A Medical Device Daily

Building on pilot implementation by a first client, Bassett Healthcare (Cooperstown, New York), healthcare information technology (HIT) executive Gary Zegiestowsky and Vanderbilt Medical Center (Vanderbilt; Nashville, Tennessee) have reported the creation of a new clinical software and solutions company, Informatics Corporation of America (ICA).

ICA’s foundation was laid early 2005 to take informatics-based tools and processes developed by physicians at Vanderbilt to the healthcare, empowering clinicians to access patient information, communicate with participants in the care and act on information based on evidence and best practice.

Bassett — a rural health system comprised of four hospitals, 23 community health centers and 14 school-based health systems — completed pilot implementation of ICA’s core aggregation solution in November and said it will roll it out across its delivery network early next year. The first phase of Bassett’s implementation went live with the production pilot in November, and the expanded implementation is already underway.

“Today, one of the greatest unmet needs of clinicians and healthcare organizations — from rural hospitals to major health systems — is easy and effective access to clinical information across all systems within a hospital or community of providers,” says Zegiestowsky, CEO of ICA.

He said that ICA’s solution “integrates the clinical systems and processes across a delivery network to create a unified electronic medical record solution. The core solution, typically implemented in less than six months, involves aggregating all available patient information and making it easily accessible to clinicians anytime, anywhere.” ICA further provides communication and workflow tools to improve communications, facilitate data capture, track clinical metrics and incorporate evidence to help clinicians more effectively act on available information.

Vanderbilt is comprised of four hospitals, 120 outpatient practices, and 1,000 physicians. In FY2006, it had roughly 47,000 admissions and over one million outpatient visits.

ICA has the exclusive right to use the products outside of Vanderbilt.