Natick, MA – January 25, 2011 – To enable smooth and secure interoperability of electronic health information via the HL7 data standard, Saint Francis Medical Center in Grand Island, NE implemented the NetDelivery Integration Module from Interbit Data. The information distribution software captures lab results in MEDITECH and delivers them in the HL7 format to physicians’ practices’ electronic medical records (EMRs). Saint Francis Medical Center already uses NetDelivery to distribute all labs, radiology and other patient reports to departments across its facility.

“NetDelivery is a very flexible product that provides a solution for many data and report distribution needs,” said Steven Wegenast, Applications Analyst at Saint Francis Medical Center. “The NetDelivery Integration Module offers another effective way to deliver results and has proven to be a simpler and less costly HL7 interface.”

Saint Francis Medical Center has realized immediate benefits from the NetDelivery Integration Module, as it has with NetDelivery.

“NetDelivery parses reports and sends them to the printers at which they are needed, whereas when MEDITECH sends information out, it goes to only one printer,” explained Pamela Zitterkopf, Pathology Director at Saint Francis Medical Center. “There are time savings because NetDelivery automates the report distribution process, setting up reports to transmit to target recipients automatically. We save on paper as well because we’re not printing reports to see what they look like before sending them.”

With NetDelivery, Saint Francis Medical Center runs reports from MEDITECH on a daily basis and sends them to 91 recipients across 20 hospital printers. The recipients are created for each printer to ensure that reports are directed to the right printers.

Saint Francis Medical Center uses the NetDelivery Integration Module with one physician practice in particular, Grand Island Dermatology, and is preparing to start sending HL7 data to the other physician practices it partners with. Interbit Data implemented the Integration Module and had it delivering HL7 reports in a matter of weeks.

“The team at Interbit Data is very helpful and knowledgeable of MEDITECH,” added Zitterkopf. “They got us on the right track to implementing an uncomplicated HL7 interface.”

About Saint Francis Medical Center

Saint Francis Medical Center in Grand Island, NE, provides central Nebraska residents with a broad range of services and programs to meet their medical needs. Since opening in 1887, Saint Francis Medical Center has grown from a community hospital to a regional referral center with a medical staff of more than 100 primary care and specialty physicians and more than 1,300 employees.

About Interbit Data

Founded in 1997 and named to the 2009 and 2010 Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest growing companies, Interbit Data helps healthcare organizations deliver better, more consistent patient care with secure, reliable and cost-effective software solutions that improve operational efficiency. The company’s information distribution products deliver information securely over the Internet in multiple formats, such as fax, print, email, encrypted file or HL7 message format, and integrate it easily into physicians’ practice EMRs. Interbit Data’s business continuance products give healthcare providers continuous access to patient data in the event of a network or system outage. Interbit Data products are used by more than 650 MEDITECH® customers worldwide. For more information about Interbit Data and its NetSolutions products, visit the company Website at www.interbitdata.com.

The following were my observation and notes from their conversion that I thought I’d share with you:

• MEDITECH currently has HIM, ED, OM, EMR, PCS and POM available in 6.0.  The remainder of the conversion is to C/S 5.6.
• Doylestown was 1st conversion site live with Focus, West Georgia was 1st new install.
• Doylestown is 200 beds – went from 18 to 62 servers, fully redundant data sites connected via fiber.
• Wayne Memorial, Beverly, and Woman’s are all conversions under way.  White River is a new install under way.
• Somewhere between 13 and 21 sites have signed for 6.0 at this time.
• Apparently Interior health is negotiating to be beta for 6.1 conversion  (add B/AR, ABS, ADM, ORM)
• 6.0 includes web-based PDA support (windows mobile and iPhone). (not POM, but esig and view)
• Although live with some applications, ED is going live in 3rd qtr and POM in 1st qtr.
• Printing (and printer) setup major setup problem (has spooler) – “all printing requires mouse click”
• Mnemonics go away -  they are there, but full names are displayed and primary lookups.
• User and providers dictionaries merged into one dictionary
• Scripting is issue – no calls to field, must move via keystrokes only.  They have had some problems with scripting programs
• No report writer for 6.0 at this time, but is promised by MT. 
• Problems with notifications – send to printer, not to device or individual.
• Presenting/attending were people from MEDITECH (Ev Hazel and Lori Ebbs), several representatives from JJ/Perot (Fitz did a hardware overview), Representative from HP, Infologic (?), Consultant from Beacon.
• Challenges identified:  moving away from MOX (user training and what to do with files), printing, reports (NPR reports converted, but DPM’s may have changed).

Overall MEDITECH was very easy to work with and responded to their needs prior to signing and during process.

If you are converting to MEDITECH 6.0, post a comment on what you think of the new version and what your requirements are for new products and features that can support the new version. Also, if you have ideas for our existing products and their support of 6.0, let us know.