Pemiscot Memorial Health Systems Selects ChartAccess®

Rural health system aims to improve quality and meet government’s meaningful use requirements

(Houston –October 12, 2010) – Pemiscot Memorial Health Systems is counting on getting both quick and long-term returns from its implementation of an electronic health records (EHR) system from Prognosis Health Information Systems.

To start, the Hayti, Mo. based system – which operates 261 licensed beds including 49 acute care beds, 52 behavioral health beds as well as two long-term care skilled and intermediate care facilities and eight Medicare certified “provider-based” primary care clinics – is planning to tap into ChartAccess® Comprehensive EHR to expediently meet the federal government’s meaningful use requirements as stipulated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“Initially, we looked at adding some functionality to our existing data system but realized it would not be enough to enable us to meet the meaningful use requirements in quick order. When we learned about the Prognosis system, we discovered that meaningful use really was within our grasp. We quickly saw that ChartAccess offered the features that would make it possible for a health system of our size to reap all the benefits associated with electronic records,” says Kerry Noble, CEO at Pemiscot.

The web-native system is making it possible for Pemiscot to move forward without making additional infrastructure investments. User-friendly features such as an interface that mimics e-mail applications are helping to promote user adoption. In

addition, the EHR actually tracks how well the health system is moving toward certain meaningful use criteria – and then prompts users to take action and adjust workflow, if needed.

In addition to meeting meaningful use requirements, the health system plans to leverage the EHR throughout the organization to improve operational processes, clinical care and financial results. To ensure that the system would have the ability to have a long-term impact as it is eventually rolled out in all areas of the health system, a multi-disciplinary team that included key medical, nursing, clinical, ancillary, behavioral health, emergency department, health information and information technology staff took part in the EHR system selection and implementation planning.

“We want to improve the patient experience, whether it is in our acute care or behavioral health setting, our long-term care facilities or our outpatient clinics. So, we involved leaders from across the organization to ensure that the system would not just get us to meaningful use but also catapult our overall operations to new levels as we move into the future,” Noble says.

Pemiscot will implement ChartAccess in phases – starting with acute care in late September, followed by emergency care in phase two and then outpatient clinics in phase three.

“There is a great need for systems like ours that are specifically built to make robust and advanced technology EHRs a reality for rural and community hospitals. We have implemented our EHR in many healthcare organizations throughout the South and are pleased to expand our services into the Midwest, proving that the need for an affordable, web-native EHR is pervasive throughout the country,” says Ramsey Evans, CEO of Prognosis.

About Prognosis

Prognosis Health Information Systems, Inc., aims to improve the quality and safety of patient care in America by providing highly affordable, functional and usable information systems for hospitals. The Houston-based company, which was built by leveraging the healthcare industry experiences of a business software vendor and a medical records service and software provider, offers the information technology, service and support that makes EHR success a realistic goal for all healthcare organizations. Prognosis offers ChartAccess, a Comprehensive EHR developed by clinicians that makes it easy to afford, use, implement and maintain an electronic health records system. For more information, go to www.prognosishis.com.