Surgical Trendsetters Use Leading Information Technology to Manage the Business of Surgery.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 20, 2003

Surgical Specialty Hospitals Pick Surgical Information Systems

Technology for Increased Efficiency and Patient Safety

Surgical specialty hospitals are opening across the nation - an indicator of a new trend in healthcare. These specialty hospitals are starting their businesses right by selecting the leader in surgical information technology to run their hospitals. Three such organizations recently signed to install technology from Alpharetta, Ga.-based Surgical Information Systems (SIS), a leader in the perioperative information systems field.

Unlike many acute care hospitals, known for lagging behind other industries in their implementation of technology, surgical specialty hospitals appear to be getting off on the right foot from the start. One such facility, Surgical Specialty Hospital in Louisiana, has purchased SIS technology for scheduling, as well as modules for post-operative data entry and patient tracking, among others. Nashville-based Surgical Alliance and Houston-based Foundation Surgery also purchased the SIS technology through a marketing alliance between Surgical Information Systems and Boca Raton, FL-based Eclipsys Corporation, from whom they purchased enterprise-wide systems.

Surgical Specialty Hospital is owned in part by a partnership of 44 local surgeons. The hospital is designed to offer same-day outpatient surgery, and also will allow patients to stay overnight if necessary. Surgical Specialty Hospital is expected to handle 6,000 to 7,500 surgery cases each year within its eight operating rooms. Officials expect the hospital will take in $13 million in revenue the first year. The facility is one of 18 separate specialty surgery centers expected to open in Louisiana in the near future.

Surgical Alliance Corporation is a Nashville, Tenn.-based company that partners with physicians to run surgical centers. The company is building its first surgical center, a 42-bed, 10-operating room orthopedic hospital, in New Albany, Ohio. The center will be equipped with SIS technology for scheduling and for documenting patient information at the point of care, along with application modules for managing surgical materials, developing reports, and managing surgeon's procedure and preference cards. They also will install SISWeb, an application that enables surgeons, clinicians and staff members to access real-time surgical schedule information via an information portal on the Internet or the hospital's Intranet. Surgical Alliance is expected to build 20 additional surgical hospitals in the next 20 years.

Foundation Surgery has also signed to use the SIS perioperative information system at three of its facilities - one in Amarillo, Texas, with five operating rooms, and another in Houston, with 10 operating rooms. One additional site will be determined at a future date. Foundation Surgery will be installing applications to manage its surgical inventory, as well as for patient tracking, personnel management, and surgeon procedure cards, among others.

What is leading the trend for surgical specialty hospitals? According to Celeste Wiggins, the developer of Surgery Specialty Hospital, "Hospitals have been run inefficiently, and they are not meeting the needs of their medical staff." Wiggins adds, "This is part of what is leading to the development of surgery centers." One thing is certain, however. There is a pressure in healthcare to improve quality, reduce costs and increase patient safety. Those launching surgical specialty hospitals believe that not only will these demands be met, but that their surgeons' reimbursements will also improve. Physician reimbursement across the industry is falling, as much as 4.2 percent in the last year, while costs for some surgery cases have climbed an average of 4.1 percent. Surgical specialty hospitals receive many of the same financial benefits as standard hospitals, but they are not required to provide the same indigent care as those hospitals.

"Surgical specialty hospitals understand that surgery is the business they are in," said Richard Jackson, president and CEO of Surgical Information Systems. "Early implementation of the best in perioperative information technology will open the doors for these facilities to operate efficiently, maximize their revenues and improve patient care and safety," he says. Jackson adds, "We are pleased to play such a role in this new healthcare trend, which could bring about major change in healthcare and surgery business."

Surgical Information Systems provides the most comprehensive integrated suite of products focused specifically on the OR to supply clinicians and administrators with ALL the clinical and financial data relative to every surgical case. The system includes functionality such as case and staff scheduling; materials management; rules-based charging; clinical documentation for pre-admission testing (PAT); pre-operative, intra-operative, anesthesia and post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) documentation; automated Surgeon's Notes; SIS PACS, which allows secure access to diagnostic images and videos from anywhere via the Internet; and StatCom a workflow communications tool that tracks the enterprise's most important assets -- patients, beds, staff and equipment, which all together enable healthcare professionals to provide the highest quality care at the lowest possible cost. The Surgical Information Systems product utilizes an open architecture and a Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows- or Unix-based operating system that is tied into an Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) database. Visit the company's Web site at http://www.ORsoftware.com. For more information about Surgical Alliance Corp, visit http://www.surgicalalliance.com. For additional details about Foundation Surgery, visit http://www.foundationsurgery.com.