Software delivers best practices across healthcare systems.

Press Release Summary:



Delivered on single clinical platform, Sunrise v4.5 XA enables organizations to connect all physicians, nurses, pharmacists, clinicians, administrators, and processes across complex healthcare enterprise, enabling patient information to flow from ambulatory and ED settings to critical care and other acute settings. Program helps eliminate miscommunications and errors caused by departmental islands of care and incomplete access to full patient record.



Original Press Release:



Eclipsys Releases Sunrise(TM) 4.5 XA(TM), Delivering Best Practices Across the Healthcare Enterprise on a Single, Integrated Technology Platform



- New Release of Eclipsys Advanced Clinical Solutions Helps Healthcare Organizations Achieve a Connected Enterprise through Superior Practice and Technology Interoperability -

BOCA RATON, Fla., Jan. 9 / -- Eclipsys Corporation(R) (NASDAQ:ECLP), The Outcomes Company(R), today announced the general availability of Sunrise 4.5 XA, the company's latest release of advanced healthcare information technology solutions.

The Sunrise 4.5 XA clinical suite helps healthcare organizations meet escalating challenges to save time, save costs and save lives(TM). The release is delivered on a single clinical platform that helps organizations connect all physicians, nurses, pharmacists, other clinicians, administrators and processes across the complex healthcare enterprise, enabling patient information to flow from ambulatory and ED settings to critical care and other acute settings. As a result, Eclipsys Sunrise solutions help eliminate miscommunications and errors caused by departmental "islands of care," incomplete access to the full patient record, and inconsistent "handoffs" from one caregiver to another.

"The Sunrise 4.5 XA clinical suite is our biggest and most significant product release to date," said R. Andrew Eckert, Eclipsys president and chief executive officer. "This release builds upon Eclipsys' strength as a provider of innovative software and service solutions with a proven track record of clinical adoption and improved outcomes. The combination of our clinical and financial software, supported by embedded content and the knowledge of our expert services organization, makes Eclipsys an industry-leading provider of solutions that help our customers be the best places to give and receive care."

"As a participant in the Eclipsys Software Preview Program, I am excited about the new features in Sunrise 4.5 XA, particularly the evolution of the Eclipsys medication management solutions," said Delores Partyka, RN, MSN, senior clinical analyst, Frankford Hospitals, Philadelphia, PA. "This impressive solution set provides clinicians with an end-to-end medication management solution that will promote patient safety by ensuring each caregiver on the team knows the latest information about the patient's current therapy."

Technology and Practice Interoperability
The Sunrise 4.5 XA advanced clinical suite delivers approximately 1,500 new or enhanced capabilities for improving patient throughput, documenting care, creating orders, reviewing test results, and coding for maximum reimbursement -- all on a single clinical platform. This release builds upon the strengths of previous Sunrise releases on the XA platform, including the fully integrated capabilities of Eclipsys Sunrise Ambulatory Care Manager(TM) and Sunrise ED Manager(TM) solutions. Additionally, in Sunrise 4.5 XA Eclipsys delivers the first truly integrated, end-to-end medication management solution in the industry. Because all of the solutions in the Sunrise advanced clinical suite share the same Health Data Repository, are customized for the workflows of specific clinical environments and utilize the same architecture, Eclipsys customers can link care providers, operations and the entire continuum of care to achieve unprecedented interoperability.

"Because the Sunrise 4.5 XA clinical suite runs on a single platform, it supports cross-provider and cross-departmental workflows -- from ambulatory care to the ED to critical care," said Diane Gilbert Bradley, MD, Eclipsys chief medical officer. "Patients can move safely and rapidly through the care process with a minimum of administration and a maximum of hands-on care. The bottom line is that the Sunrise clinical suite helps clinicians efficiently manage the complexity of healthcare while promoting patient safety."

