Avita Health System Establishes Enterprise-Wide Meaningful Use Attestation Strategy Leveraging QuadraMed

RESTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--QuadraMed^® Corporation announced that Avita Health System has established QuadraMed’s electronic health record (EHR) as a critical component of its Stage 1 Meaningful Use attestation blueprint for its hospitals. To launch this strategy, Avita Health System leveraged best practices from Galion Community Hospital, the first hospital in its network to achieve Stage 1, as it attested while also streamlining administrative processes, better tracking performance measures, and setting more targeted quality care and reporting goals for the future.

“It takes a lot of time, effort, and money to prepare a hospital for Meaningful Use, which is why we worked closely with QuadraMed. Galion Community Hospital relied on QuadraMed to help develop specific implementation and provider training methodology for the EHR”

Galion Community Hospital rolled out QuadraMed’s Computerized-Patient Record (QCPR) EHR last year to support its Stage 1 efforts. During implementation, Avita Health System worked with the hospital to develop an attestation strategy, which included:

Engaging QuadraMed’s service team to provide additional staffing and IT resources;
Leveraging hospital leadership and physician champions to gain provider acceptance of the new technology; and
Training staff to use the EHR in its entirety to hasten return on investment and maximize its benefits.

All of these measures helped the hospital quickly attest to Stage 1 by eliminating paper-based clinical recordkeeping and implementing certified physician order entry, patient problem lists, and a controlled medical vocabulary.

“It takes a lot of time, effort, and money to prepare a hospital for Meaningful Use, which is why we worked closely with QuadraMed. Galion Community Hospital relied on QuadraMed to help develop specific implementation and provider training methodology for the EHR,” said Andrew Daniels, Chief Operating Officer at Avita Health System. “We are happy to report that, by using this process, Galion Community Hospital successfully demonstrated that using an EHR improves the quality, safety, and efficiency of patient care, while also reducing health data disparities. We’re excited to continue our partnership with QuadraMed to tackle future Meaningful Use initiatives in our system.”

Avita Health System will use its attestation blueprint to help other hospitals in its network attest to Stage 1. Bucyrus Community Hospital, for example, will begin the formal attestation process this spring, which Avita Health System anticipates will take half as long as Galion Community Hospital’s preparations.

“Throughout our long partnership, Galion and Bucyrus Community Hospitals have been leaders in providing high-quality, cost-efficient care to patients,” said Duncan W. James, CEO at QuadraMed. “We applaud Galion Community Hospital for this significant achievement and we’re looking forward to working closely with Avita Health System as they continue to grow their network and look for innovative ways to improve care delivery.”

Galion and Bucyrus Community Hospitals, two of QuadraMed’s longest-standing customers, have used QuadraMed products for more than 10 years to improve care quality and efficiency for their respective communities.

For more information about QuadraMed, visit www.quadramed.com or visit the QuadraMed booth (#4141) at HIMSS13 March 3–7, 2013, in New Orleans.

About Avita Health System

Avita Health System is a system of hospitals and medical clinics in central Ohio, particularly Crawford and Richland counties. Avita’s Bucyrus Community Hospital and Galion Community Hospital are critical access hospitals and currently employ a network of approximately 55 physicians as well as 1,000 employees. Avita’s recent growth and expansion across central Ohio has filled many voids in healthcare specialties and technology, allowing patients to seek help locally. For more information on Avita Health System, visit www.avitahealth.org.

About QuadraMed Corporation

QuadraMed® is a provider of award-winning healthcare technologies and services that improve the safety, quality and efficiency of patient care. For 20 years, QuadraMed has provided solutions that help make our clients successful by streamlining processes, driving positive clinical outcomes and improving patient satisfaction and financial health. Behind the Company's products and services is a staff of 475 professionals who support clients at over 1,200 healthcare provider facilities. For more information about QuadraMed, visit http://www.quadramed.com.

QuadraMed is a registered trademark of QuadraMed Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.