LYNDHURST, N.J. and CINCINNATI, April 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Quest
Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE: DGX), the nation's leading provider of
diagnostic testing, information and services, and The Health Alliance of
Greater Cincinnati, the region's largest healthcare provider, today announced
that ChartMaxx has been selected to automate Health Alliance's patient
financial services department. ChartMaxx is the electronic health record
solution developed by MedPlus(R), Quest Diagnostics' healthcare information
technology subsidiary.
The ChartMaxx Solution
ChartMaxx is an enterprise-wide electronic health record solution built on
a document management and imaging foundation that enables healthcare
organizations to enhance performance by improving patient care and maximizing
business results through the efficient collection, access and use of clinical,
financial and administrative information. ChartMaxx provides authorized users
with immediate, concurrent access to records captured from scanned documents,
interfaced documents and discrete data.
Health Alliance Focused on Financial Service Improvements for Patients
Initially, Health Alliance will use ChartMaxx to facilitate patient
registration, scheduling, and patient accounting.
"We'll use ChartMaxx to eliminate non-value-added steps associated with
paper intensive processes in our patient access and patient accounting
departments," said Patrick McDermott, Health Alliance Vice President of
Revenue Cycle Operations. "With Health Alliance serving more than one million
patients per year, digitizing numerous paper workflows has the potential to
improve operational efficiency, customer service, and financial outcomes."
"By making documents immediately available to our patient accounting
customer service unit, patient questions can be answered in a matter of
minutes, creating a patient-friendly billing environment," added McDermott.
"In this way, ChartMaxx will significantly reduce the use of paper in our
patient access and accounting departments and will automate our document
management processes."
Ease of Integration
According to Health Alliance Senior Vice President and CIO Alex Rodriguez,
"ChartMaxx was selected for its advanced functionality and compatibility with
our existing infrastructure."
The ChartMaxx solution has a proven track record of smooth integration
with diverse systems in hospital environments. MedPlus has developed and
currently supports over 350 custom interfaces for its ChartMaxx customers, for
virtually every major clinical and financial system on the market.
ChartMaxx at Work for Health Alliance
"MedPlus is pleased to put the power of ChartMaxx to work for Health
Alliance and its 13,000 associates and 2,300 physicians," said Richard A.
Mahoney, President, MedPlus and Vice President, Healthcare Information
Solutions at Quest Diagnostics. "Our proven functionality and integration
expertise is ready to improve efficiency and effectiveness throughout this
large enterprise."
Upon completing the installation for Health Alliance, there will be more
than 110 ChartMaxx systems in hospitals and clinics nationwide, accessed by
more than 115,000 users, managing more than 250 million clinical and
administrative documents.
About ChartMaxx
ChartMaxx is an enterprise-wide electronic patient record solution, which
enables organizations to create and manage an electronic repository comprised
of clinical, financial and administrative information. Immediate, concurrent
access to information makes ChartMaxx a key component in efficient management
of patient records. The solution provides the tools hospitals need to
accelerate turnaround time for chart completion, introduce electronic patient
registration, utilize remote coding, automate release of information and
maximize electronic information access across the entire facility. ChartMaxx
has been implemented in more than 100 healthcare facilities throughout the
United States and Canada. For more information visit http://www.medplus.com.
About Quest Diagnostics
Quest Diagnostics is the leading provider of diagnostic testing,
information and services that patients and doctors need to make better
healthcare decisions. The company offers the broadest access to diagnostic
testing services through its national network of laboratories and patient
service centers, and provides interpretive consultation through its extensive
medical and scientific staff. Quest Diagnostics is a pioneer in developing
innovative new diagnostic tests and advanced healthcare information technology
solutions that help improve patient care. Additional company information is
available at: http://www.questdiagnostics.com.
About MedPlus
MedPlus is a leading developer and integrator of clinical connectivity and
data management solutions for healthcare organizations and clinicians. These
solutions efficiently and securely collect, store, manage and retrieve
clinical information within an organization, enterprise or community via
virtual private networks and/or the Internet. MedPlus solutions include
Care360(TM)eMaxx(R) (physician-focused clinical integration portal solution)
and ChartMaxx(R). MedPlus is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics
Incorporated. For more information, visit the Company's Web site at
http://www.medplus.com.
About the Health Alliance
The Health Alliance is an integrated health care delivery system that
includes The Christ Hospital, The University Hospital, The St. Luke Hospitals,
The Jewish Hospital, The Fort Hamilton Hospital and the physicians of Alliance
Primary Care. To view other Health Alliance news releases, go to
http://www.health-alliance.com/pressroom.
The statements in this press release, which are not historical facts or
information, may be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking
statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and
outcomes to be materially different. Certain of these risks and uncertainties
may include, but are not limited to, competitive environment, changes in
government regulations, changing relationships with customers, payers,
suppliers and strategic partners and other factors described in the Quest
Diagnostics Incorporated 2004 Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
SOURCE Quest Diagnostics Incorporated; Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati
-0- 04/29/2005
/CONTACT: Investors, Laure Park, +1-201-393-5030; or Media, Jennifer
Somers, +1-201-729-8386, both of Quest Diagnostics; or MedPlus, Media, Sonya
Lemmerbrock, +1-513-229-5500; or Health Alliance, Media, Mary Beth Bauer,
+1-513-585-7200/
/Web site: http://www.questdiagnostics.com
http://www.medplus.com
http://www.health-alliance.com/pressroom /
(DGX)