McKesson's Next-Generation Laboratory Solution Draws Strong Customer Praise.

Business Editors & Medical Writers

2002 HIMSS, booth #1306

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 30, 2002

New Horizon Lab Release 6.0 Features Robust Enhancements

Horizon Lab(TM) Release 6.0, McKesson's next-generation laboratory information system, is generally available and commanding strong praise from Alliance Laboratory Services (ALS) of the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati in Ohio and Jewish Hospital in Louisville, KY.

Showcased at HIMSS 2002 in Atlanta, Jan. 27-31 (booth #1306), Horizon Lab now features a new Phlebotomy Workstation module, integration with laboratory automation systems, call tracking and order monitor. Release 6.0 also includes enhancements to the Expert Microbiology, Smart Quality Management and Expert Rules modules and improvements to delta checking. This latest release represents a major step forward for Horizon Lab, offering new features and functionality to key modules that streamline laboratory operations and improve patient safety.

ALS operates one of the country's largest hospital-based, non-profit consolidated laboratories and uses Horizon Lab to improve laboratory processes systemwide. "We're a very large and complex organization with full-scale laboratory services for our hospitals and a referral laboratory for physicians, researchers, nursing homes and other organizations," said Joanne Griffith, ALS's laboratory executive director. "To find a single product that works well in essentially seven totally different environments without any special accommodations or modifications is a testimonial to the depth and breadth of the product."

Griffith is also impressed with Horizon Lab's call management functionality. "We have a large customer service department with 15 medical technologists who handle all of our customer interactions by phone," she said. "We have basically converted this process to a paperless system with the call management feature. It's easy to use and pulls together all the necessary customer information into one application while also documenting the outcome of each call."

Focused on delivering the finest available patient care with leading-edge technology, Jewish Hospital is also using Horizon Lab to improve laboratory processes. Mary Simpson, computer coordinator at Jewish, notes that the system is very easy to use and added, "Our microbiology department is very happy with the new paperless system. Some of the technologists had reservations at first, but now they complete their work much faster and wouldn't want to be without the system. With Horizon Lab's auto-verification and integration to our robotic automation system, we're also going to be able to better deal with the growing personnel shortage."

For interactive demonstrations of Horizon Lab, visit McKesson at booth #1306 at HIMSS 2002.

McKesson Information Solutions, a division of McKesson Corporation, is the leader in helping healthcare organizations worldwide provide quality care in the most cost-effective manner possible. Healthcare organizations use our comprehensive solutions to improve patient safety and reduce the cost and variability of care as well as to better manage their revenue stream and resources. For more information, call 1-800-981-8601 or visit the Information Solutions section of our Web site at www.mckesson.com. With revenues of $42 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2001, McKesson Corporation ranks No. 35 in the 2001 Fortune 500.