Rice Memorial Hospital in Willmar, Minn., has selected MEDHOST’s Emergency Department Information System (EDIS) for its emergency department as part of its hospital-wide efforts to switch to electronic documentation, ensure efficient patient care, and increase patient safety and satisfaction. The hospital chose MEDHOST because the system is easy to use, flexible and offers an intuitive touch screen design, which makes it easy for physicians and nurses to document care and access patient information. Rice Memorial Hospital will install MEDHOST’s latest release, version 4.1, which integrates The Sullivan Group’s patented and industry-leading Patient Risk and Safety module as well as First DataBank’s OrderView Med Knowledge Base. This feature-rich version includes powerful decision support functionality, point-of-care risk alerts and CPOE-ready drug content that allows physicians to quickly, yet accurately, order medications. MEDHOST 4.1 furthers patient safety initiatives by reducing risk and adverse drug events.

Vanderbilt Medical Center has been named to the honor roll of America's best hospitals and ranked 15th overall in the survey published in U.S. News and World Report (July 21-28, 2008). Vanderbilt’s continuity of care between departments was a feature cited in the U.S. News article, and Informatics Corporation of America (ICA), which commercializes technology developed at Vanderbilt, provides clinicians with a single technology solution for accessing, evaluating and acting upon patient information across disparate systems. As a result of ICA commercialization initiatives, hospitals and health information exchanges around the country can benefit from Vanderbilt's formula for success. ICA offers a Web-based interactive clinical portal that aggregates data from existing systems to offer a single point of access to a patient's longitudinal record.

The Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota have installed Isabel Healthcare’s diagnosis decision support system. The new software from Isabel Healthcare (Falls Church, VA) provides clinicians with suggested diagnoses and a medical knowledge base including 10,000 articles from journals and medical textbooks. Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota is the seventh-largest children’s health care organization in the U.S., with 332 beds at its two hospital campuses in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Octagon has announced a new Electronic Data Capture (EDC) Blog entitled, “EDC Connections” & Discussion Forum now available on the Octagon Research Solutions website. This Blog & Discussion Forum will be authored and hosted by Dan Crawford, director, Clinical Data Strategies and Dawn Kaminski, consultant, Clinical Data Strategies. The EDC Connections Blog and EDC Discussion Forum were developed as a mechanism for promoting communication across the industry. They will provide a forum for industry colleagues to share ideas, opinions and best practices relating to EDC. This new forum and blog evolved as a natural complement to Octagon’s successful Regulatory Blog entitled, “Regulatory Matters,” and the popular eCTD Discussion Forum.

Athenahealth has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of Crest Line Technologies, LLC (d.b.a. MedicalMessaging.net), a privately held company that provides patient messaging services to medical groups. The purchase price will be $7.7 million of cash, a portion of which will be paid over time based on achievement of milestones. The transaction is expected to close in September. MedicalMessaging.net and athenahealth have had a partnership in place since September of 2007. Currently, more than 100 practices use both MedicalMessaging.net and athenahealth services in order to reduce patient no show and patient cancellation rates and to thereby improve practice revenues. athenahealth plans to employ the existing personnel of MedicalMessaging.net, who serve clients out of the company’s headquarters in Rome, Georgia.

Leapfrog Group has updated its website to include information from hospitals across the country that have submitted updated patient safety information. The site is www.leapfroggroup.org. Thus far, 1,169 hospitals have submitted answers to important questions about quality that consumers can use to compare hospitals. The website shows individual hospital results. In-depth analyses of survey results that show how hospitals are faring on safety and quality as a group are forthcoming over the next few months. The list of Leapfrog Top Hospitals will be released in September. Leapfrog Hospital Survey results are freely available, updated monthly and are the most current available. Results are used by consumers and by business coalitions in 37 major U.S. markets to make purchasing decisions. Since 2001, hospitals representing over half of all U.S. hospital beds have been participating in this voluntary survey; it covers 16 of the 30 National Quality Forum’s Safe Practices for Better Healthcare.

MedPoint Communications has named Susan McNair-Maroney as account director. She is responsible for assisting in the company’s new business development efforts as well as fostering and expanding MedPoint’s relationships with existing clients. McNair-Maroney brings nearly 15 years of pharmaceutical and health care experience to the position. Prior to joining MedPoint, she served as director of sales at MediMedia USA, a specialty health care communications company.