An HIT

Sunquest Information Systems (Tucson, Arizona) said that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) has signed a strategic agreement enabling UPMC to expand use and deployment of the Sunquest laboratory information solutions (LIS) for an extended period of time.

As part of the agreement, UPMC will extend the Sunquest system, already in 15 of its 20 hospitals, to additional sites. Additionally, after a successful pilot installation that resulted in eliminating laboratory specimen labeling errors, UPMC's nursing staff will expand use of the Sunquest Collection Manager.

UPMC's long-term plans include deploying Sunquest's LIS to all sites.

CareView Communications (Plano, Texas) has executed an agreement with Saline Memorial Hospital (Benton, Arkansas), a 167-bed facility that has served Saline County and beyond for more than 50 years. Under the agreement, Saline has engaged CareView to provide the CareView System in its patient rooms as well as additional areas throughout the hospital.

The CareView System is a suite of products that brings the information technology of the 21st century directly to patients, families and healthcare providers by connecting them through one easy-to-install and simple-to-use system.

In other agreements/contract's news:

• HMS (New York) reported that it had been awarded a contract for consulting and audit services for Medicaid overpayments from the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. The contract is for one year, with two optional renewal years.

HMS will support the State Program Integrity unit in the expansion of South Carolina's Medicaid claims review and recovery audit process, performing post-payment review of Medicaid claims from hospitals and other medical providers in a range of areas, including DRG coding, duplication of services, medical necessity, and various other overpayment issues. HMS will identify the overpayments and provide information to the state to allow for the recovery of the overpayments.

• London & Pacific Healthcare (El Segundo, California) said that its subsidiary, Ambulatory Surgical Group (ASG; Los Angeles), has entered into a strategic relationship with MBC Systems (Santa Ana, California) that is geared to significantly increase the service offerings and revenue potential of the company.

The billing, collections, and coding services of MBC have been consolidated with the management and advisory services of ASG to provide current and prospective clients with a more seamless and cost-effective way of running their healthcare businesses. The combined services of ASG/MBC eliminate the need for clients to purchase, install, maintain, and update costly in-house hardware and software, freeing up capital for other areas of their healthcare practice, the companies said.

MBC provides healthcare clients with revenue cycle management services. London & Pacific develops and manages healthcare companies.