SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Verity, Inc. , a leading provider of enterprise software that enables organizations to maximize the return on their intellectual capital investment, today announced two very different healthcare facilities have opted to deploy the company’s Verity(R) LiquidOffice(TM) Web-based business process automation software. Verity partner and systems integrator MedSeek facilitated the implementation of this Web-based eHealth solution at both healthcare centers.
One, the Rush Foundation Hospital, is the hub of a healthcare delivery system serving east Mississippi and west Alabama through a network of 29 clinics, several in rural areas. The other is University Community Health (UCH), a network of four hospitals serving Florida’s Tampa metropolitan area. Both wanted to use their intranets to tie the centers’ various locations closer together and cut down on the time, cost and errors associated with paper-based forms used to deal with such activities as patient admissions, lab work tracking, managing capital equipment or new position requests, and even acknowledging exemplary employee efforts.
“To see how easy to use and effective Verity LiquidOffice could be for University Community Hospital, a member of the UCH network, we created a form that lets groups order food for work sessions within the facility,” said Robert Hendry, UCH’s Web coordinator. “This test of the software and of our ability to use it resulted in more than a pizza menu. It proved to be a vivid demonstration of how LiquidOffice can contribute to improving the hospital’s overall operation. We easily built-in price and selection edits on the form. We were able to show current inventory of food on hand and prepare reports for re-ordering from our suppliers as well as identify who was ordering and when for routing to the appropriate individuals or groups within the hospital.”
At Rush, a pilot test was conducted linking the hospital to its nine rural health clinics. “Many personnel matters, such as requests for leave, used to get tied up in the mail or lost between a clinic and the hospital,” said Laura Davis, Rush’s business development manager. Patient care was also affected. Paper-based forms lengthened the time necessary for the pre-admissions process. “We quickly realized the step into a paperless operation would be easy to take. The forms were produced and managed with ease and, more important, the quality of user training and acceptance was outstanding,” Davis said.
More than rapid forms creation and processing, Verity LiquidOffice also permitted prompt and certain connectivity to the facilities’ databases. At UCH, LiquidOffice allows information to be extracted from databases on a range of matters, even employee recognition. “The Verity software allows us to give faster praise to personnel who’ve performed in exemplary fashion,” Hendry said. “Prior to a regular departmental meeting, a manager can get a report on individuals’ noteworthy performances, by date, facility and department.”
Hendry cited another hospital activity where speed and control matters: capital equipment requests. “Old forms at UCH were eight-page documents that had to be reviewed by as many as ten different units within the facility, depending on the size and cost of the item. Prior to the implementation of Verity LiquidOffice, members of the executive committee and medical boards and other groups often had to review every aspect of a request.” However, the logic capability built into the Verity software allows critical items to be pulled through to an executive summary. The speed and effectiveness of the review process has been improved dramatically.
Another example at UCH where logic comes into play is the LiquidOffice-based termination notification form. If someone leaves the employ of the hospital, an online form is prepared by the manager and then routed to those who need to know, like payroll and information systems. At the same time, the existence of this form prompts the creation of a position request form with fields pre-filled based, in part, on the content of the termination notice.
“Healthcare facilities, regardless of their size or location, can realize across-the-board benefits by employing the easy-to-realize capabilities of Verity LiquidOffice,” said Anthony J. Bettencourt, Verity’s president and chief executive officer. “Rush and UCH are two more hospitals that are finding how the software can enhance their operations measurably.”
Along with its clinics, Rush will utilize LiquidOffice for forms used in the hospital’s chemistry and microbiology laboratories as well as its blood control management unit. “While it came as no surprise that the human resources department was the obvious area that could benefit quickly from Verity LiquidOffice, most departments in the hospital and our network of clinics are becoming a part of the effort to rid Rush of the waste of time, money and frustration that comes from dealing with paper-based forms,” Davis said.
About Rush Foundation Hospital
Rush Foundation Hospital is a major community-based acute care medical center that serves inpatients and outpatients who are primarily residents of the area including Meridian, Mississippi and communities that are within a 70 mile radius of Meridian, which include East Mississippi and West Alabama. Rush Foundation Hospital is a division of Rush Health Systems.
As a 215-bed facility, Rush Foundation Hospital is dedicated to providing state-of-the-art medical care for the families of our region. For over 80 years Rush has maintained a commitment to offering a complete scope of healthcare services. For more information visit http://www.rushhealthsystems.org/.
About University Community Health
University Community Health is a 1,019-bed not-for-profit community health network serving Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas Counties. This sophisticated health care network offers the latest treatment options and state-of-the-art technology at its four hospital locations: University Community Hospital and University Community Hospital-Carrollwood in Tampa, Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital in Tarpon Springs, and Sun Coast Hospital in Largo. A leader in meeting the health care needs of the community, University Community Health continues to fulfill its mission of service and care to the community. For more information visit http://www.uch.org/.
About MedSeek
MedSeek specializes in the development of unique, customized web-based eHealth solutions for healthcare institutions, other providers and related industries. In addition to strategic planning and development, MedSeek provides data integration, custom site functionality, comprehensive project management, site design and sales of their highly scaleable content management system, SiteMaker CMS. The company, which ranked number 17 on the Deloitte & Touche 2003 Los Angeles Technology Fast 50 list, has more than 400 installed hospital clients. To learn more, visit http://www.medseek.com/.
About Verity
Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Verity provides software that enables organizations to maximize the return on their intellectual capital investment. The company’s intellectual capital management (ICM) solutions provide integrated search, classification, recommendation, monitoring and analytics across the real-time flow of enterprise information, along with question and answer interfaces for effective online self-service. Other Verity ICM solutions capture content and drive automated business processes. Verity technology also serves as a core component of more than 260 applications from leading independent software vendors.
Verity software solutions are used by more than 11,500 customers in the private and public sectors. Customers include American Express, AT&T, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Cardinal Health, Cisco Systems, EMC Documentum, Dow Jones, Financial Times, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, Lotus, Kaiser Permanente, META Group, SAP, Siemens, the State of California, Stellent, Sybase, the U.S. Departments of Energy and Justice, and the U.S. Army.
The statements in this press release regarding the benefits that healthcare facilities can realize from Verity LiquidOffice are subject to risks and uncertainties, including the risk that: the benefits may not be obtained due to technical or other reasons; and the IT and process structures of the healthcare facilities may not be conducive to realizing these benefits. These and other risks relating to Verity and its business and products are set forth under the caption “Risks Relating to Our Operations” in Item 2 of Verity’s Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 12, 2004.
For more information, contact Verity at info@verity.com or at World Wide Web site http://www.verity.com/ or call 408-541-1500.
NOTE: Verity and the Verity logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Verity, Inc.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Verity, Inc.
CONTACT: Jennifer Moranz of Verity, Inc., +1-760-213-4711, orjmoranz@verity.com; or Steve Hoechster of ElsterGroup, +1-646-495-5401, or+1-914-393-9219, or shoechster@elstergroup.com, for Verity, Inc.
Web site: http://www.medseek.com/
Web site: http://www.uch.org/
Web site: http://www.rushhealthsystems.org/
Web site: http://www.verity.com/
