Caritas Christi Health Care System Chooses McKesson For Enterprise-Wide Cardiovascular Information Access

Atlanta, GA - As a continuation of its efforts to connect caregivers with the crucial patient information they need, Caritas Christi Health Care System (CCHCS) has selected McKesson's Horizon Cardiology cardiovascular information system (CVIS). CCHCS will extend its integrated enterprise-wide imaging strategy by implementing McKesson's complete, single database system supporting medical imaging and reporting capabilities for cath (including hemodynamics), echo, and electrocardiograms (ECG) into all six of its hospitals. CCHCS is Massachusetts' second largest integrated delivery network and annually performs more than 8,000 catheterizations and interventions, 6,000 vascular studies, 22,000 echocardiograms and 95,000 ECGs.

"We wanted a CVIS system that would seamlessly connect all our clinicians throughout the enterprise," said Dr. Jeffrey J. Popma, director of invasive cardiovascular services for CCHCS's Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center. "A big factor in our selection of Horizon Cardiology is the single database and common user interface, which will allow our caregivers to access consistent, quality patient data from all our facilities."

The Horizon Cardiology solution provides the industry's only single-platform solution for all cardiovascular information – cath, echo, hemodynamics and ECG. Its cardiovascular image management, archiving, procedural reporting, and workflow management features will help improve productivity and provide greater throughput for CCHCS's cardiology department. The single integrated database for all cardiovascular images and information eliminates redundant data entry. In addition, comprehensive Web tools decrease report turnaround time and accommodate the physician's hectic schedule.

"With this agreement, McKesson is enabling CCHCS to unify an unmatched level of real-time patient information to support the critical decisions physicians make in the cardiology department everyday," said Rod O'Reilly, vice president and general manager for McKesson's Medical Imaging Group. "With Horizon Cardiology, CCHCS will arm their cardiologists with the tools they need to work more efficiently. Most importantly, they should be able to provide better, safer patient care across the health system."

In December 2004, the organization began their multi-year roll out of McKesson's Horizon Medical Imaging picture archiving and communications system (PACS) to the six hospitals. The system provides CCHCS' radiologists with instant access to radiology studies and allows clinicians to share those images across all six hospitals. McKesson's PACS also integrates images from multiple modalities and provides referring physicians with patient images as part of a complete care record.

SOURCE: McKesson