Medsphere Introduces EHR Certification Courses with Launch of Training University

Increasing Demand for OpenVista Spurs Open Source Leader to Partner with maxIT Healthcare for Implementation Services

Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading provider of open-source healthcare IT solutions, today announced the successful launch of Medsphere University. This specialized training and certification program is Medsphere’s initial foray into training collaborative business partners to implement OpenVista, the company’s flagship electronic health record (EHR) solution.

After a pre-screening for background and domain experience, 16 consultants from maxIT Healthcare, a leading healthcare information technology (IT) consulting company based in Westfield, Ind., were invited to participate in Medsphere University training. MaxIT is Medsphere’s first certified implementation partner. The incorporation of certified partners allows Medsphere to scale faster and meet customer expectations.

“MaxIT’s primary goal is to contribute to the success of our healthcare clients that are implementing advanced clinical information technology to help reduce medical errors, promote patient safety and streamline the delivery of healthcare,” said Parker Hinshaw, founder and CEO of maxIT. “Working with Medsphere helps us achieve this goal and it is exciting for our team to be among the first to graduate from Medsphere University.”

Medsphere University courses will be held regularly at Medsphere’s Carlsbad headquarters. This is a product of the current national climate and increased enthusiasm for OpenVista at hospitals across the country. The attention paid to healthcare IT in the recently passed stimulus package and President Obama’s goal of electronic systems in all U.S. hospitals in the next five years is creating significant demand for affordable EHRs.

The curriculum of Medsphere University includes extensive courses in OpenVista laboratory, radiology, pharmacy, Clinical Information System (CIS), Health Information Management System (HIMS)/Patient Information Management System (PIMS) functionality and related project management principles. Graduates of the three-week training receive Medsphere Implementation Consultant Certification (MICC), which recognizes graduates for the knowledge and skills necessary to install Medsphere OpenVista at healthcare facilities.

“Medsphere is experiencing a wholesale increase in demand for OpenVista as a result of the recently passed stimulus bill and the recognition of ‘never events’ by the federal government,” said Rick Jung, COO of Medsphere. “We realized that joining with a proven healthcare IT partner was the only way to keep up with that demand. We are especially pleased to partner with a company like maxIT that is obsessive about quality in combination with affordability.”

“Never events” are serious and costly errors in health care services that should never happen. “Never events,” like surgery on the wrong body part or mismatched blood transfusion, cause serious injury or death to beneficiaries, and result in increased costs to the Medicare program to treat the consequences of the error.

OpenVista is the commercialized version of the VistA EHR credited with helping turn the Veterans Administration (VA) into a national leader in quality patient care. Medsphere’s OpenVista technology uses Open Source code available from the VA through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and enhanced for the commercial healthcare market. Medsphere provides healthcare IT services to commercial healthcare facilities and works collaboratively on updates, enhancements and modifications with the Healthcare Open Source Ecosystem, a community of healthcare facilities, developers, value-added resellers, clinicians and other interested parties dedicated to improving patient care through Open Source tools.

Last year, Medsphere’s OpenVista solution enabled Midland Memorial Hospital in west Texas to be named a Health Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics Stage 6 facility for one-half the average cost and in one-third the implementation time of proprietary EHR solutions. Through the Stage 6 designation as part of the EMR Adoption Model (EMRAM), HIMSS Analytics recognizes healthcare facilities that have implemented healthcare IT solutions and achieved established levels of automated patient care and clinical process improvement.