Midland hospital proves open source savings
David Whiles, the hospital's director of information systems, told ZDNet that after a year in operation he's finally ready to brag about his Medsphere OpenVista installation.
Midland signed its contract with Medsphere in late 2004, removed its paper records in February, 2007, and now has a year of experience using a completely automated patient records system.
It's good, Whiles said. Medicines, for instance, are now administered after both the dosage and patient's identity are verified and checked through the system, which also verifies the time of the dosing.
Midland has also removed pressure from both government and insurance companies to automate. Its EMR system is one of only 9 nationwide to have a Stage 6 designation from HIMSS Analytics, the highest yet achieved.
Midland moved ahead despite a world of turmoil at Medsphere, which included a complete corporate reboot, and, eventually, a renewed equipment to the open source idea.
This seems to have no impact on the hospital, which got all the savings promised and can now qualify for higher reimbursements from insurers using that as an incentive to automate.
The Linux-based Medsphere system was also integrated with a Windows-based Quadramed Affinity billing system as part of the project.
Complete coverage of this story is available at ZDNet Healthcare.