NEW ORLEANS, March 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- HIMSS 2013 -- Last night at the Microsoft Health Users Group Forum at HIMSS, PatientPoint® and Miami Children's Hospital® (MCH) were announced winners of the Microsoft Health Users Group 2013 Innovation Awards for "Innovation in Patient Engagement" based on MCH's use of the PatientPoint Care Coordination Platform 2.0. The awards are presented annually to healthcare organizations and their technology solutions partners that best demonstrate industry leadership in using technology to achieve innovation excellence.

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In March of 2012, MCH embarked on a strategic initiative focused on improving the patient experience at the point of care and across the care continuum. Ed Martinez, senior vice president and CIO of MCH, selected the PatientPoint Care Coordination Platform 2.0, the first mobile-enabled care coordination and patient engagement platform to be prevalidated by the National Committee for Quality Assurance for 2011 patient-centered medical home (PCMH) criteria, to help the organization achieve higher levels of patient engagement, and overcome cost burdens and operational inefficiencies within its care coordination processes.

"Our partnership with PatientPoint has been vital to our success in demonstrating the importance of provider engagement programs at the point of care and along the broader continuum," said Martinez. "We are proud of the best-in-class technology we provide our clinicians to help manage population health and the high level of quality we deliver to our patients. It is not only an honor to be recognized by Microsoft as a technology innovator, but it is also added validation of our hard work as we continue to find ways to improve outcomes and lower the cost of care."

PatientPoint deployed more than 40 check-in points across the hospital with complete integration to the MCH Admissions-Discharge-Transfer (ADT) systems. Since initial implementation, the PatientPoint Platform has demonstrated significant results in reducing average wait times from triage to registration. In keeping with their strategy, MCH has introduced the Platform across multiple care settings to establish a unified point-of-care experience for MCH patients. Now, with the PatientPoint Care Coordination Platform 2.0, MCH extends its patient-centric vision with a focus on population health and the coordination of care.

Built on a pure Microsoft stack utilizing Microsoft SQL Server and .NET, the PatientPoint Care Coordination Platform 2.0 delivers functionality beyond standard population health management tools by leveraging data aggregated from health plans, EMRs and patient self-reports to establish the most relevant clinical care record for the patient. Innovative patient engagement tools, including tablet-based check-in, IVR, secure messaging and mobile applications, allow MCH to perform pre-care outreach to noncompliant patients on behalf of the physician, further streamline clinical processes at the point of care, and automate post-care follow-up to ensure patients are adherent to required medications and compliant to plans of care.

"The 2013 Microsoft HUG Innovation Awards recognizes health organizations that are using technology to improve patient care and engagement, streamline processes and boost performance, as well as enable more informed decisions about health," said Steve Aylward, general manager of U.S. Commercial Health and Life Sciences, Microsoft. "Each of this year's winners clearly demonstrated a breakthrough in technology and made a significant impact on business processes, costs and the quality of patient care."

On the heels of the award, this week PatientPoint announced the release of the PatientPoint Care Coordination Platform 2.5, further enhancing an organization's ability to efficiently manage population health with features such as:

• Care planning tools to support high priority care management tasks for at-risk patients and transitions in care;
• Big Data solutions to harness and normalize vital data points for practice level decision support;
• Screening tools to streamline the identification and consent process for clinical trial enrollment;
• Patient-centric education and tools for patient self-care.

"We are proud to deliver the most innovative care coordination toolset to Miami Children's Hospital, a true healthcare innovator," said Raj Toleti, founder and president of PatientPoint Coordinated Care Solutions. "While outcomes of new care delivery models offer the promise of improved quality, lower healthcare costs and improved patient experience, there are still many operational burdens that challenge the implementation and sustainability of such models. Healthcare organizations, like MCH, are positioned to improve the quality and delivery of healthcare through evidence-based medical innovations and smart technology solutions using the Microsoft platform."

Now in its sixteenth year, the Microsoft Health Users Group 2013 Innovation Awards is an opportunity to showcase how a healthcare organization is using technology to enhance and transform the quality of patient care, reduce costs, streamline clinical and business processes, drive interoperability, improve productivity and workflow and enable informed decisions. To join, visit http://mshug.org.

About Miami Children's Hospital

Founded in 1950 by Variety Clubs International, Miami Children's Hospital® is South Florida's only licensed specialty hospital exclusively for children, with more than 650 attending physicians and over 130 pediatric sub-specialists. The 289-bed hospital is renowned for excellence in all aspects of pediatric medicine with several specialty programs ranked among the best in the nation in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 by U.S. News & World Report. The hospital is also home to the largest pediatric teaching program in the southeastern United States and has been designated an American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet facility, the nursing profession's most prestigious institutional honor.

About PatientPoint

PatientPoint® is the leader and innovator of patient and physician engagement solutions at the point of care. PatientPoint award-winning patient education programs and care coordination platform drive meaningful outcomes for patients, healthcare providers and program sponsors. The PatientPoint Care Coordination Platform is the first mobile-enabled care coordination and patient engagement platform to be prevalidated by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for 2011 patient-centered medical home (PCMH) criteria. PatientPoint serves more than 61,000 physicians across all programs and more than 570 hospitals throughout the U.S., and impacts over 456 million patient and caregiver exposures annually. Learn more at www.patientpoint.com.

Contact:
Davida Dinerman/Pauline Louie
Schwartz MSL
patientpoint@schwartzmsl.com
781-684-0770

SOURCE PatientPoint