Sisters of Mercy Health System to Implement Optio Solutions In 18 Hospitals Across Four States.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. -- Catholic Health System To Improve Registration Efficiency and Patient Safety With Patient Signature Capture Solution, Enhanced Electronic Forms and Print Management

Optio Healthcare today announced that the Sisters of Mercy Health System (Mercy), the ninth-largest Catholic health system in the United States, has selected Optio as its preferred electronic forms and patient signature capture provider for its 18 acute-care facilities in four states.

As part of the agreement, Mercy will implement the Optio MedEx Suite(TM), Optio Patient Signature Capture(TM) and Optio Print Manager(TM) solutions at its hospitals in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

An enterprisewide initiative called the Genesis Project is underway across Mercy to enhance patient care, safety and service through the creation of standardized business and clinical processes. The project is supported through the deployment of standardized information technology provided by strategically selected software vendors.

"We are pleased to extend our partnership with Optio," said David Devlin, executive director of revenue cycle applications for Mercy Information Services Division, which serves Mercy facilities. "We have been very impressed with the Optio team and their fluency in the language and business processes of healthcare, which is ultimately reflected in Optio's innovative electronic forms and patient signature capture solutions."

The Optio MedEx Suite, an automated forms library and documents-on-demand system, will replace costly preprinted registration forms. "Optio's solutions have proven to be a reliable and cost-effective way to automate our forms-driven processes in three of our hospitals," said Devlin. "Now MedEx will help extend the reach of forms automation across all of our hospitals. It will also help enhance patient safety by assisting in the identification of patients through the rules-based creation of registration packs, bar-coded wristbands and labels complete with patient demographic data."

Optio Patient Signature Capture will enable Mercy hospitals to electronically collect patient signatures on consent forms at the point of admission. This complementary technology will eliminate the need for admissions or medical record staff to scan signed registration forms. Optio's Patient Signature Capture solution will easily integrate with existing hospital information systems used at Mercy, providing authorized users with access to scanned and indexed consent forms and other documents throughout the care continuum.

"Optio's Patient Signature Capture solution will take our efficiency to higher levels and help us improve patient satisfaction," said Devlin. "Given that many patients are not comfortable using high-tech devices, the simplicity of the electronic clipboard appealed to us. We believe the ability to electronically capture patient signatures through a familiar means will help us achieve rapid adoption of the Patient Signature Capture solution across Mercy. It will also eliminate the need for manual scanning of consent forms."

Mercy will also deploy Optio Print Manager to assure the successful delivery of forms, while enabling automatic rerouting of print jobs in the event of hardware or communication failures. "We recognize the tremendous value of managing and assuring delivery of Optio output as well as print output from other solutions, from a centralized application," Devlin said.

St. John's Mercy Health Care in Missouri, Mercy Health System of Kansas and Mercy Health System of Oklahoma are already using Optio forms solutions.

"We are pleased to partner with Sisters of Mercy Health System to help them automate error-prone manual processes and improve accuracy, efficiency and patient safety across their 18 facilities," said Steve Woodis, Optio Healthcare sales director.

About Sisters of Mercy Health System

The Sisters of Mercy Health System (Mercy) was established in 1986 to serve as the parent corporation of a variety of healthcare facilities and services sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy of the St. Louis Regional Community. Mercy includes 18 acute-care hospitals, a heart hospital, outpatient care facilities, physician practices, skilled nursing and long-term residential care facilities, clinics, a managed care organization and other health-related services. Mercy is the 9th largest Catholic healthcare system in the U.S., based on net patient service revenue.

About Optio Healthcare Solutions

More than 700 healthcare organizations use Optio forms automation and electronic health record solutions to reduce costs, streamline document-driven processes and improve patient safety. For more information, visit www.optiohealthcare.com.

About Optio Software

More than 5,000 companies use Optio solutions to achieve unprecedented speed, accuracy, functionality and quality in their inbound and outbound document processes and extend their enterprise resource planning (ERP) and hospital information systems (HIS) applications. Founded in 1981, Optio Software maintains world headquarters in Alpharetta, Ga., with Europe, Middle East and Africa headquarters in Paris and sales offices in Germany and the United Kingdom. More information about Optio Software (OTCBB:OPTO.OB) is available at www.optio.com.

(C) Copyright 2006, Optio Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Optio is a registered trademark and Optio MedEx Suite, Optio Patient Signature Capture and Optio Print Manager are trademarks of Optio Software, Inc. Other companies and products mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.