Healthcare Management Systems And Certify Data Systems Form Partnership

HMS Hospital Customers and Their Affiliated Physicians Now Have Access to the Leading Private HIE for Easy Clinical Data Exchange

Certify Data Systems, Inc., the leading provider of private Health Information Exchange (HIE) solutions, and Healthcare Management Systems Inc.™ (HMS), a provider of integrated clinical and financial healthcare applications, recently announced a new relationship through which Certify’s HIE software and hardware will be made available by HMS to its current and future customers. The partnership between HMS and Certify gives hospitals the means to electronically share patient information with providers regardless of which Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems are being used.

Future Meaningful Use requirements are widely expected to include HIE-enabled clinical data sharing, and the new Certify/HMS relationship offers a clinical gateway that hospitals can easily and cost-effectively adopt to exchange data with local physician practices.

Community hospitals often lack the resources needed to implement large-scale IT projects such as HIEs. The Certify/HMS relationship offers these hospitals a powerful yet easy-to-use clinical gateway for exchanging orders, results, Continuity of Care Documents (CCDs) and pre-registration information between physician practices and the hospital. The benefits to physicians and patients are numerous, including convenience, continuity of care and better utilization of scarce hospital and practice resources. Certify’s clinical gateway helps hospitals demonstrate meaningful use of HIE technology by exchanging clinical data with multiple providers in real time.

“Being able to offer the Certify solution to our customers presents a significant opportunity for hospitals to strategically align with affiliated physicians to enhance quality and establish those hospitals as market leaders and providers of choice,” said Tom Stephenson, president of HMS. “This level of connectivity creates convenience for patients, physicians and hospitals and helps strengthen provider relationships throughout the hospital’s community. Coupling the clinical care benefits with the HIE’s strategic value for meaningful use, we believe that this new relationship is a win-win all the way around.

Sharing medical records electronically reduces management cycles and overhead, helps improve patient care and, consequently, increases patient and physician satisfaction. Because Certify’s private HIE platform deploys rapidly and efficiently, community hospitals can implement electronic data sharing quickly and effectively, without the project delays, excessive costs, unyielding oversight and physician resistance typical of other solutions.

“Our new partnership with HMS is an excellent strategic move for Certify as HMS has the reputation and capability to deliver our solution to an important market niche – community hospitals and their affiliated physicians,” said Marc Willard, founder and CEO of Certify Data Systems. “By augmenting its portfolio with results, orders and CCDs via Certify’s private HIE, HMS will bring greater alignment between physicians and hospitals to achieve better clinical outcomes, as well as meet meaningful use criteria.

About HMS
Healthcare Management Systems Inc. (HMS) is a Nashville-based healthcare company that develops, sells and supports integrated clinical and financial hospital information systems and services designed to increase efficiency while improving patient safety. The HMS EHR is 2011/2012 compliant and has been certified by Drummond Group, an ONC-ATCB, in accordance with the applicable certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Founded in 1984, HMS currently serves more than 700 community hospitals; behavioral, rehabilitation and long-term acute-care facilities; and multi-entity healthcare organizations nationwide. For more information, visit www.hmstn.com.

HMS is part of HealthTech, a health information technology company that owns HMS, MEDHOST and Sentry Healthcare Services. HealthTech’s mission is to acquire and manage technology companies focused on creating value for the healthcare industry. For more information, visit www.healthtechholdings.com.

About Certify Data Systems
Certify Data Systems, Inc., is a pioneer in health information exchange (HIE) technology, and has implemented its Enterprise HIE Platform in the nation’s leading hospitals and health systems. The bi-directional HIE platform provides true interoperability between disparate Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems, enabling hospitals, health systems, and their affiliated physician practices and laboratories to exchange essential health information in real-time without changing workflow. Moreover, Certify’s “network approach” is easy to deploy, scale, manage and support. For more information, visit http://www.certifydatasystems.com.