Aurora Health Care Selects Phytel to Enhance Care Management Program

Business Wire, Feb 27, 2008

Use of Proactive[TM] Patient Outreach will enable Wisconsin-based provider to optimize patient compliance, improve quality of care and increase physician productivity

DALLAS -- Phytel, a leading provider of solutions that automate the patient follow-up process, today announced that Aurora Health Care, a not-for-profit, Wisconsin-based integrated health care provider, has selected its Proactive Patient Outreach product. The health care provider plans to implement the technology in March.

A nationally recognized leader of efforts to improve quality of health care, Aurora Health Care will utilize Proactive Patient Outreach to automate the follow up process for its patient population. Evidence-based guidelines will be used to identify patients in need of preventive and follow-up care. Patients are then notified through automated outreach messaging when they are due for recommended care. Time previously spent on tickler files, chart pulls, manual calls and preparation of mailers will now be devoted to more productive areas.

"We strive to maximize the long-term societal benefits of our services," said David Smith, M.D., medical director, care management, Aurora Health Care. "Phytel will give us better access to patients that are most in need of care, and will also enable us to focus more on preventative care with the goal of increasing patient satisfaction.

"With a focus on patient-centered care and continually looking for ways to enhance our quality of care, this technology is an important tool to help us achieve our goal," said Jim Brannon, senior vice president & COO, Aurora Health Care. "We're continually looking for ways to more effectively and efficiently care for our patients and Phytel is one way to help us to better connect with our patients and to better serve them."

"We are eager to assist Aurora Health Care with the enhancement of their care management program," said Neil Smiley, president and CEO of Phytel. "We understand the financial challenges that they face as a not-for-profit organization, and believe Proactive Patient Outreach will prove to be a wise investment."

Phytel's Proactive Patient Outreach product integrates with existing technology, including practice management and electronic medical record systems, and incorporates prescription data, lab data, and other clinical data. This allows health care organizations to develop and maintain a health and disease management patient registry for an entire patient population. Based on an application service provider (ASP) model, the solution requires no additional equipment and is available through a monthly subscription fee.

About Aurora Health Care

Aurora Health Care is a not-for-profit Wisconsin integrated health care system and a nationally recognized leader of efforts to improve the quality of health care. Aurora offers services at sites in more than 90 communities throughout eastern Wisconsin. Aurora has over 700 providers meeting the health needs of more than a million patients in hospitals, clinics and other facilities. For more information, please visit www.aurorahealthcare.org.

About Phytel

Phytel was founded in 1996 to provide physicians with tools for better managing patient-physician communications and care-related activities. Phytel uses evidence-based disease management and preventive care protocols to identify non-compliant patients that are overdue for service and then automatically notifies them of needed healthcare actions. Improved patient and disease management leads to increased quality of care, which ultimately leads to more financial opportunity for a provider. Phytel guarantees a minimum 300 percent return on investment within 60 days and typical Phytel clients see an average return on investment of 500 percent to 1,000 percent. For more information, please visit www.phytel.com.