human services organizations, visit www.ntst.com or call 1-800-421-7503, Option 6.

About Netsmart Technologies, Inc.

Netsmart Technologies is an established, leading supplier of enterprise software and software as a service (SaaS) solutions for health and human services providers. More than 18,000 customer organizations, including 350,000 care providers and nearly 40 state systems, use Netsmart products.

Netsmart's customers include mental health and substance abuse treatment agencies, psychiatric hospitals, private and group mental health practices, public health departments, vital records offices and managed care organizations. Netsmart's products are full-featured information systems that operate on a variety of operating systems, hardware platforms, and mobile devices, and offer unlimited scalability.

Netsmart's Connected Care initiative allows behavioral and public healthcare providers to share clinical data electronically within their internal processes, externally with other providers, and with consumers via a Web-based portal, enabling high quality, consumer-directed care.

With the certification of its Avatar 2006 software, Netsmart became the first behavioral healthcare, public health, substance abuse and methadone software and services provider to have a product certified according to the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) Ambulatory EHR 2006 criteria.

Netsmart provides solutions that help its customers meet the evolving definition of "meaningful use" under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. These include a certified electronic health record, the InfoScriber e-prescribing service, the CareConnect(TM) service that enables the sharing of clinical information through health information exchanges, and a flexible platform to capture and share outcomes data.

SOURCE Netsmart Technologies, Inc.