Novo Innovations Announces Enterprise Agreement with Intermountain Healthcare to Interface Affiliated Practices

ALPHARETTA, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Novo Innovations, the leading healthcare provider of software agent technologies to improve health information exchange, today announced a multi-year program agreement with Intermountain Healthcare of Salt Lake City. Intermountain has already deployed Novo software to interface Intermountain’s hospital systems with electronic medical record (EMR) systems located in several affiliated physician practices and clinics throughout the community. Novo’s agent software technology also enables Intermountain to enhance information exchange with practices without EMRs.

“In addition to the outbound results and reports functionality already in place, we are developing additional exchange solutions with Novo. We see these new developments as ongoing value-added services that will have a positive impact on patient care and safety as well as on business operations at affiliated practices.”

Intermountain’s board of trustees established a 2008 goal of interfacing electronic lab results with 200 physicians. Based on the success of the initial implementations, Intermountain expects to exceed its deployment goals in 2008.

“The board of trustees’ mandate was a direct response to a critical business issue,” says Ryan Smith, assistant vice president, e-business services at Intermountain Healthcare. “A number of practices and clinics needed automated delivery of laboratory results directly into their EMRs, and we understood the importance of such a capability for improving patient care and adding business value. Novo came very highly recommended from IT professionals and major EMR vendors, and when we looked at their value proposition, it was head and shoulders above that of other systems we considered in terms of service, pricing, support and features.”

The Novo system enables Intermountain to deliver reports and results directly into a wide variety of ambulatory vendors’ EMRs. Intermountain selected the Novo system for its rapid deployability, scalability, cost-effectiveness and interoperability with the widest range of EMR systems. Intermountain also valued Novo’s ability to quickly certify interoperability with additional EMRs, due to the wide variety of EMRs in the community Intermountain serves.

“Like any health system, strengthening our relationships with practices is an ongoing strategic priority,” says Brent Wallace, M.D., chief medical officer at Intermountain Healthcare. “In addition to the outbound results and reports functionality already in place, we are developing additional exchange solutions with Novo. We see these new developments as ongoing value-added services that will have a positive impact on patient care and safety as well as on business operations at affiliated practices.”

The Novo Innovations solution has also helped Intermountain expand its information systems (I.S.) offerings without burdening the health system’s I.S. staff. According to Marc Probst, CIO and vice president, information systems at Intermountain Healthcare, “Novo allows us to bypass the job of building an interface for each EMR in our community, which is an extremely resource-intensive job that’s also non-scalable. With a minimum of effort from our team and practice staffs, practices are up and running, receiving the information they want, how they want it. And our interface team’s involvement has been minimized, which lets us continue to focus on internal projects.”

Robert Connely, CEO of Novo Innovations, says, “We are very gratified that Intermountain Healthcare has joined the ranks of health systems improving patient care and business performance with the help of Novo’s agent technology and consultative services. Intermountain has a long history of leadership in the healthcare IT arena, as evidenced by Intermountain’s consistently high rankings over the last nine years in Verispan’s list of the nation’s top integrated health systems. We’re proud to contribute to Intermountain’s legacy of service to the Utah community.”

About Novo Innovations

Founded in 2003, Novo Innovations has pioneered a new approach to health information exchange. Novo’s approach is based on the use of intelligent software agents to provide workflow automation and system integration between hospitals, physicians and other providers in the healthcare community. Novo’s comprehensive service approach provides all of the necessary integration expertise and technical effort, enabling any hospital or health system to create a community exchange solution at a fraction of the time, cost and effort of other solutions. As Novo agents are deployed to address tactical interoperability challenges, they form the core of an information grid that will be able to address future strategic challenges. Novo has rapidly become a market leader, currently serving more than 250 hospital communities in the US. Learn more at www.novoinnovations.com or call 1-888-325-NOVO.

About Intermountain Healthcare

Intermountain Healthcare is a Utah-based system of nonprofit hospitals, clinics and health services. With a commitment to provide excellent medical care to patients from our region regardless of their ability to pay, Intermountain’s physicians, nurses and other caregivers treat patients in Utah and southeastern Idaho. Primary Children’s Medical Center, Intermountain Medical Center, McKay-Dee Hospital Center, LDS Hospital, Utah Valley Regional Medical Center and Dixie Regional Medical Center are part of Intermountain's family of 21 hospitals.