Press Releases

CHRISTUS Health Goes Live with LYNX Revenue Management Solution

Leading US health system standardizes ED charging across 21 hospitals with LYNX E/Point

Bellevue, Wash. — Mar. 10, 2009 — LYNX Medical Systems, a Picis company, today announced that CHRISTUS Health, one of the top 10 Catholic health systems in the United States, has gone live with Picis LYNX E/Point® in 18 of its acute care hospitals and plans to have E/Point fully implemented in three additional hospitals soon. The implementation of LYNX E/Point is part of a phased implementation to eliminate fluctuations in emergency care charges, and maintain consistency in acuity levels and Emergency Department (ED) reimbursements in CHRISTUS facilities throughout Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Utah. LYNX E/Point, the industry-leading ED facility point-of-care revenue capture solution, is designed to deliver more predictable and appropriate charge capture for services, while helping the hospitals maintain compliance and recover revenue previously unrecognized because of problems in documentation. CHRISTUS is now applying this standardized charging methodology to an estimated 670,000 annual ED visits each year.

“After a thorough market assessment, we determined LYNX E/Point was the best solution to improve our documentation and Evaluation and Management (E/M) coding and bring consistency to our facilities across many regions,” said Reggie Allen, system director, Quality and Clinical Operations, CHRISTUS Health. “With a 98 percent customer retention rate and an outstanding record of performance, we felt confident that they would be able to quickly deploy E/Point across our health system. We are already seeing better documentation and revenue capture of ED services in our live sites to match resources used and treatment of patients.”

LYNX E/Point is being utilized to charge for both ED E/M visit levels and ED procedures. Deployed in a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, E/Point was installed quickly and rolled out to 18 CHRISTUS healthcare facilities with three others planned. It has been well received by the ED staff.

“I feel very comfortable using E/Point to charge and I feel confident that CHRISTUS Health is seeing more revenue generated,” says Cynthia Ryan, clinical education coordinator at Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital in San Antonio.

E/Point prompts staff to accurately record all work performed and uses an acuity-based methodology to produce a consistent, compliant and accurate facility visit level charge that reflects patient acuity, services provided and resources used. Additionally, E/Point establishes an audit trail for each charge assigned.

“Due to the extremely busy and unpredictable environment in the emergency department, millions of dollars of charges go uncaptured every year in the average hospital — more than any other hospital service area,” says Todd Cozzens, CEO and vice chairman of Picis, LYNX’s parent corporation. “In these tough economic times, hospitals are looking for ways to preserve revenue and improve reimbursement for the quality of care they provide. As the proven market leader, LYNX solutions can be relied on to ensure that every hospital charges properly for the services it provides.”

To learn more about LYNX E/Point, visit http://www.lynxmed.com/software/epoint.html or download a complementary trial online at http://www.lynxmed.com/software/epoint/free-online-trial

About LYNX Medical Systems, Inc.
LYNX Medical Systems, Inc., a Picis company, delivers results in emergency care through industry leading revenue management solutions that promote financial health and compliance. LYNX software and services help health systems and hospitals improve Emergency Department (ED) clinical documentation, improve coding compliance, and promote accurate and consistent code assignment for appropriate reimbursement. LYNX clients maintain a consistent, documented and repeatable return on investment. Currently, LYNX serves more than 400 healthcare organizations, representing more than 20 million annual encounters.

About Picis
Picis is a global provider of innovative information solutions that enable rapid and sustained delivery of clinical, financial and operational results in the acute care areas of the hospital. These high-acuity areas include the emergency department, operating and recovery rooms, and intensive care units. Picis offers the most advanced suite of integrated products focused on these life-critical areas of the hospital where the patients are the most vulnerable, the care process is the most complex and an increasing majority of hospital costs and potential revenue are concentrated. Headquartered in Wakefield, Massachusetts, Picis has licensed systems for use in more than 1,700 hospitals in 19 countries. More information is available at www.picis.com.

© 2009 Picis, Inc. All rights reserved. Picis and E/Point may be a trademark or registered trademark of Picis, Inc. or LYNX Medical Systems, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the properties of their respective owners. This press release contains express or implied forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, Picis’ expectations concerning the functionality and market acceptance of its products, and management’s plans, objectives and strategies. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Picis’ control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements.