Hospitals Report Workflow Improvements with New Release of McKesson’s Cardiovascular Information Solution

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today McKesson unveiled the latest version of its comprehensive Horizon Cardiology^™ cardiovascular information system (CVIS) designed to automate and simplify cardiologists’ complex workflows. The modular, single-platform offering eliminates equipment redundancies and encourages the adoption of structured reporting techniques. This, in turn, leads to improved patient care and safety across cardiovascular departments and practices.

“The parallel workflows – unique to our single-system design – are designed to enable cardiology departments to experience positive improvements in both patient care and the bottom line.”

Some of the first clinicians to use Horizon Cardiology Version 12.1 work at The Washington Hospital, a 265-bed facility in Pennsylvania. They credit the unique Web-based Charge Manager module with their newfound ability to reduce the costs of the charge capture process for procedures by up to 90 percent. The module automatically captures charges directly from the procedural documentation – significantly reducing the number of manual, paper-based steps required. As part of the charge capture, the system instantaneously generates a charge audit workflow, simultaneously displays charges and reports on the same screen, and electronically supports technical and professional interfaces.

Complete integration of Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR) into the hemodynamic module is another example of the parallel workflows included in the new software release. FFR is a technique used by many physicians to determine the severity of narrowed blood vessels. Previously, cath labs had to purchase and use a separate monitor to perform FFR and had to manually document the results. The Horizon Cardiology Hemodynamics^™ module eliminates the need for an expensive dedicated monitor and fully integrates the documentation workflow. With a single click, the cardiologist can embed this information into an image for it to automatically display in the final report.

“Since our implementation of the new Horizon Cardiology system, we’ve seen drastic reductions in the amount of time our cardiologists spend doing routine daily work,” said John Wilson, MD, medical director, Cardiology Services at The Washington Hospital. “We already experienced great success with the Horizon Cardiology platform, but this new release demonstrates that McKesson listened to the needs of its customers and exceeded our expectations.”

“At a time when shrinking hospital and medical practice staffs are facing increasing costs along with mounting documentation, audit and billing requirements, McKesson is taking redundancy and complexity out of the process,” said Rod O’Reilly, president, Medical Imaging Group, McKesson Provider Technologies. “The parallel workflows – unique to our single-system design – are designed to enable cardiology departments to experience positive improvements in both patient care and the bottom line.”

Another major enhancement to Horizon Cardiology is full congenital hemodynamic support including pressures, samples, age-based calculations and documentation. Also supported in this release are DICOM Structured Reporting standards for echo and vascular procedures and single-click integration with the leading advanced visualization tools including TomTec for 3D/4D echocardiograph and both Vital Imaging and Tera Recon for cardiac CT angiography.

About McKesson

McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 15th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to helping its customers deliver high-quality healthcare by reducing costs, streamlining processes, and improving the quality and safety of patient care. McKesson has been in continuous operation for more than 175 years, making it the longest-operating company in healthcare today. Over the course of its history, McKesson has grown by providing pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management across the spectrum of care; healthcare information technology for hospitals, physicians, homecare and payors; hospital and retail pharmacy automation; and services for manufacturers and payors designed to improve outcomes for patients. For more information, visit http://www.mckesson.com.