Siemens Leads Health Information Management Into a New Era; Soarian HIM Solution Designed to Improve Hospital Efficiencies

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Siemens Medical Solutions today announced Soarian(R) HIM, a package of integrated solutions designed to lead Health Information Management (HIM) into a new, fully paperless era. Soarian HIM extends the reach of Soarian workflow technology to address the increasingly burdensome challenges that today's HIM departments face, including coding and chart-completion backlogs, staff shortages and turnover, and regulatory compliance. With the growing need for competitive healthcare organizations to support an electronic health record, Soarian HIM was designed to help providers improve productivity, drive throughput, and optimize HIM business processes across the healthcare enterprise. Part of the Soarian family of solutions, Soarian HIM includes the following components, which can be implemented in a modular fashion:

-- Online Medical Record -- Eliminates the paper chart and enhances data capture and sharing while supporting HIPAA and other regulatory compliance. -- Completion Management -- Enables HIM supervisors to identify and remedy medical record deficiencies and allows clinicians to more efficiently review, annotate, edit and sign their medical records from a single log-in -- at the hospital or remotely. -- Coding Management -- With more and more coding done remotely, Soarian HIM's Web-based solution provides intuitive workflow so that coding supervisors can easily assign work, monitor coding productivity and generate reports. -- Disclosure Management -- A scalable, Web-based application that allows hospitals and health systems to efficiently manage non-TPO (treatment, payment and operations) disclosures while supporting HIPAA compliance. -- Executive HIM Scorecard -- Enables HIM executives to proactively monitor chart operations and related workflow to minimize impact on the revenue cycle while supporting regulatory compliance. -- Release Management - Manages processes associated with release of information requests.

"Because healthcare providers operate in a constant state of needing to monitor, measure and act, Soarian HIM supports Siemens vision to move information through the healthcare continuum in an effective and meaningful way," said Jon Zimmerman, vice president, Soarian Health Connections, Siemens Medical Solutions. "Whether it's for viewing or analyzing charts, completing or coding them, or releasing information to a patient or third party, Soarian HIM helps healthcare providers analyze and use information to continuously improve the processes involved in today's standards of care."

Today, HIM departments are faced with compliance requirements, patients who want to actively participate in their care, and increased pressure from management. Dealing with staff shortages, high staff-turnover rates, a variety of software applications and management of multiple technology vendors compounds these issues. The ideal HIM environment is paperless and workflow- driven, which allows users to work from any location and streamlines communications with physicians and other care practitioners. Additionally, an effective HIM environment facilitates a high degree of integration with clinical and financial applications.

"As we continue to invest in our IT systems, one of Universal Health Services' (UHS) key initiatives is the automation of our HIM department," said Linda Reino, CIO, UHS, King of Prussia, Pa., the beta site for Soarian HIM. "With Soarian HIM, the quick assessment of the status of a medical record -- what information do we have on this patient, what do we need, is the chart in the doctor's hands, has he completed his orders? -- is crucial to improving and streamlining our workflow to enhance operational efficiencies across UHS.

"Additionally, since we're already implementing Soarian Financials and Scheduling, Soarian HIM enables us to expand our Soarian reach -- extending our workflow improvement efforts further across our enterprise."

Launched today at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2004 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, Fla., Soarian HIM is designed to enable a streamlined and paperless HIM process, making information available at the point of need, resulting in empowered and more productive staff. By promoting a streamlined revenue cycle, supporting physician and staff affinity, and producing more predictable and measurable outcomes, Soarian HIM supports a hospital environment that makes the patient the most important customer. Soarian HIM is designed to help healthcare providers generate measurable, bottom-line results:

-- Enables more timely and informed care through simultaneous and instant access of the patient's medical record. -- Streamlines workflow by allocating and prioritizing coding and completion tasks. -- Improves enterprise revenue streams through effective decision support.

Siemens Medical Solutions of Siemens AG with headquarters in Malvern, Pa., and Erlangen, Germany, is one of the largest suppliers to the healthcare industry in the world. The company is known for bringing together innovative medical technologies, healthcare information systems, management consulting, and support services, to help customers achieve tangible, sustainable, clinical and financial outcomes. Employing approximately 31,000 people worldwide and operating in more than 120 countries, Siemens Medical Solutions reported sales of 7.4 billion EUR, orders of 7.8 billion EUR and group profit of 1.1 billion EUR for fiscal 2003. More information can be found at http://www.usa.siemens.com/medicalpressroom.

Siemens Medical Solutions

CONTACT: Molly Grasso, Siemens Medical Solutions, +1-610-219-6712,
Molly.Grasso@siemens.com

Web site: http://www.usa.siemens.com/medical