A Medical Device Daily

Informatics Corporation of America (ICA; Nashville) said it has signed a supplier contract with Amerinet (St. Louis), a national healthcare group purchasing organization. ICA's interactive clinical portal is now included among the healthcare technology products Amerinet recommends to its member companies.

"We are pleased to be selected as an Amerinet supplier," said Gary Zegiestowsky, CEO of ICA. "With a base aggregation platform that can be implemented in six months and integrated workflow tools ranging from communication to disease management, we are certain that our technology will be an important addition to Amerinet's IT portfolio."

ICA was formed three years ago to take technology developed by practicing physicians at Vanderbilt Medical Center (also Nashville) to the broader healthcare market.

"ICA's solution is a strategic component of our growing roster of IT products and helps to position us for market success," said Randall Walter, executive VP of enterprise solutions and marketing for Amerinet. "We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial partnership."

In other agreements/contracts news, Marengo Memorial Hospital (Marengo, Iowa) said it would be deploying McKesson's (Alpharetta, Georgia) community hospital information system (HIS) as part of a plan to use technology to improve patient care and operational efficiency to better serve its largely rural service region.

The 25-bed critical-access hospital also will roll out McKesson's Practice Partner fully integrated electronic health record (EHR) and practice management solution to connect the hospital with its nearby outpatient clinic. The initiative will create a secure, up-to-date electronic patient record that can be accessed by authorized care givers regardless of where the patient receives care in the hospital's community.

By selecting the Paragon HIS solution, Marengo will have the tools needed to deploy a comprehensive EHR solution that provides easy to use clinicals for increased patient safety and financial management capabilities, McKesson said.

The Paragon solution uses Microsoft technology with the intention of reducing training time because of user familiarity with the Microsoft Windows interface. Reduced training for new and existing employees, along with other non-propriety technology, reduces the hospital's total cost of ownership, according to McKesson. This integrated IT solution is constructed on technology that offers the hospital the ability to streamline processes from scheduling and registration through final payment. It also provides administrators with greater insight on hospital operations.