Cooper Green Mercy Uses OpenVista® EHR to Garner Alabama State Medicaid AIU Funds

Medsphere Systems Corporation and Cooper Green Mercy Hospital today announced that Cooper Green has received a reimbursement of $2.1 million from Alabama State Medicaid for meeting electronic health record (EHR) adoption, implementation and upgrade (AIU) requirements. This initial disbursement of funds enables Cooper Green, owned by Jefferson County, to improve patient care while covering much of the five-year cost of Medsphere’s OpenVista® EHR.

Jefferson County, Alabama’s largest, has faced significant financial challenges in recent years, making the improvement of both patient care and financial performance crucially important. Anticipated Medicare reimbursement for meeting all three stages of Meaningful Use should cover all remaining OpenVista costs, including implementation, training and upgrades.

“Medsphere congratulates Cooper Green and hospital CEO Dr. Sandral Hullett on moving deliberately from go-live to attestation,” said Medsphere President and CEO Irv Lichtenwald. “Hospital administrators and staff wasted no time after go-live before beginning the attestation process, which is a testament to both the adoptability of OpenVista and the determination of the people at Cooper Green.”

Cooper Green selected Medsphere’s OpenVista EHR and Stockell Healthcare’s Insight CS financial and patient accounting solution as Meditech replacements. To these comprehensive health IT solutions Medsphere added essential training, workflow redesign and clinical transformation services. Moving forward, the hospital anticipates more financially manageable health IT operating expenses as all OpenVista upgrades, enhancements and support are included in Medsphere’s subscription-based pricing model.

“This is a great moment for Cooper Green administration and staff, as well as community hospitals across the country,” said Dr. Hullett. “I’m very proud of the hospital staff for pushing rapidly through the attestation process and ensuring that our EHR purchase can pay for itself. I’m also pleased to serve as an example to other public hospitals of what can be accomplished clinically and technically without mortgaging the county’s future.”

Using OpenVista, Cooper Green clinicians realized a 92 percent adoption rate of Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) for medication orders, far exceeding the 30 percent of patients with at least one medication entered electronically as required for Stage One Meaningful Use. The use of CPOE, as well as drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction alerts and electronic prescribing, has already created a heightened patient safety environment at Cooper Green and promises expanded benefits over time.

About Cooper Green Mercy Hospital

Cooper Green Mercy Hospital offers a complete range of health care services for the residents of Jefferson County, with its fees based on family size and income. On an outpatient basis, it offers a full range of primary care and specialty services, such as general surgery, urology, orthopedics, ENT, ophthalmology, obstetrics and gynecology, cardiology, pulmonary, nephrology, and hematology/oncology. Cooper Green Mercy Hospital also offers inpatient services, a fully staffed and accredited emergency room, rehabilitation services, a complete range of diagnostic services, and social services. All care is provided by full-time, board-certified staff physicians. Services not directly provided by Cooper Green Mercy Hospital, such as cardiac catheterization or bypass surgery, are coordinated through the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital. In addition to the clinics located in the Medical Center District, Cooper Green also operates two primary care clinics based in the community.