Press Release Details
For More Information, Contact:
Lisa DeMoss
Director, Marketing and Communications
(615) 261-1716
ldemoss@spheris.com
For Immediate Release
Spheris Introduces Clarity™, a Comprehensive Suite of Advanced Clinical Documentation Technology
Franklin, Tenn — October 09, 2006 — Spheris, a leading global provider of clinical documentation solutions, today introduced the Clarity™ technology platform at the annual American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) Convention. Clarity seamlessly integrates medical transcription processes with innovative technologies, including embedded speech recognition, to drive efficiencies, improve document quality, lower costs and utilize discrete clinical data more intelligently. When combined with Spheris' leading global network of 5,500 medical language specialists (MLSs), Clarity is the clear choice for healthcare providers looking to save time, money and improve clinical documentation processes.“Our healthcare clients are very clear about what they're looking for regarding their clinical documentation needs,” stated Steven E. Simpson, Spheris president and CEO. “Without question, lower costs and a combination of innovative technologies and reliable services that deliver long-term return on investment are their urgent needs. Providing quality healthcare delivery to the patient has always been, and will continue to be, about the successful combination of people and technology,” Simpson added. “We take that fundamental premise to heart while striving to deliver the same appropriate blend of technology and services to support our clients' business needs.”
The Clarity platform represents a significant advancement in how clinical documentation technology is developed and deployed for health systems, hospitals and physician groups. Some of Clarity's unique characteristics include its native XML, Web-based architecture which will help accelerate the healthcare industry's evolution toward electronic health record (EHR) adoption and the extraction, analysis and application of discrete clinical data to help improve patient care. Additionally, Clarity was designed through research and development with significant input from Spheris medical language specialists. Spheris' own MLSs serve as a built-in “user community” of the Clarity technology and provide important feedback for product enhancements. The result is a comprehensive, scalable, fully-integrated solution that can be tailor-fit to each client's specific documentation needs and delivered as either an application service provider (ASP) or enterprise offering.
An important cost-saving feature is Clarity's sophisticated workflow management system, which enables the seamless integration of all acute care hospital departments and ambulatory clinics across a health system enterprise.
“Utilization of Clarity's single platform empowers the enterprise to significantly reduce the cost and chaos caused by multiple vendors and disparate platforms,” stated Dr. Christopher Rehm, Spheris' chief medical officer. “For example, radiology departments, which historically have had a technology solution distinct from their hospital's HIM department, can now be fully integrated onto the Web-based Clarity platform. With Clarity, the entire enterprise can deploy functionality, including speech recognition, at its own pace when each department or individual physician is ready,” Rehm stated. “Whether it is front-end self-editing or back-end assisted-editing, each client can determine the implementation and roll-out timeline so it can accommodate early technology adopters and immediately begin realizing the efficiencies and cost savings of advanced speech recognition technology across a fully-integrated acute care and ambulatory enterprise.”
Another distinct attribute making Clarity an intelligent choice is that clients can now choose precisely how they wish to deploy the service resources required to complete the clinical documentation process. Clients can deploy Clarity as a technology-only solution for their own in-house medical transcriptionists and editors, or they can outsource all or a portion of their required medical transcription service needs.
“While technology applications are becoming increasingly important in the clinical documentation process, medical transcription and editing services will be required to effectively and efficiently complete the process for the foreseeable future,” stated Simpson. “Spheris clients can choose to take advantage of our industry-leading global network of 5,500 medical language specialists, staffed at every hour of the day, with enough capacity to accommodate customers of any size. Or, they can manage their own resources. It's their choice.”
“Many of Clarity's basic features and functions are a significant improvement over existing alternatives in the market today,” stated Rehm. ”Clarity is compatible with virtually all voice capture technologies; equipped with embedded, state-of-the-art speech recognition technology; includes performance-enhancing document creation, editing, approval, distribution and reporting tools; and supports an array of highly-developed HIM reporting capabilities.'
“As we look forward,” Simpson added, “Clarity, with its native XML clinical documentation platform, is designed to support discrete data element validation, also known as 'data tagging.' With the rapidly increasing need to digitize and organize clinical data, technology must be conceived and constructed today with an understanding of the future requirements for applying clinical data-mining, analysis and application to advance healthcare intelligence. Because of its innovative architecture, Clarity is unique in its origin as a clinical documentation technology.”
Clarity is being introduced at the annual American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) convention October 7 “ 12 in Denver, Colo. “We are pleased to be able to demonstrate the many advantages of the Clarity technology,” stated Simpson. “I would like to invite everyone interested in seeing and learning more about Clarity to visit the Spheris booth at the AHIMA convention.”
For more information about Spheris and Clarity, please contact a Spheris representative at the AHIMA convention, booth number 426, or visit www.spheris.com.
About Spheris Spheris is a leading provider of clinical documentation services and technology to health systems, hospitals and group practices throughout the U.S. Founded by physicians in 1993, Spheris employs a global network of medical language specialists for true 24-hour service, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The proprietary Spheris Clarity™ technology platform integrates the full range of clinical documentation software and hardware into one seamless, customizable system, including embedded speech recognition technologies. The Spheris solution is flexible and scalable to balance the needs of HIM directors, CFOs, IT directors and physicians with an emphasis on verifiable quality, turnaround time, security and pricing. Spheris' worldwide corporate headquarters is located in Franklin, Tenn. For more information, please visit www.spheris.com.