FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Midland Memorial Hospital Hosts Kingdom of Jordan E-Health Team

Visit Highlights Midland Memorial's Successful Adoption of Medsphere's OpenVista EHR and Resulting Improvements in Patient Care


ALISO VIEJO, CA and MIDLAND, TX - June 2, 2008 - Medsphere® Systems Corporation, the leading provider of Open Source healthcare IT solutions, and Midland Memorial Hospital (MMH), the first commercial facility to implement Medsphere's OpenVista electronic health record (EHR), today announced a May 29 fact-finding visit to MMH by a delegation from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The Royal Hashemite Court's e-Health team is currently exploring EHR solutions for implementation throughout the Kingdom's hospital network and visited MMH for a first-hand view of the hospital's OpenVista system, which has been recognized by healthcare information technology analysts as a model for EHR adoption.

"The ability to roll out a comprehensive, reliable electronic health record in less time and with less investment than anyone thought possible is good medicine anywhere in the world," said David Whiles, director of information systems at MMH. "With OpenVista, we have put critical patient information literally at the fingertips of doctors and nurses and significantly enhanced patient outcomes. Midland Memorial is truly proud of what we've accomplished in partnership with Medsphere and welcomes the opportunity to share our experience and our success with Jordanian officials."

In 2006, MMH deployed OpenVista, a commercialized version of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs VistA solution developed over the course of more than 20 years. VistA technology is credited with helping turn the VA into a national leader in quality patient care. Building on the widespread success of VistA, Medsphere commercialized the original solution and released the enhanced code base, empowering customers to use, modify and enhance it in support of internal processes and workflows.

Medsphere is also building a dynamic Healthcare Open Source Ecosystem around OpenVista, enabling a host of interested parties to participate in development, communicate feedback, share enhancements and benefit from one another's work. The resulting community is designed to improve patient care through the latest Open Source tools.

Since the full implementation in 2007 of OpenVista — rechristened Electronic Data Information for Team Healthcare or EDITH — MMH has enjoyed significant improvements in operational efficiency, clinical outcomes and patient care. The nearly paperless and highly secure system is now used by all healthcare workers at MMH to access patient care information. In March 2008, MMH joined a very small and elite group of hospitals when it was selected by the Health Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics organization as one of only thirteen Stage 6 healthcare facilities in the country, a designation recognizing established levels of automated patient care and clinical process improvement. With Medsphere's OpenVista solution, MMH was able to achieve Stage 6 for about one third of the cost of other commercial systems in roughly half the implementation time traditionally required.

"At Medsphere, we are dedicated to the belief that Open Source will transform healthcare and Midland Memorial is just one of many hospitals that have made our vision a reality," said Medsphere CEO Michael J. Doyle. "Midland is a perfect example of how the days of vendor lock and time- and resource-intensive EHR deployments are a thing of the past. With OpenVista, EHRs are now viable for healthcare organizations of any size. We look forward to the opportunity to work with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as it embarks on this exciting new initiative."

Medsphere's current activities include OpenVista implementations at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, and the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (WV DHHR). OpenVista is already in use at multiple healthcare facilities and care delivery organizations, including seven acute, psychiatric and long-term care WV DHHR facilities; Century City Doctor's Hospital in Los Angeles; Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County in Rock Springs, Wyoming; and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Indian Health Service.


About Midland Memorial Hospital

Midland Memorial Hospital is a 320 licensed bed hospital operating on two campuses in Midland, Texas. Owned and operated by the Midland County Hospital District, MMH provides a full range of acute care services to the people of Midland, while serving as a regional referral center for other communities throughout west Texas and southeast New Mexico. Specialty services include emergency medicine, cardiovascular surgery, and advanced radiological and oncology services.


About Medsphere Systems Corporation

As a disruptive force in healthcare information technology, Medsphere is revolutionizing the industry by delivering commercially supported Open Source software based on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' proven VistA EHR. The product of 20-plus years of development and more than $8 billion invested, VistA enabled the transformation of the VA into the nation's most efficient and clinically effective healthcare organization. Currently VistA contains roughly 2.1 billion clinical documents, 2.76 billion orders, and 1.51 billion images. As the commercialized version of VistA, Medsphere's OpenVista is a portfolio of products and professional services for hospitals, clinics and integrated delivery networks. OpenVista is currently used by over 20,000 individuals, including 2,500 physicians and contains hundreds of thousands of medical records. Medsphere addresses healthcare's capital constraints through an innovative business model:

  • A unique subscription-based pricing model minimizes upfront costs.
  • The Healthcare Open Source Ecosystem and Medsphere.org portal coordinate a unique grassroots community of customers/subscribers, partners and developers driving OpenVista innovation and providing a parallel development and support structure.
  • Medsphere's experienced team of healthcare technology professionals and unique suite of implementation tools deliver a fluid transition to a comprehensive healthcare information technology solution.

Founded in 2002, Medsphere is backed financially by Azure Capital Partners, Thomas Weisel Venture Partners and EPIC Ventures (formerly the Wasatch Venture Fund). Medsphere clients include Midland Memorial Hospital, Midland, Texas; West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (WV DHHR); Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County, Rock Springs, Wyoming; Lutheran Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York; and the federal government's Indian Health Service. For more information, visit http://www.medsphere.com and http://www.medsphere.org.


Contacts


Corporate:
Rick Jung
Chief Operating Officer
Medsphere Systems Corporation
(949) 297-8182 office
rick.jung@medsphere.com
  Media:
Lily Eng or Thea Lavin
Schwartz Communications for Medsphere
(415) 512-0770 (office)
medsphere@schwartz-pr.com

General Inquiries

info@medsphere.com