"The tight integration in the Sunrise clinical suite and its single-platform architecture provides tangible and measurable benefits across the healthcare enterprise," said Rick Mansour, MD, Eclipsys chief medical information officer. "For example, the powerful Prescription Writer, which we've enhanced in Sunrise 4.5 XA, improves efficiencies for physicians as they prescribe medications and authorize refills. It also helps reduce costs by checking insurance coverage through the Pharmacy Benefits Manager and improves patient safety by checking for duplicate drugs, allergies and interactions. This is just one of the hundreds of ways that technology enhancements in Sunrise 4.5 XA translate to improved outcomes on both the clinical and financial side."

In addition, Sunrise 4.5 XA is based on ObjectsPlus/XA(TM), Eclipsys' open objects initiative that facilitates efficient integration with legacy systems and third-party applications. Eclipsys has leveraged its open technology to accelerate the implementation of this new release and speed time to value for its customers. "ObjectsPlus/XA enables our customers to obtain greater value from Sunrise 4.5 XA because they can take an 'extend and embrace' approach to their existing systems, rather than ripping them out and rebuilding from scratch," said John Gomez, Eclipsys executive vice president and chief technology strategy officer. "End users benefit from the advanced functionality of Eclipsys advanced solutions without having to forfeit the special expertise they may have built into their existing systems. Overall, the accelerated implementation and seamless integration save organizations significant costs and time."

Enabling the Connected Enterprise
The Sunrise 4.5 XA clinical suite makes possible a truly connected enterprise in which clinicians have the patient information and evidence-based clinical content they need at their fingertips. By accelerating the flow of patient care and information, the software helps clinicians make the best possible decisions for their patients, anytime and anywhere. The enhancements in Sunrise 4.5 XA also facilitate compliance with 2006 accreditation standards established by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) that focus on improving the quality of information and communication, particularly as patient care is handed off from one clinician to another.

"Countless studies have proven that doing things right the first time significantly reduces costs, while saving time and improving clinical outcomes," Eckert said. "This includes the savings achieved by eliminating unnecessary duplication of tests and procedures, and preventing avoidable medical errors such as drug interactions or known allergic reactions. The end-to-end medication management solutions in Sunrise 4.5 XA, for example, help control costs by reducing the risk of costly medication errors. They also help organizations realize significant savings in staff costs, patient length of stay, malpractice lawsuits and more."

Highlights of the Sunrise 4.5 XA release include:
o Patient-Centric Workflow -- Sunrise 4.5 XA features new, advanced workflow tools that are patient-centric, help eliminate paperwork and organize task management. Workflow tools in this release of Sunrise Clinical Manager(TM), the foundation of the Sunrise advanced clinical suite, automatically translate a physician's order into specific tasks and assign the task to the appropriate nurse or other clinician, adding the individual elements of care on the patient's flowsheet. Rules can be configured to check if clinical tasks were performed and documented in a timely fashion.

o End-to-End Medication Management -- Sunrise 4.5 XA provides an integrated, end-to-end medication management solution that supports the workflows of physicians as they place orders, pharmacists as they verify and dispense medication orders, and nurses as they administer medications to the patient, with significant benefits in efficiency, accuracy and patient safety. This solution significantly reduces the number of steps and potential for error in the medication management process and frees up clinicians' time for valuable clinical interventions.

o Point-of-Care Bar-Coding -- Knowledge-Based Medication Administration(TM) is part of the Eclipsys overall clinical strategy to respond to federal and state regulatory requirements, as well as JCAHO, ISMP, Leapfrog and Institute of Medicine (IOM) initiatives to improve medication use safety and to minimize medical errors. Knowledge-Based Medication Administration ensures safety during the medication administration process by checking the "five rights" of medication administration (right patient, right medication, right dose, right route, and right time) at the point of care. This safety-enhancing capability uses Sunrise Clinical Manager's embedded Clinical Decision Support to provide advanced clinical screening of medication orders for appropriateness at the point of care. Because it is tightly integrated into Sunrise Clinical Manager's nursing workflow, Knowledge-Based Medication Administration enables the creation and management of a real-time electronic Medication Administration Record.

