Industry News

Healthcare Providers Ready to Overcome Competitive Challenges with Siemens Health IT

A Tennessee-based academic medical center is using an investment in health IT infrastructure from Siemens as a critical component in a bold program of organizational change

Malvern, Pa., August 11, 2011 — Today Siemens Healthcare announced that four more health system customers are looking to Soarian® to help them improve their clinical efficacy, enhance their business intelligence and gain competitive advantages in a challenging healthcare landscape. At Regional Medical Center at Memphis, the health system is utilizing Siemens healthcare informatics solutions as one part of an organizational transformation that affects everything from the physical plant infrastructure to core business operations.

Regional Medical Center is an academic medical center in Memphis, Tenn., serving as one of the largest medical and surgical teaching sites affiliated with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. More than half of the doctors in Tennessee receive some or all of their training at the hospital through this affiliation. Regional Medical Center at Memphis has executed its plans to elevate the hospital’s business and clinical technology and in April 2011, the health system signed a seven-year partnership with Siemens for Soarian Clinicals and Soarian Financials.

“Meeting the ARRA-HITECH Meaningful Use requirements was one driver but we also have an opportunity to use that national incentive as a spark to start a bolder IT re-design with the endpoint being that we will become a data-driven organization from both a clinical and business analytics perspective,” said Rob Sumter, COO/CIO, Regional Medical Center at Memphis. “We look forward to taking this step in partnership with Siemens who brings us a next generation architecture that allows us to meet today’s needs and adapt to the future. We hope this significant investment will make physicians equally proud and enthusiastic to practice medicine here.”

South of Pittsburgh, Pa., Jefferson Regional Medical Center is a 373-bed hospital that is part of an integrated system of health care services providing high-quality, comprehensive health care from emergency admissions to inpatient and outpatient surgical services, more than 40 specialties including The Heart Institute, The Radiation Oncology Center, and The Joint Care Center, Stroke Care, and comprehensive outpatient diagnostic and therapy services. The health system recently purchased a robust Soarian Clinicals solution, which will be hosted remotely from Siemens world-class Information Systems Center. Additionally, Jefferson Regional Medical Center renewed a contract for Siemens IT outsourcing, and will continue to leverage Siemens IT expertise to drive the deployment of Soarian Clinicals, which will be delivered through Siemens private, medical-grade cloud. With these solutions, Jefferson Regional Medical Center can solidify its position among many of the prominent health IT implementations in the Pittsburgh area. With its future-forward design, Soarian enables the medical center to take part in larger health information exchange initiatives through Siemens Advanced Interoperability Service (AIS).

“Patients in the Pittsburgh area are growing to expect well-integrated and technically advanced health IT deployments, and expanding our relationship with Siemens will help us continue to meet those objectives,” said James Witenske, CIO, Jefferson Regional Medical Center. “Soarian Clinicals will give Jefferson Regional Medical Center staff a fully integrated electronic health record, while driving consistency of care due to a greater utilization of evidence-based content. Siemens AIS helps us feel prepared to meet the challenges and take advantage of the benefits to patients of participating in health information exchange projects. We feel well-positioned to address our needs today while being able to anticipate what tomorrow will bring.”

St. Joseph’s Healthcare System, with nearly 1,000 beds in facilities in Paterson and Wayne, N.J., has contracted with Siemens to modernize its core inpatient health information system by migrating to Soarian Clinicals and Soarian Financials. St. Joseph’s Healthcare System will use Soarian, which combines Web-based technology with process-driven workflow, to migrate from an existing Siemens INVISION® installation. The new system can enhance the meaningful and structured collection, calculation, reporting, and sharing of large volumes of data.

St. Joseph’s Healthcare System will also increase its functionality with Med Administration Check™ (MAK) which includes bar code capabilities, helping physicians and clinicians verify that medications are administered to the right patient, at the right time, in the right dose. Additionally the health system will install CPOE capabilities to allow physicians to directly enter orders into the health information system and provide them with clinical checking notifications such as drug-allergy or drug-drug interactions.

The University of South Alabama (USA) Hospitals are a 558-bed, two-facility system in Mobile, Ala., that consists of USA Medical Center and Children's & Women's Hospital. USA Medical Center is an acute care facility serving as the major referral center for southern Alabama, southeast Mississippi and portions of northwest Florida, offering centers for Level I trauma, burn, stroke, cardiovascular disease, epilepsy treatment and sickle cell disease. USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital offers Mobile’s only neonatal and pediatric intensive care units, pediatric oncology and sickle cell outpatient center and high-risk obstetrical care. With more than 2,800 births annually, USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital is Mobile’s leader in deliveries.

The health system signed a 10-year extension with Siemens in February that included upgrading from INVISION Clinicals to Soarian Clinicals, and adding Soarian Critical Care and Soarian Quality Reporting Service. As part of the deal, the health system plans to use its Siemens solutions to meet Meaningful Use requirements, reduce cost through improved workflow, and improve quality measures scores.

Siemens will help deliver improved workflow and efficiency through paperless charting, feedback through embedded analytics, and seamless workflow using Soarian. The hospital also turned to Siemens, in part, due to the company’s longstanding history in delivering pioneering medical technology and due to the company’s strong and stable financial position.

The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world’s largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology and hearing aids. Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimizing clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective. Siemens Healthcare employs some 48,000 employees worldwide and operates around the world. In fiscal year 2010 (to September 30), the Sector posted revenue of 12.4 billion euros and profit of around 750 million euros. For further information please visit: www.siemens.com/healthcare.

Contact: Mark Palacio
mailto:mark.palacio@siemens.com
610-448-3497