Sentara Healthcare Selects Picis' Integrated Surgery and Anesthesia Software; Best partner, best functionality and key interfacing drive decision.

WAKEFIELD, Mass. -- Picis signed a major agreement with Sentara Healthcare, the largest integrated provider in eastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, to install CareSuite in Sentara's six acute care hospitals, 97 operating rooms, 85 anesthesia locations, 116 post-anesthesia care unit beds, and additional sites of care. Picis will replace disparate systems with one integrated perioperative solution that will improve business and clinical processes, contribute millions in benefits, and enhance services to physicians and patients.

"Healthcare will continue to increase in complexity around surgery services, and Sentara is pleased to partner with Picis to help improve the internal operations of our surgery suites and our materials management functions," said Bert Reese, chief information officer, Sentara Healthcare. Sentara estimates more than three million dollars in benefits annually from CareSuite and its interfaces to McKesson's materials management system. These benefits include improved billing and reimbursement of charges, increased use of operating room time, decreased costs, redirected and reduced staff time and increased efficiency overall.

"This was an 18-month vendor selection process where Sentara staff from six sites and all levels came together and drove the needs of the technology," said Howard Kern, president and chief operating officer, Sentara. Picis was the overwhelming choice of operating room directors, anesthesiologists, surgeons, IT specialists and hospital administrators, who agreed that only the Picis solution provided all the required functionality and interfaces to Sentara's existing clinical and administrative IT systems.

"Sentara is well-known as an innovator in driving better outcomes through the use of new technology," said Todd Cozzens, president and chief executive officer, Picis. "Sentara undertook a grueling evaluation process where their team truly 'looked under the hood' to see what is really deliverable today from each vendor, and we were selected because we had live sites with every piece of comprehensive functionality they were looking for. They know that the operating room is no place to compromise with sub-optimal IT systems."

Sentara will use CareSuite's Web access technology and multifacility features to introduce new conveniences to staff, such as remote physician scheduling. "Our partnership with Picis will allow us to execute our vision for surgery and other procedural areas. A doctor will be able to log onto our Web portal, see multiple hospital schedules and use one set of preference cards at all hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. With automation of documentation, surgeons and anesthesiologists will be able to look at the entire perioperative record online. They don't currently have that ability," reports Elizabeth Lindsay-Wood, vice president of information technologies, Sentara.

Picis CareSuite will interface to Sentara's admissions, billing, laboratory, and materials management modules as well as to the new sterile processing system. In addition, CareSuite will automate the data coming from the monitoring and anesthesia device and produce an electronic anesthesia record. A bi-directional link to Sentara's Eclipsys pharmacy system will link all drugs and agents ordered and entered during surgery. This implementation will include Sentara Norfolk General, Sentara Leigh, Sentara Bayside, Sentara CarePlex, Sentara Virginia Beach, and Sentara Williamsburg Community Hospitals and it will expand to support the organization's future growth.

Picis CareSuite will automate surgical scheduling, preference card and supply management, standardized online nursing and anesthesia documentation, and billing, and it will provide multifacility data analysis and reporting - with each facility having its clinical and financial data available in a single enterprise database. Sentara also plans to implement Picis' integrated bed management, operating room tracking, and quality management solutions to promote more efficient turnaround of Sentara's 1,800 inpatient beds and to provide enhanced patient care.

About Picis

Picis delivers proven best-in-cluster solutions for high-acuity care areas - the emergency department, the operating room and the intensive care unit. In July 2004, Picis merged with Ibex, the leading provider of emergency department systems. The combined entity's corporate headquarters is located in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Picis' systems are installed in more than 900 medical centers and IDNs worldwide, automating more surgical procedures, emergency visits and intensive care stays than any other system in the world. Clients include HCA; Health Management Associates, Inc.; the Mayo Clinic; MedStar Health; the Methodist Hospital in Houston; Mt. Sinai Medical Center; the National Health Service of the United Kingdom; NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System; Rush University Medical Center; Stanford University Medical Center; Sutter Health; and the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. In 2004, Picis was named one of the top 100 healthcare IT companies, by revenue, in the Healthcare Informatics report. Picis maintains partnerships with IDX Systems Corporation (NASDAQ: IDXC) and Lawson Software (NASDAQ: LWSN). More information is available at www.picis.com.

About Sentara Healthcare

Sentara Healthcare operates more than 70 sites of care including six acute care hospitals, two outpatient care campuses, seven nursing centers, three assisted living centers, and 25 primary care practices. Sentara also offers a full range of award-winning health coverage plans, home health and hospice services, physical therapy and rehabilitation services, mobile diagnostic vans, and medical transport services. Sentara Healthcare has consistently ranked among the nation's top integrated healthcare networks as published by Modern Healthcare magazine, and is the only healthcare system on the East Coast to be ranked in the nation's top 10 all seven years the survey has been conducted. For more information on Sentara Healthcare, visit www.sentara.com.