South Africa’s Areta Health Selects Medsphere Healthcare IT Solutions

Network of Specialist Day Hospitals supported by remote clinics and in-home monitoring brings Medsphere’s proven EHR and services to the African continent

CARLSBAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading provider of affordable and interoperable healthcare information technology (IT) solutions and services, today announced that the company has reached an agreement with South Africa’s Areta Health for comprehensive support of the organization’s hospital network. The contract covers Areta Health’s Specialist Day Hospital (SDH) system spread throughout South Africa. The hospitals, in turn, anchor an integrated health network with remote clinics and in-home monitoring that allow patients to heal at home without sacrificing attentive care.

Areta Health’s business and care model reflects the cultural patterns of life in southern Africa, providing care that disrupts lives as little as possible and manages the significant costs associated with typical inpatient care. The partnership marks Medsphere’s first contract in Africa and effectively demonstrates the continued appeal of company solutions and services beyond the United States.

"We founded Areta Health with the express goal of providing much-needed care where South Africans live, not at some remote hospital the whole family has to move to,” said CEO Mark Slabbert. “To make that a reality, we had to find a comprehensive, affordable healthcare IT system that could effectively communicate with remote clinics and monitoring devices, and be flexible to changing needs and requirements. Medsphere’s subscription payment model, cloud availability and nimble organization made them the clear choice for us now and as we expand.”

The Areta Health network of SDHs provides hybrid and minimally invasive surgical services. As in the United States, rising healthcare costs in South Africa are creating new urgency among those in local healthcare to find models that manage costs more effectively while still creating improvements in the quality and availability of care.

“This agreement with Areta Health is really exciting for Medsphere as we demonstrate the appeal of our solutions, services and payment model outside the U.S.,” said Irv Lichtenwald, Medsphere president and CEO. “There is much about providing quality care that’s universal; we’ve worked hard to demonstrate that universality by moving to the cloud, adding specific GUI and web functionality, and making all our solutions more robust and aesthetically pleasing to our customers. We’re thrilled to have this relationship with Areta Health and look forward to enabling better care in South Africa.”

Medsphere’s healthcare IT solutions are currently implemented in acute, inpatient behavioral health and government healthcare facilities throughout the United States and American Samoa, a U.S. territory.

About Areta Health

Areta Health provides integrated healthcare services and solutions for current and future generations; our focus is on geographically-agnostic, evidence-based services to all patients. Areta is creating a patient-centric network of inter-connected Specialist Day Hospitals in Southern Africa, augmented by remote clinics and patient in-home monitoring. The goals of the organization are to challenge the conventional healthcare service model, reduce the cost of healthcare service delivery without compromising on quality, establish an integrated Digital Specialist Day Hospital group in Africa, and align services with the needs of South Africa and the region.

About Medsphere and OpenVista

Founded in 2002 and based in Carlsbad, Calif., Medsphere Systems Corporation is an organization of committed clinical and technology professionals working to make quality healthcare IT solutions accessible to organizations of virtually any size, shape or budget. Medsphere’s OpenVista® is an acute and inpatient behavioral health-oriented portfolio of clinical products and services. Medsphere’s Government Services Division also applies valuable expertise to development and implementation projects for our commercial, international, VA and IHS customers.

Using a vendor-independent approach to helping hospitals solve critical challenges, the Phoenix Health Systems division provides a host of healthcare IT services, including systems implementation, project management, remote service desk, end-user device management, application management and IT leadership. Medsphere’s ChartLogic division enables better ambulatory care via physician practice EHR, revenue cycle management (RCM) and practice management systems and services.

Whatever your healthcare IT challenge, Medsphere has a solution. Learn more about Medsphere at www.medsphere.com.