Ellenville Regional Hospital Chooses Full Suite of Clinical and Financial Applications from HMS

Hospital also purchases HMS Direct managed services, HMS EDIS and meaningful use consulting

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Jan. 17, 2012)—Ellenville Regional Hospital in Ellenville, N.Y., has chosen integrated financial and clinical applications from Healthcare Management Systems Inc.® (HMS) because of their easy-to-use functionality, strong customer support and ability to deliver both a highly effective electronic health record (EHR) and a clear path to meaningful use.

Also key to the Ellenville Regional Hospital decision was the ability to have applications remotely hosted via HMS DirectSM, which provides cloud-based, hosted and managed IT solutions to hospitals and healthcare systems nationwide. Under the hosted model, Ellenville avoids upfront capital costs associated with traditional on-premise deployments.

“We’re in the healthcare business, not the IT business, so we only considered companies that could provide us with a hosted approach because we wanted to avoid building a big IT department,” said Patricia Gavis, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Ellenville Regional Hospital. “Providing better healthcare with fewer resources is the industry trend. The hosted model helps with that, and so does being able to choose one provider in HMS that gives us everything we were looking for – we didn’t want to worry about interfacing different vendors.”

In addition to the core financial and clinical applications, Ellenville Regional Hospital purchased HMS’ emergency department information system, HMS EDIS powered by MEDHOST, and will engage HMS’ EHR Initiatives Group for meaningful use consulting services to help accelerate the Stage 1 attestation process.

Hospital leaders conducted a detailed and competitive review of healthcare IT providers that included multiple site visits to vendors and hospitals. The decision to choose HMS ultimately was made because administrators and clinicians agreed that HMS’ products and personnel were clearly the best fit for Ellenville Regional Hospital.

“We looked at product functionality, support and overall cost, and HMS really was the clear winner when considering those factors. It was also very clear to us that HMS’ system would be easier to implement and maintain, and that their people truly know how to work with us,” said Steven Kelley, president and CEO of Ellenville Regional Hospital. “HMS also has proven very successful in getting other hospitals to meaningful use, and we believe that the HMS system is the most likely to help us achieve meaningful use in the shortest amount of time.”

Located about two hours north of New York City, Ellenville Regional Hospital has won several regional and national quality awards, including Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Services Collaborative awards from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in 2009.

“Our systems can deliver the data that clinicians and administrators need to further measure and improve quality, while providing a flexible platform for more quickly achieving meaningful use and the associated financial incentives,” said Tom Stephenson, president of HMS.

About Ellenville Regional Hospital
Ellenville Regional Hospital is a 25 bed rural critical access hospital located in Southern Ulster County. The Hospital offers a wide range of services and has won numerous quality awards including four Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Services Collaborative awards, one of each that was awarded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in 2009 and a 2010 Quality and Patient Safety Award from the Northern Metropolitan Hospital Association (NorMet) Patient Safety Institute for reducing the average length of stay in the Emergency Department to less than 100 minutes. For more information, visit www.ellenvilleregional.org.

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, 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. More information is available at www.healthtechholdings.com.

News media contact:
Tony Katsulos
Jetstream PR for HMS
katsulos@jetstreampr.com
972-788-9456, ext.301