Affinity Health System selects GE Centricity EMR for patient care network

Northeast Wisconsin's nationally recognized Affinity Health System is the latest to choose GE Centricity® EMR for its patient care network. The Catholic, mission-oriented, regional health network is a collaboration between the Fox Valley's Ministry Health Care and Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare and plans to implement Centricity EMR across its 22 multi-specialty clinics in 14 communities to help care for an average of 21,000 patients each year.

"We couldn't be more pleased with the flexible offering we'll get from GE," said Dr. Peter Roloff, Affinity's Director of Medical Informatics and physician sponsor for the implementation. "Because we opted for a hosted offering, our 220 doctors will rely upon the security and stability of GE's Tier 1 data center. After weighing it against several competitive offerings, we're confident GE's solution, combined with the attractive financing terms of its Stimulus Simplicity program, is the right fit for our network today. As for tomorrow, the scalability of the hosted offering will allow GE to grow along with us, no matter how our future takes shape."

Affinity will benefit from GE's Stimulus Simplicity™ financing program which combines flexible financing terms from GE Capital with a software certification warranty from GE Healthcare. Affinity will take advantage of GE Capital's 0% interest financing with deferred payments until 2012 to align with expected reimbursement timeframes under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. The GE Healthcare software certification warranty addresses a key barrier to initial investment in EHR technology by removing much of the risk around the recently defined meaningful use guidelines and associated product certification criteria. By pledging to seek achievement of ARRA-focused certification for its eligible products within the Centricity EMR, Centricity Enterprise and Centricity Business suites, GE Healthcare is standing by its customers through a time of uncertainty. Use of a certified EMR is one of the precursors to eligibility for ARRA meaningful use incentives.

"For forty years, GE has been partnering with some of the leaders in the utilization of information technology to drive patient care," said Jim Corrigan, vice president and general manager of GE Healthcare IT. "Affinity is routinely recognized for its forward-thinking approach, including its recent achievement of 'Excellent,' the highest possible ranking from the National Committee for Quality Assurance. We're anxious to explore the boundary-less potential of our new relationship with Affinity."