Crittenden Regional Hospital Achieves Stage 1 Meaningful Use with Certified EHR and Consulting Services from Healthcare Management Systems

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Oct. 18, 2011)—Crittenden Regional Hospital, a 152-bed facility located in West Memphis, Ark., has met Stage 1 meaningful use criteria for Medicare and Medicaid with the certified electronic health record (EHR) from Healthcare Management Systems Inc.® (HMS). Crittenden Regional also engaged HMS’ EHR Initiatives Group for meaningful use consulting services to help accelerate the attestation process.

Crittenden Regional successfully attested with the certified HMS EHR, which is 2011/2012 compliant in accordance with the criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The hospital leadership credits the meaningful use attestation to organization-wide commitment and its partnership with HMS.

“It truly took dedication from all levels, including the directors, managers, vice presidents, medical staff and our board, to complete the attestation process. We also had direct access to meaningful use consultants at HMS, and that definitely expedited the attestation process,” said Jamie Carter, chief executive officer of Crittenden Regional Hospital. “HMS has a deep bench of talent and a highly flexible product, so by blending their capabilities with those of our own high-performance organization, we were able to build and execute a very aggressive meaningful use attestation schedule.”

Crittenden Regional’s team initially met with consultants from HMS’ EHR Initiatives Group in May 2011; together, they set a goal of beginning the hospital’s reporting period on June 15 with the 90-day attestation period ending on Sept. 12. Crittenden Regional hit all of its milestones and successfully attested for Stage 1 meaningful use with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Sept. 13, the first day after concluding the 90-day attestation period.

“HMS has a proven process of interviewing department heads, educating them on quality measures, identifying gaps, and recommending the process with which the hospital can demonstrate meaningful use,” said Heidi Kemp, vice president of HMS’ EHR Initiatives Group. “HMS consultants know how to optimally utilize the software and are best positioned to educate customers on the fastest path to rapidly achieve meaningful use.”

“Our success shows that if you put structure around your meaningful use plan, understand what needs to be done, manage to a task list and make sure everyone stays on track, then you can get to meaningful use in 90 days,” Carter said. “Meaningful use is teaching hospitals that we all need to be more agile and respond quicker than in the past, and that’s a big growth step for anyone who plans to attest and have it go smoothly.”

“HMS is proud of the value that our integrated clinical and financial solutions have delivered to Crittenden Regional since our relationship began a little more than two years ago, and during that time, we have formed a strong relationship that helped the hospital achieve meaningful use,” said Tom Stephenson, president and chief executive officer of HMS. “The successful attestation is yet another accomplishment we can celebrate together because it impacts patient care and safety, which is the ultimate objective of the partnership between Crittenden Regional and HMS.”

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, please visit www.hmstn.com.

HMS is part of HealthTech Holdings Inc., a health information technology holding company that owns HMS, MEDHOST and Sentry Healthcare Services. HealthTech Holdings’ mission is to acquire and manage technology companies focused on the creation of value for the healthcare industry. More information is available at www.healthtechholdings.com.