McKesson Announces OSF Home Care Services will Implement Horizon Homecare^™ in Offices Across Two States

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OSF Home Care Services, one of the leading providers of homecare and hospice services across Illinois and Michigan, has selected McKesson’s Horizon Homecare^™ solution to support its goals of improving patient satisfaction and agency process efficiencies. OSF Home Care Services, headquartered in Peoria, Ill., is a not-for-profit organization that delivers 180,000 homecare visits annually and has a daily hospice census of 195.

“We used the Six Sigma process applied by a specially selected team that identified our needs and evaluated vendors”

The decision to select the Horizon Homecare solution came after a stringent year-long evaluation and elimination process, according to Cindy Bauling, vice president of Home Care Services at OSF. “We used the Six Sigma process applied by a specially selected team that identified our needs and evaluated vendors,” she said. “McKesson’s Horizon Homecare was the system that clearly met our requirements.”

The organization plans to roll out the new technology to all of its offices starting with the Horizon Homecare Agency Management core information system. Next, all 350 of the organization’s skilled clinicians will be given access to the system’s point-of-care solution. This solution is designed to help streamline workflow, standardize clinical practices in the field, and ensure that both clinicians and office staff have access to up-to-date information when they need it. OSF’s clinicians also will use Horizon Homecare Telephony, which enables field staff to use any touch-tone phone to document information from the visit directly into the patient’s electronic medical record.

According to Donna Medina, vice president of Hospice Services at OSF, Horizon Homecare will positively affect key performance indicators identified by the organization, including staff productivity, billing functions, accounts receivable days and regulatory compliance. “We believe Horizon Homecare will help us improve patient satisfaction through improved staff satisfaction,” said Medina. “The system will reduce the time clinicians spend documenting the visit in the home, which will give them more time with the patient and improve patient care. Horizon Homecare’s reports will help us understand the efficacy of our care processes and patient outcomes to continually improve the quality of care we provide.”

McKesson’s Horizon Homecare solution provides homecare and hospice organizations a comprehensive system for office clinical documentation, personnel scheduling, point-of-care technology, revenue cycle management, physician access, operational analysis and supply management. The solution is the foundation for McKesson’s strategy to expand the healthcare infrastructure to include home technologies that address the growing need for homecare delivery. More than 30,000 nurses and other clinicians rely on Horizon Homecare to support more than 50 million patient visits per year in the home.

“We look forward to our partnership with OSF Home Care Services,” said Chris Dollar, general manager and vice president McKesson’s homecare and hospice division. “The organization’s diligent approach to selecting Horizon Homecare indicates its overall dedication to excellence.”

About OSF Home Care Services

OSF Home Care Services is a part of OSF HealthCare, a multi-state corporation operating facilities in Illinois and Michigan. The organization provides services that include hospice, home health, home medical equipment, home infusion pharmacy, physician house calls, private home care, personal response system and diabetes supply program. Through its affiliated companies, the organization is nationally recognized as a leading integrated healthcare network of facilities. Its parent company, The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, is a not-for-profit corporation reinvesting resources into the communities it serves since 1877.

About McKesson

McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 18th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and healthcare 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 is the longest-operating company in healthcare today, marking its 175^th anniversary this year. 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.