Eclipsys' 2009 Circle of Excellence Award winners announced

Eclipsys Corporation^® (NASDAQ: ECLP), The Outcomes Company^®, today announced the winners of its 2009 Circle of Excellence Award program. With technology-related initiatives ranging from earlier identification of septic patients to enhanced cost analysis capabilities, to transformation of paper processes into electronic systems for more patient-centered care, six healthcare organizations successfully documented strategies that maximized the value from the use of Eclipsys’ health information technology to enable fast computerized physician order entry (CPOE) adoption, improved care processes and enhanced business performance.

The 2009 winners successfully leveraged Eclipsys solutions to achieve:

• Earlier identification and treatment of septic patients, a condition associated with a 20 percent to 50 percent mortality rate among patients and the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. Sepsis-related order sets, a nursing documentation tool and an emergency department structured note were created to identify and initiate treatment within hour one;
• More than doubling a goal to reduce the average time to adjudicate a claim; related process improvements resulted in additional revenues of $450,000 and recouping $3.3 million;
• Replacement of a legacy decision support solution to accelerate from days to minutes the timeframe for management to receive actionable cost accounting data and ‘What If’ scenario analysis;
• Realizing a 95 percent CPOE adoption rate within a community hospital environment in three months and continuing to maintain that adoption rate;
• Transforming care processes by establishment of evidenced-based interdisciplinary documentation across a large, multi-facility health system; and
• User advocacy and product development feedback through active participation in Eclipsys Communities™, the company’s online networking forum to facilitate client knowledge-sharing and collaboration.

The Eclipsys Circle of Excellence Award is presented annually to Eclipsys clients who demonstrate innovation and achievements in one of four categories – process improvement, adoption, collaboration, or active participation in the Eclipsys ClientConnect™ program, which fosters client knowledge-sharing and collaboration. Each winning organization receives a $2,000 grant for its foundation or charity of choice.

“We are pleased to honor these valued clients for their outstanding efforts and innovations that have resulted in improved care delivery and business performance,” said Diane Bradley, M.D., Eclipsys’ chief quality and outcomes officer. “We believe Eclipsys clients are among the best and brightest healthcare professionals who are focused on using enabling technologies to improve the quality and efficiencies of healthcare, which has taken center stage in national debate. This year’s winners exemplify the tremendous amount of collective expertise within our client base in how to capitalize on the inherent sophistication and value designed into Eclipsys applications. Our winners demonstrate why Eclipsys clients are among the higher-performing organizations in the healthcare industry.”

The 2009 Eclipsys Circle of Excellence Award winners are:

Orlando Health, Orlando, FL– Severe sepsis (infection-induced organ failure) is associated with a 20 percent to 50 percent mortality rate among patients and is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, resulting in an annual economic burden of nearly $17 billion. Orlando Health used Eclipsys’ CPOE solution, Sunrise Acute Care™, to support earlier identification of septic patients and meet a goal to decrease the relative risk of mortality by 25 percent. Sepsis-related order sets, a nursing documentation tool and an emergency department structured note were created to identify and initiate treatment within hour one. In process is development of a Medical Logic Module to alert clinical staff that patients meet the criteria for sepsis. Orlando Health won an award in the process improvement (quality/patient safety) category.

Orange Regional Medical Center, Goshen, NY – During the past year, the hospital has used Eclipsys’ Sunrise Patient Financials™ to employ several process improvements and surpass a goal of reducing the average time to fully adjudicate a claim by 10 percent (nine days)—in fact, a 27 percent reduction was achieved. Since beginning the initiative, denial reduction has produced approximately $450,000 in additional revenues, emergency department upfront co-payment collections have doubled, and better management of carrier underpayments has recouped $3.3 million. Orange Regional Medical Center won an award in the process improvement (revenue cycle) category.

St. Joseph Health System, Orange, CA –The 14-hospital health system replaced its legacy decision support system with Eclipsys’ Sunrise EPSi™ integrated performance management solution to standardize the costing process across all facilities to enable accurate cross comparisons. Within eight months, nine facilities implemented the decision support solution resulting in significantly more rapid system processing, report production and access to ‘What-If’ scenario analysis. What before took days to produce is now developed in minutes. St. Joseph Health System won an award in the process improvement (performance management) category.

Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital (PIH), Whittier, CA–The community hospital set a goal to achieve 100 percent adoption rate with its “big bang” activation of Eclipsys’ CPOE solution, Sunrise Acute Care. Strong physician and nursing leadership and a focus toward physician workflows helped to win over affiliated physicians and enabled PIH to take away all paper order forms on day one. The hospital has realized a 95 percent CPOE adoption rate within 3 months and continues to maintain that adoption rate. A 71 percent adoption rate has been sustained among all physicians (representing 400 medical staff members), with an 86 percent adoption rate among in-house physicians. The hospital has built 394 order sets to date. PIH won an award in the adoption category.

North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System (NSLIJH), Great Neck, NY–Recognized as the third largest secular health system in the United States, NSLIJH fostered extraordinary collaboration on three levels to successfully transform paper processes into electronic systems and enable practice transformation and more patient-centered care. Working closely with its health information technology company partner, Eclipsys, NSLIJH implemented and optimized components of Eclipsys’ Sunrise Clinical Manager solution. During the initiative, the health system established enterprise-wide collaboration to validate evidence base content and it achieved multi-disciplinary clinical collaboration to ensure real interdisciplinary workflow and universal knowledge of each patient and their clinical progress. Department handoffs have been improved with physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, dietitians, social workers, case managers, and physical, occupational and speech language therapists, pastoral care, and child life specialists documenting side by side. NSLIJH won an award in the collaboration category.

The Urology Center, P.C., Omaha, NE–Administrator Laura Forehead of The Urology Center, P.C. was the first client to post on the Eclipsys PeakPractice™ ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) communities site when it was launched this past December. Eclipsys Communities is the company’s online networking forum to facilitate client knowledge-sharing and collaboration. In addition, Ms. Forehead, or someone from her team, attended every single monthly “advise” session for the PeakPractice solution and arranged attendance and participation of other users. Her Eclipsys ClientConnect™ involvement also has supported Eclipsys’ product development efforts and communications with clients. The Urology Center, P.C. (Ms. Forehead) won an award in the active participation in the Eclipsys ClientConnect program category.