ProHEALTH Care Associates (Lake Success, New York), a multi-specialty physician group practice, reported that it has signed a contract for information technology and medical imaging applications from GE Healthcare (Waukesha, Wisconsin), valued at $4.4 million.
The nine-site, 88-physician practice said it will implement GE Healthcare's Centricity electronic health records, practice management and radiology information systems. It also will use the vendor's claims clearinghouse services and implement the GE Discovery PET/CT imaging modality.
In other contract news: The Premier (San Diego) healthcare alliance reported that five hospitals have renewed contracts to continue using SafetySurveillor to detect and alert staff of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and protect patients by continuously tracking HAIs and antibiotic use.
The company said that nearly 200 hospitals currently utilize the Web-based SafetySurveillor infection prevention system to enhance patient care.
Hospitals renewing their contracts with Premier are: Dallas VA Medical Center (Dallas); Methodist Hospital (Omaha, Nebraska; and St. Elizabeth Medical Center (Covington, Kentucky).
SafetySurveillor helps hospitals collect data needed to meet state-mandated public reporting of certain HAIs, including prophylactic antibiotic start and stop times and identification of patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile, two common infections found in hospitals today. Because of the large volume of clinical data that must be analyzed, many hospitals have resources to do targeted surveillance of high-risk patients only. With the automated SafetySurveillor system, hospitals can detect HAIs, alert staff and facilitate timely intervention to reduce and prevent infections.
Owned by not-for-profit hospitals, Premier operates one of the leading healthcare purchasing networks and the nation's most comprehensive repository of hospital clinical and financial information.
A Diagnostics & Imaging Week Staff Report