o Enhanced Prescription Writer -- The Eclipsys Prescription Writer helps clinicians create and maintain prescriptions in both ambulatory and ED environments. Expert dosing information, duplicate alerts at the point of prescription writing and drug-to-drug and drug-to-allergy checking at the time of prescription writing all help minimize potential errors and improve patient safety. In Sunrise 4.5 XA, the Prescription Writer has been enhanced to help save time as clinicians refill and renew prescriptions. To further help save lives, Eclipsys has added a pediatric dose calculator.

o Expanded CPOE Capabilities -- Eclipsys has long been recognized for its robust computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system with real-time and asynchronous clinical decision support and rule-building capabilities for alerts. Sunrise 4.5 XA includes enhancements that make this system even stronger. Now physicians can create complex orders and link individual orders so that a change to one medication order is automatically made in all. Sunrise 4.5 XA also includes "soft stop" or review dates to meet individual hospital needs. To further support clinical workflows, Sunrise 4.5 XA supports "Now and Then" and "STAT and Then" orders, as well as multiple or uneven frequencies in a single order. Clinicians can attach key documents to an order to provide additional detail on the patient for other providers or departments. These enhancements help improve efficiency in patient "handoffs" and improve patient safety because the patient data that caregivers need to safely carry out an order is readily available when and where they need it.

o Enhanced Support for Emergency Departments -- Sunrise 4.5 XA includes enhancements to the ED Display Board, a highly flexible system that provides color-coded alerts and custom-configured columns so that real-time information is immediately readable anywhere in the ED. Enhancements in the current release improve both usability and security of patient information. "Saving time is absolutely essential in emergency care," Eckert said. "Sunrise ED Manager 4.5 XA lets clinicians know, at a glance, what needs to be done and in what priority to help them save time and lives."

o Rules-Based Patient Tracking -- Sunrise 4.5 XA includes enhancements to one of the most powerful rules-based Status Boards in the healthcare industry. This flexible tool can be leveraged in the ED to escalate situations such as abnormal vital signs, or highlight special requirements such as latex allergies to help save lives. Enhancements in this release include role-based views so healthcare workers can see the information they need to see, based on their role in the patient's care, and the ability to view other Emergency Departments' boards within the same enterprise. Emergency Departments can now also use icons on the board and set an unlimited number of rules on the board for improved safety and usability.

o Expanded Content -- With the addition of more embedded, evidence-based content, including diagnosis-based templates and procedure notes, the Sunrise 4.5 XA clinical suite supports clinicians with actionable knowledge at the point of care. This helps clinicians make decisions based on proven best practices and healthcare organizations achieve consistently high standards of care.

o Integrated Clinical and Financial Solutions -- Eclipsys Sunrise advanced clinical and financial solutions work in concert to let physicians and hospital staff know when tests, procedures, medications or hospital stays are not covered by Medicare or the patient's private insurance plan -- and provide this information before treatment is prescribed or actions are taken for which the healthcare enterprise may not be reimbursed. Using single signon and context management tools, Sunrise Access Manager/Patient Financial Manager(TM) and Sunrise 4.5 XA advanced clinical solutions share integrated data for improved operations across the enterprise.

"Ultimately, the most important outcomes of the connected enterprise go hand in hand with saving time, costs and lives," Eckert said. "Saving time and costs are the byproducts of eliminating duplication and reducing the number of steps in the care process enables care to begin more promptly, more efficiently and more appropriately. Saving lives by helping our customers provide the best possible care is the goal of everyone at Eclipsys. The Eclipsys solution suite, especially with the release of Sunrise 4.5 XA, transforms the delivery of patient care and revenue cycle management to make the connected enterprise and its goals a reality today."

About Eclipsys
Eclipsys is a leading provider of advanced clinical, financial and management information software and service solutions to more than 1,500 healthcare facilities. Eclipsys empowers healthcare organizations to improve patient safety, revenue cycle management and operational efficiency through innovative information solutions. For more information, see www.eclipsys.com/ or email info@eclipsys.com.

CONTACT: Media: Michael E. Donner, Chief Marketing Officer, +1-561-322-4485, michael.donner@eclipsys.com

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