KANSAS CITY, Mo., Dec. 16, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Finding a way to easily and quickly share information from electronic health records (EHRs) between hospitals and physician practices that are using different EHR systems is a key problem for the healthcare industry. As more organizations implement EHR systems to take advantage of the incentives offered through the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act the problem will continue to compound. To make the process of electronically sharing clinical information faster and easier for healthcare providers, Cerner (Nasdaq:CERN) is strengthening its existing Cerner Hub connectivity services by offering the Certify Data Systems' HealthDock(TM). The HealthDock(TM) is an appliance that enables the electronic flow of clinical data securely between hospitals and physician practice settings, regardless of the EHR system being used.
"Ease of connectivity is a vital missing ingredient to widespread physician acceptance of EHRs," said Zane Burke, Cerner senior vice president. "We identified Certify's HealthDock(TM) appliance as the best connectivity solution to enhance Cerner Hub services and to achieve Cerner's commitment to achieve true interoperability. The Cerner Hub and the Certify HealthDock(TM) create a disruptive offering that simplifies information sharing across the care continuum no matter what EHRs are in use."
The Cerner Hub in conjunction with the Certify HealthDock(TM) provides the mechanism to remove a considerable amount of laborious paper processing between hospitals, physicians, reference labs, imaging centers and other care settings. The offering enables bi-directional sharing of clinical information from patient visits such as test results, radiology reports, discharge summaries and other clinical reports. The information is transferred real-time into physician practice EHRs. The Certify HealthDock(TM) also allows physician practices to electronically submit radiology and lab orders directly to the hospital, removing paper requisitions from the ordering process.
"Cerner and Certify share a common goal to help clinicians make informed decisions about patient care by providing them with the right information at the right time," said Marc Willard, Certify Data Systems' founder and CEO. "The HealthDock(TM) will enable the Cerner Hub to share important clinical information seamlessly with primary care providers and specialists. We are very pleased to partner with a leading organization like Cerner to offer their clients our connectivity solution."
The Cerner Hub and the Certify HealthDock(TM) solution makes data sharing less of a hassle for hospitals and physician practices by:
* Eliminating the need for hospital IT staff to spend time and money developing interfaces between multiple physician practice EHR systems; * Improving the speed of data sharing through a real-time, secure HIPAA-compliant network; * Providing the hospital and physician practice complete auditing and delivery guarantees; and * Incorporating a distributed patient matching process that enables the physician office to ensure clinical information is delivered into the appropriate patient chart.
"Before we had the Certify HealthDock(TM) our nurses were spending two days a week re-keying the hospital's lab results into our EMR (electronic medical record)," said Dr. Robert Middleton, Cardiologist at Cardiovascular Consultants in Auburn, Wash. "Now they focus that time on patient care. The amount of time this has saved our physicians, nursing staff and medical records team has been significant. The electronic merging with our EMR has been effortless and continues to allow our staff to get results to patients in a timely manner."
About Cerner
Cerner is transforming healthcare by eliminating error, variance and waste for healthcare providers and consumers around the world. Cerner(R) solutions optimize processes for healthcare organizations ranging in size from single-doctor practices, to health systems, to entire countries, for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, and for the healthcare commerce system. These solutions are licensed by more than 8,000 facilities around the world, including approximately 2,100 hospitals; 3,300 physician practices covering more than 30,000 physicians; 500 ambulatory facilities, such as laboratories, ambulatory centers, cardiac facilities, radiology clinics and surgery centers; 600 home-health facilities; and 1,500 retail pharmacies. The following are trademarks of Cerner: Cerner and Cerner's logo. Nasdaq: CERN. For more information about Cerner, please visit our Web site at www.cerner.com.
About Certify Data Systems
Certify Data Systems, Inc. enables connectivity between hospitals and physicians in a manner that is uniquely easy to deploy, scale, manage and support. Certify employs sophisticated, proprietary technology that is fundamentally different from any other solution available today. Through the HealthDock(TM) appliance, Certify simplifies the time-consuming, resource-intensive and traditionally expensive process of interfacing with physician EMRs. Certify gives hospitals and health systems a new tool to seamlessly connect their physicians. The Certify solution delivers health information across the "last mile" of interoperability without changing the way hospitals or physicians work. Certify is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. For more information please visit the Certify website at www.certifydatasystems.com.
HealthDock(TM) is a trademark of Certify Data Systems, Inc.