CliniComp Debuts Virtual Clinical Information Services.

SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--May 4, 1999--

Healthcare Organizations Pay a Monthly Subscription Fee to Have

an Entire Clinical Information System and Related Services Without

the Hardware and Software

CliniComp International today announced the availability of its Virtual Clinical Information System (VCIS) and its Clinical Analysis and Reporting Service (CARS).

These innovative new services, paid for by monthly subscription fees, provide virtual clinical information services via virtual private networks. The new services will be demonstrated in the CliniComp booth (No. 1023) during the Toward an Electronic Patient Record (TEPR) National Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, Fla., May 2-6.

"Y2K doesn't discriminate -- it is affecting the largest integrated delivery networks down to the smallest rural clinics," said Alan Portela, CliniComp's vice president of sales and marketing. "Although healthcare CIOs are dedicating their dollars and resources to Y2K, they still realize the importance of a computerized patient record and measuring outcomes and improvements. By outsourcing their clinical information needs to CliniComp, healthcare organizations will have enhanced functionality and decision-support tools to make the most of every dollar, every resource."

Using CliniComp's virtual services provides healthcare organizations with the opportunity to automate their clinical systems and improve outcomes without depleting budgetary and staffing resources currently devoted to Y2K issues. And, CliniComp's virtual services are ideal for healthcare organizations facing budget constraints to acquire clinical information system functionality without incurring the expense of hardware, software and implementation.

"These service offerings are a next logical step forward for CliniComp because we are unique in that we maintain a digital private network connection with each of our customer sites. With our services we can achieve full data redundancy at our headquarters in San Diego while still maintaining the custom system configurations for our customers," said Chris Haudenschild, CliniComp's chief executive officer. "This enables us to do system upgrades, maintenance and troubleshooting on our customers' systems while they are fully operational. The result is that we can provide our service with no down-time, allowing us to bring our customers CliniComp's renowned reliability in the form of a service."

The new virtual services are based on CliniComp's Clinical Information System (CIS), which is used in some of the world's largest CIS installations. CliniComp is offering these virtual service components that will make up an entire clinical information solution.

Virtual Clinical Information System (VCIS) -- The VCIS provides the full functionality of CliniComp's stand-alone point-of-care modules and Global Database (GDB) in a virtual environment via a thin-client PC connected to a virtual private network. Data and the VCIS applications are maintained on servers located at CliniComp's offices. The VCIS solution frees organizations from purchasing and maintaining a server or combination of servers for their CIS solution.

With the VCIS, care providers throughout the enterprise have access to the patient records stored at CliniComp's offices, allowing for improved decision-making based on the most complete information available. Additionally, the VCIS can integrate information from all care areas (i.e., departmental systems, ambulatory facilities, patient monitoring equipment) into a central repository for quick access and analysis. The VCIS decreases the financial and resource investments necessary to implement traditional clinical systems. And because the VCIS is web-enabled, instant access to the latest software versions are available without costly, time-consuming upgrades. The VCIS offers increased efficiency for measuring outcomes and reporting requirements for the Joint Commission of Accredited Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). In addition, users of the VCIS will be able to use the full functionality of CliniComp's new Clinical Pathways Administrator module with the VCIS.

Clinical Analysis and Reporting Service (CARS) -- CARS allows healthcare organizations to perform effective storage, retrieval, cleansing and analysis of data from the CliniComp Global Database. Additionally, expert consultative services are available, enabling the development of custom queries and reports. The customized data queries and reporting, in conjunction with periodic expert analysis of an organization's data, will help CARS subscribers realize improved standards of documentation and enhanced outcomes measurement. These areas are especially critical when preparing for JCAHO surveys.

About CliniComp International

CliniComp International has an unequaled track record of performance in clinical information management going back to 1983. CliniComp is responsible for some of the largest clinical information systems installations in the world, as well as numerous hospital-wide implementations. The company's Web site address is: www.clinicomp.com.