IntraCare North Hospital Goes Live on OpenVista Electronic Health Record

Houston psychiatric hospital uses proven open source EHR to realize affordable, economically sustainable, patient care improvements

Houston, TX, and Carlsbad, CA—Medsphere Systems Corporation and IntraCare North Hospital today announced that IntraCare is up and running on Medsphere’s OpenVista® electronic health record (EHR). IntraCare, a community-based provider of comprehensive behavioral health services for children, adolescents and adults, will employ the enterprise-wide OpenVista solution to enhance clinical care through a full suite of flexible applications.

“On behalf of Medsphere, I want to congratulate IntraCare President Deo Shanker and his dedicated staff,” said Medsphere President and CEO Irv Lichtenwald. “Their commitment to this project has enabled us to implement OpenVista quickly and effectively. I also have to credit Deo and his leadership team for the vision they’ve shown in adopting comprehensive health IT. They see the long-term goal, understand where the industry is going and know that an EHR will empower them to meet both their own goals and changing federal reporting requirements.”

In recent years, federal legislation has increased the amount of data psychiatric health hospitals are expected to provide to both the federal government and insurers. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 and 2010’s Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) require insurers to treat behavioral health care more like physical care. On top of that, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) launched a pay-for-reporting program in 2012 that asks for more information from behavioral health hospitals in order to receive needed federal funds.

“I am tremendously proud of the clinicians and staff here at IntraCare North for the dedication and optimism they brought to this entire implementation process,” said Shanker. “We feel this is something psychiatric hospitals nationwide should do as a proactive approach to increasing regulation and a need for more data. Of course, had we not found an affordable option like OpenVista, we may not have been able to. We appreciate the realistic and consistent guidance Medsphere gave us throughout the implementation process.”

Medsphere’s subscription service model enables hospitals like IntraCare to acquire an enterprise-wide system without huge upfront costs. Additionally, Medsphere’s proven and extensive suite of interfaces will enable IntraCare to integrate the OpenVista platform with the hospital’s existing patient accounting and billing solution, saving the hospital additional money without sacrificing functionality.

Medsphere's OpenVista is the commercialized version of the VistA EHR created and developed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) over 20 years ago and credited with helping turn the agency into a national leader in quality patient care. Using open source code available from the VA through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), OpenVista can be implemented much more quickly and affordably than traditional proprietary solutions.

About IntraCare North

IntraCare Behavioral Health offers a continuum of mental health and chemical dependency services to Houston-area children, adolescents and adults. Serving the community through IntraCare North Hospital and affiliated clinics, the organization provides assessments and evaluations, crisis stabilization, medication management, nursing services, social and therapy services, activities therapy, comprehensive individualized treatment and discharge planning, detoxification and relapse prevention. Accredited by the Joint Commission, IntraCare is guided by an organizational ethos focused on courtesy, dignity and hope.

About Medsphere and OpenVista

Founded in 2002 and based in Carlsbad, Calif., Medsphere Systems Corporation comprises a dedicated group of clinical and technology professionals working to make quality health IT solutions accessible to organizations of virtually any size, shape or budget. Medsphere’s OpenVista® is a portfolio of clinical support products and professional services that leverages an electronic health record (EHR) system developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. This VistA EHR is widely credited with helping transform the VA into the nation's most efficient and clinically effective healthcare organization. OpenVista, the most fully commercialized VistA offspring, is a responsible reapplication of the VA’s $8.5 billion investment, which recent studies show have yielded $3.09 billion in benefits, primarily from the near elimination of medication administration issues and duplicate testing.  

Medsphere’s subscription-based pricing model enables hospital, clinic and integrated delivery network customers to pay for OpenVista from their operating budget with no upfront costs or back-end balloon payments. Expert implementation and other services facilitate fluid and rapid transition to a paperless clinical environment focusing on best practices and evidence-based medicine in six to nine months. Medsphere also actively nurtures the Healthcare Open Source Ecosystem, a global community of customers, partners, developers and other online collaborators who drive OpenVista innovation, and provide a parallel development and support structure.