Crouse Hospital to Implement AtStaff's Full Suite of ClairVia([R]) Care Value Management (CVM) Solutions.

ClairVia CVM Software Supports Safe, High-Quality Patient Care While Reducing Costs and Optimizing Reimbursement 

DURHAM, N.C. -- Recognizing the need to simultaneously improve clinical and financial results, Crouse Hospital of Syracuse, N.Y., today announces that it will be implementing the enterprise-wide ClairVia([R]) Care Value Management (CVM)* solution set from AtStaff, Inc.

"Like many hospitals, we're in a highly competitive environment," says Dr. Ron Stahl, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Crouse. "We must deliver high-quality care while at the same time manage costs. I believe higher quality care can reduce costs and increase revenue. The key is effectively managing patients throughout every phase of their care."

ClairVia CVM accomplishes this critical objective by concurrently managing the clinical progress and financial ramifications of each patient's care, from care entry point to care exit point. Built on the premise that quality care is the foundation for improving patient outcomes, patient throughput, cost control and profitability, ClairVia CVM continually measures and optimizes each patient's clinical and financial movement toward targeted outcomes.

"Crouse Hospital is committed to implementing sustainable improvements in care quality and cost management throughout its organization," says Beth Pickard, President & CEO at AtStaff, Inc. "This commitment was clearly evident during the selection process, which involved a multi-disciplinary initiative representing the administration, nursing, the medical staff, and the organization's quality, IT and case management officers."

"We are immensely gratified to serve this quality-focused organization, and to help it maximize total care value, defined by the quality of care, the costs of care and the outcomes of care."

Crouse Hospital, a 506-bed acute care hospital, will implement the entire, integrated spectrum of CVM offerings:

* ClairVia([R]) Demand Manager - Leverages real-time patient-tracking and flow management technology to measure, monitor and predict patient-specific care requirements

* ClairVia([R]) Outcomes Driven Patient Acuity - Calculates workload for staffing levels and skill mix based on patient-specific outcomes

* ClairVia([R]) Caregiver Manager - Facilitates day-to-day staffing coverage, allocation and deployment based on patient care requirements

* ClairVia([R]) Demand-Driven Patient Assignment - Selects and assigns specific caregivers based on each patient's individual care and workload needs

* ClairVia([R]) Care Cost Manager- Continuously compares actual patient care costs against desired and projected costs, and identifies potential deviations from reimbursement

Real-time patient tracking and monitoring provides the means for improving both clinical and financial results

A critical determinant in Crouse's decision to select ClairVia CVM is the ability of the solution set to track each patient in real time --- hour by hour, from admission to discharge ---and deliver automatic alerts to appropriate stakeholders when patients' condition and progress deviate from the desired care path.

"The focus on the individual patient throughout his and her stay is critical here at Crouse," says James Gagne, Director of Performance Improvement and Productivity. "Every patient handoff, from caregiver to caregiver, must be clinically appropriate and smooth from the patient's point of view and benefit, regardless of each patient's needs and condition."

Paul Arias, Crouse's Director of Continuum of Care and Case Management, concurs: "It's essential --- from both a clinical and financial point of view ---- that we be able to monitor patients and track patient condition in real time. Certainly, changes in patient condition significantly affects length of stay and discharge time."

In supporting the needs and requirements of quality nursing care, CVM's patient-centered focus "meshes perfectly with our Patient First Initiative," says Mary Agnew, Vice President of Nursing at Crouse.

"We are highly invested in delivering quality patient outcomes at Crouse, and ClairVia CVM allows us to carefully track patient progress as the patient's stay unfolds," Agnew continues. "Real-time patient information allows us to act in real time, overcoming the limitations of retrospective information."

In addition, Agnew says, ClairVia's CVM solutions hold great promise for "reducing administrative burden on the staff and to provide a more effective work-life balance for our employees."

CVM Care Value Management: A total quality management solution

"CVM provides Crouse with a total, quality management solution for improving ---and sustaining --- virtually all critical healthcare indicators: patient care quality, safety, patient throughput, productivity, and staff and patient satisfaction," asserts Michael Warner, PhD, Chief Science Officer at AtStaff."

"We are looking to rely on ClairVia CVM to deliver sustainable, high-quality results at Crouse," says Derrick Suehs, Chief Quality Officer. "Sustaining quality begins with a focus on people, and we expect that ClairVia tools will help support quality results in the combined experience of our patients, our staff and our physicians.

"Of course, we realize that achieving sustainable, consistent results in quality, with a high degree of statistical significance, can take time to measure," Suehs says. "However, we believe we have, with ClairVia, the means and structure to measure and maintain sustainable improvement."

"Ongoing process improvement is supported by ClairVia CVM's innate design and performance management capabilities," says Pickard, AtStaff's President & CEO.

"First of all, to optimize staffing, the ClairVia CVM tool set is mapped to care protocols that always drive toward the desired results," she explains. "Care patterns are analyzed, by DRG, to continuously optimize protocols for the best clinical and cost outcomes."

In addition, she says, CVM solutions "are designed to be highly integrated, easy to use, and leverage existing systems whenever possible to avoid duplication and manual entry."

"For instance, ClairVia's Demand Manager is fully driven by ADT and electronic documentation through HL-7 messaging. We know that healthcare organizations are looking for systems that put the critical data directly in the hands of the caregivers where better point-of-care decisions can be made."

Implementations of AtStaff's CVM solutions are presently underway at 29 medical centers across the U.S.

About Crouse Hospital

Crouse Hospital, located in Syracuse, N.Y., serves a 15-county area of Central New York with 506 acute-care beds, including 57 others dedicated to its New York State-designated Regional Perinatal Center, the only one in the region providing the highest level of maternal-fetal specialized care.

The hospital operates one of the longest-running and largest ambulatory surgery programs in the U.S., with two surgery centers located near the main hospital complex and the state-of-the-art Witting Surgical Center under construction.

Crouse operates the largest hospital-based substance abuse treatment program in the region and is home to the region's only a pediatric catheterization programs.

With 2600 employees, Crouse is one of the top ten employers in Onondaga County and over the last several years, has garnered a number of local, state and national awards for its management and clinical care.

For more information, visit www.crouse.org

About AtStaff, Inc.

Established in 2001 and based in Durham, NC, AtStaff helps healthcare organizations achieve patient-centered, high-performance results by integrating clinical care management and financial management in one solution: ClairVia Care Value Management (CVM).

ClairVia CVM improves quality of care, patient safety, patient throughput and staff and patient satisfaction while reducing costs and optimizing reimbursement.

AtStaff's software solutions serve more than 180 medical centers and more than 800 physician departments and group practices in the U.S.

For more information, visit www.clairvia.com and www.atstaff.com.

* Patents Pending