Eastern Maine Medical Center is this year's only winner of the 2008 Nicholas E. Davies Organizational Award of Excellence. A 411-bed medical center located in Bangor, Maine, EMMC utilizes Centricity EMR in its seven primary care locations. In a news release from HIMSS, Brian Jacobs, MD, chair of the HIMSS Davies Award Organizational Committee and chief medical information officer (CMIO), executive director, Center for Pediatric Informatics, at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC commented, "EMMC represents a shining example of how to implement and utilize the electronic health record along with other technologies in enhancing the delivery of high quality, evidence-based healthcare."

Cardiology Consultants of Philadelphia (CCP) is the second largest single specialty cardiology practice in the United States. The practice has 21 office locations in the greater Philadelphia metropolitan area, extending over four counties in southeastern Pennsylvania. Over the past two years, CCP has transitioned each of its practices from a paper-based environment to Centricity EMR. In addition to many clear clinical improvements, this provider of comprehensive cardiology care is realizing the financial benefits of electronic medical records.

"We have achieved significant savings in several areas due solely to implementing Centricity," said Scott Hessen, MD, Chief Medical Information Officer. "This past year, our transcription costs have been reduced to under $100,000 from a pre-implementation cost of $800,000--a reduction of 88%. Similarly, we have received a 3.5% reduction in malpractice insurance expense representing a $70,000 savings. CCP has been successful in negotiating materially improved reimbursement rates with almost all of our payers, and we expect additional revenue because of our participation in Medicare pay-for-performance reporting."

Community Health Access Network (CHAN), a Health Center Controlled Network, supports five member CHCs in New Hampshire providing primary care services, including pediatrics and prenatal. CHAN is a model for the effective use of Centricity EMR as a vital tool in improving patient care and measuring outcomes for large populations of under-served patients. CHAN has extended the capabilities of the core EMR with Centricity Practice - Patient Portal, a secure portal to facilitate exchange of information with patients and external providers, and Centricity Practice - Clinical Messenger, which speeds the referral process and allows encrypted emails between providers and patients - which are then merged into EMR documents for tracking patient care. CHAN also utilizes the EMR's integration with support care devices for vitals and EKG's as well as document scanning, and uses Centricity Practice - Analytics for operations management.

According to Kirsten Platte, CHAN's Executive Director, "CHAN's EMR is an ever-evolving tool that enables clinicians to effectively and efficiently treat patients, while at the same time allowing the five CHC members to meet other demands, such as clinical reporting requirements for funding organizations and pay for performance initiatives."

"We're thrilled to continue to partner with such innovative customers that have truly raised the bar in patient care," said James Corrigan, Vice President & General Manager, GE Healthcare. "The ability to utilize technology as a tool to boost clinical processes and outcomes continues to provide an opportunity to dramatically improve quality and lower costs throughout our healthcare systems." The HIMSS Davies Award of Excellence was initiated in 1994, and the first awards were granted in 1995. The application process is rigorous, culminating with a two-day onsite survey by a team of adjudicators. The awards ceremony for this year's award will take place in April, 2009 in Chicago, Illinois.

ABOUT CENTRICITY ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORD:

Centricity EMR is an electronic medical record system that enables ambulatory care physicians and clinical staff to document patient encounters, streamline clinical workflow, and securely exchange clinical data with other providers, patients, and information systems.

Centricity EMR is used by thousands of physicians to manage millions of patient records, and is among the most widely used ambulatory care electronic medical records. Centricity EMR empowers healthcare providers to deliver the highest quality of care at lower costs. Centricity EMR version 9.0 from GE Healthcare is a CCHIT Certified® product for Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT® ) Ambulatory EHR 2007. The Commission's product certification designates that a healthcare information technology product has been tested against a comprehensive set of functionality, interoperability and security criteria and has passed inspection of 100 percent of the criteria. The Certification Commission's inspection process is based on real-life medical scenarios designed to test products rigorously against the clinical documentation needs of providers and the quality and safety needs of healthcare consumers and payers.

CCHIT® and CCHIT Certified® are registered marks of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology.

ABOUT GE HEALTHCARE:
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat, and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest. GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases, and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection, and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17-billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries.
www.gehealthcare.com.