Natick, MA – March 10, 2010 – Interbit Data, a leader in software and services for improving healthcare efficiency, offers a solution that addresses the shortage of registered nurses, a growing problem in healthcare organizations which affects patient care and safety. The MAPS Health Suite, a workforce scheduling and optimization software application, makes the best use of available staff by placing the right number and type of skills required on a unit at the right time.

Offered in partnership with Allocate Software, a recognized leader in scheduling, MAPS Health Suite automates the time-consuming task of staff scheduling and resource allocation, saving hours of time that can be devoted to delivering quality patient care. By offering highly efficient workforce management capabilities with advanced scheduling functionality, MAPS Health Suite helps healthcare organizations to lower labor costs, improve nurse retention and increase patient satisfaction.

“With nurses as a scarce but critical resource, optimizing staff scheduling has become a necessary operational requirement to ensure high quality patient care and satisfactory patient outcomes,” said Arthur Young, president of Interbit Data. “By replacing inefficient, manual workforce scheduling processes with a powerful automated tool, healthcare organizations can make more efficient and effective use of their nursing staff and their workforce in general.”

According to Julie Halliday, director of nursing at North Middlesex University Hospital, NHS Foundation Trust, “Not only is the MAPS Health Suite solution proven in other hospitals in our organization, but our nursing staff is positive about working with it. MAPS improves staff satisfaction and allows more time caring for patients. For the organization as a whole, it ensures more efficient use of our nursing resources.”

“With MAPS Health Suite, our staff can gain by having fair shift allocations and we can ensure the staff with the relevant skills and competencies are deployed,” said Pat Hackett, director of adults and community division, South Birmingham Community Health. “We use our qualified resources wisely while improving patient satisfaction.”

The shortage of registered nurses is felt globally and is expected to worsen over the next decade as nurses retire, healthcare demands rise with the aging baby boomer population and the number of yearly nursing school graduates is unable to keep pace with the demand for new nurses. The U.S. nurse shortage is expected to reach 260,000 by 2025. In Canada, a nationwide shortage of 78,000 nurses is expected by the Canadian Nurses Association within the next three years, and the country is expected to reach a critical nurse shortage level by 2016. The nurse shortage is a situation that is being experienced globally

While government, education and healthcare industry initiatives are in place to address the nurse shortage and reverse the trend of nurses leaving the field and declining enrollment in nursing schools, MAPS Health Suite can provide an interim solution to this already critical situation and help healthcare organizations with returning the quality of patient care and outcomes to optimal levels.

About MAPS Health Suite

The MAPS Health Suite is a unique approach to clinical scheduling, designed to improve the effectiveness of nursing and other clinical staff to better meet patient demand. MAPS Health suite streamlines the entire staffing process – from modeling the demand, through to scheduling and payroll – making it more effective.

About Allocate Software

Allocate Software plc is the leading workforce optimization software applications provider for global organizations with large, multi-skilled workforces. With over 19 years of experience, the company ensures customers can match operational demands with workforce supply. Founded in 1991, Allocate Software plc is a British public company listed on the UK AIM Stock market. For more information about Allocate Software, visit their Website at www.allocatesoftware.com

About Interbit Data

Founded in 1997 and named to the 2009 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.

Natick, MA – September 25, 2008 – Interbit Data, the leading provider of software to improve healthcare efficiency, today announces an alliance with Allocate Software, the leading clinical optimization and scheduling solution provider for the U.K. healthcare market. This alliance allows Interbit Data to offer this powerful scheduling solution to North American MEDITECH organizations, helping hospitals improve the allocation of nursing and clinical staff to more effectively meet patient demands.

“The MAPS Healthroster system stood out from the competitors,” said Lyn McIntyre, Assistant Director of Nursing, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals, NHS Foundation Trust in Cambridge, U.K. “The staff likes it, feels that it is intuitive and likes the company’s understanding of the differences and complexities of scheduling different areas of the hospital, whether it be Maternity, ER or a general unit.”

“Interbit Data is excited about introducing the MAPS Health Suite into the MEDITECH community of hospitals and welcomes this opportunity to partner with a recognized leader in the field of scheduling,” states Arthur Young, President of Interbit Data. “This agreement enables us to provide a solution that solves a major challenge facing healthcare organizations. This alliance is a natural fit for us as it aligns with our strength of providing software solutions that enhance the MEDITECH HCIS and addresses key operational challenges.”

MAPS Health Suite Benefits

Used to manage the entire workforce process, MAPS Health Suite is more than just a scheduling solution. Designed for managers and staff alike, they can easily optimize clinical resources, identifying and remedying the cause and impact of staffing issues. With MAPS Health Suite, hospitals are able to easily implement a complex schedule and efficiently manage their temporary staff. Healthcare organizations are able to implement the software throughout their organizations and realize the following benefits:

• Easy to use – provides exceptional ease of use for all clinical staff
• Very powerful – offers unlimited rules to handle an organization’s unique scheduling needs
• Extremely flexible – enables scheduling of a wide range of clinical resources
• Automated scheduling – eliminates the need for manual schedule creation

These benefits are possible due to the following differentiating features:

• Real World Foundation – MAPS Health Suite uses a model that supports the real world, ever changing healthcare environment, enabling the product to create schedules that continue to work for the long term. Without the right foundation that changes with the organization, scheduling will not work long term.
• Simple yet sophisticated Schedule Creation – MAPS Health Suite is developed to support a very complex scheduling environment (like ICU, ER, etc) while providing a very simple user experience. Without a comprehensive yet very straightforward schedule creation, staff will not support the use of the system.
• Benefits focused Schedule Creation – Simply replicating the existing manual process electronically will not deliver significant benefit. Better schedules must be created with clear visibility of problems that impact clinical care or lead to financial inefficiency. Without effective analysis and optimization, efficiencies and savings will not be achieved.

MAPS Health Suite “has improved staff morale, which, in turn, we know will improve the patient experience,” commented Lyn McIntyre. “It has reduced the amount of time spent doing the schedule, which will allow staff to spend more time clinically with the patients. It has improved the skill mix of the staff on the wards and ensures the right skills are available on certain shifts. Staff are reporting that the schedule is fair and people are not taking shifts because no one else wants them.”

About Allocate Software

Allocate Software plc is the leading workforce optimization software applications provider for global organizations with large, multi-skilled workforces. With over 17 years of experience, they ensure customers can match operational demands with workforce supply. Using MAPS, Allocate Software’s workforce optimization application, organizations can deploy the right people with the right skills, to the right place, at the right time. Founded in 1991, Allocate Software plc is a British public company listed on the UK AIM stock market. For more information about Allocate Software, visit their website at www.allocatesoftware.com.