A Medical Device Daily

Welch Allyn (Skaneateles Falls, New York), a maker of frontline medical products and solutions, reported the release of its CardioPerfect Workstation (CPWS) software version 1.6.4, the next generation of the company's electronic health record (EHR)-ready software. This software upgrade expands and simplifies the ability to perform spirometry testing in medical practices working in thin-client environments. In addition, the updated spirometry module improves the clinician's ability to comply with the latest guidelines of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) by providing enhanced real-time quality feedback for both adult and pediatric patients.

CardioPerfect Workstation version 1.6.4 also introduces an enterprise-class configuration management feature that allows an application service provider (ASP) to manage multiple hosted physician practices on the same server, while keeping individual practice data and configuration settings separate and secure. Also, with the release of this current upgrade, all CPWS clinical modules are 64-bit compatible and support the latest Windows operating systems while maintaining 32-bit compatibility.

“We are excited about the increased capabilities offered by the CardioPerfect Workstation software version 1.6.4 as more and more physicians look to implement an EHR in their practices for greater efficiency and better patient care, and expect their medical devices to simply connect,“ said Frits Kroon, global category director, cardiopulmonary.

Welch Allyn says the new software helps answer that need and allows healthcare professionals greater flexibility to manage cardiopulmonary test data in a single environment without additional IT installations or investments. In addition, the product provides a paperless solution that works seamlessly in today's advanced healthcare IT environments.

In other HIT news:

• Springhill Medical Center (Mobile, Alabama) said it is among the first Gulf Coast hospitals to be notified it will receive funding from Medicare for demonstrating meaningful use of its EHR. The technology automates many clinical tasks and connects providers to each other and to the latest patient information, supporting safer, higher quality and more coordinated care.

Springhill says it is the first Mobile-area hospital to receive an EHR incentive payment under the federal HITECH Act, which is designed to reward hospitals and physicians who demonstrate meaningful use of an EHR. Springhill achieved the first stage of the HITECH requirements through use of its Sunrise Enterprise EHR from Allscripts (Chicago). The hospital will receive about $2 million in Stage 1 incentives and estimates that it could be eligible for roughly $2 million to $2.5 million more by achieving all three stages of meaningful use between now and 2015.

• Greenway Medical Technologies (Carrollton, Georgia) reported the availability of its remote clinical and financial solution PrimeMOBILE as a native application for Apple's iPad and iPad2 following last year's iPhone release. PrimeMOBILE integrates functionality accessed on handheld devices directly with Greenway's single-database EHR, practice management and interoperability solution PrimeSUITE 2011.

PrimeMOBILE provides password-protected, remote access of patient data, clinical documents, clinical scans and lab results through patient search and filter functions. The solution streamlines workflows during physician-patient encounters by providing patient summaries, the ability to graph patient vitals, place provider notations and access communications.

PrimeMOBILE's administrative and financial capabilities integrate charge capture and confirmation through the access of CPT and ICD codes to instantly route charges and notes to PrimeSUITE for review and posting to accelerate billing cycles and reduce lost charges.

Greenway Medical Technologies provides EHR, ambulatory healthcare and clinical research business solutions and services to more than 33,000 healthcare providers.

• Xifin (San Diego), a maker of revenue cycle management for diagnostic service providers, said that Response Genetics (Los Angeles), a developer of molecular diagnostic tests for cancer including ResponseDX: Lung, ResponseDX: Colon and ResponseDX: Gastric, has implemented XIFIN's revenue cycle management system to optimize billing and claims management and help manage cash collections.

More than 60% of the molecular testing business submitted by laboratories specializing in molecular diagnostics nationwide are processed by the Xifin system. The company works with these labs to determine and implement a billing setup that's optimal for each lab; a molecular lab on the Xifin system can readily transition from one model to another as its business dictates, without having to change systems, and with the full confidence that Xifin can scale to any size and provide the strategic reporting capabilities essential to high growth, high volume labs.

• Merge Healthcare (Chicago), a provider of enterprise imaging and interoperability solutions, has received the federal government's meaningful use stamp of approval by earning complete EHR Ambulatory certification from Drummond Group's (Austin, Texas) Electronic Health Records Office of the National Coordinator Authorized Testing and Certification Body program.

In addition, Merge OrthoEMR has been certified to electronically generate and transmit prescriptions, the company said.