Dairyland Healthcare Solutions Receives CCHIT Certification

Business Wire, June 18, 2008

Software Meets 100 Percent of Inpatient Certification Criteria

GLENWOOD, Minn. -- The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT[R]) today announced that Dairyland Healthcare Solutions' Clinical Information Systems (CIS) Version 9.0.0 is pre-market, conditionally CCHIT Certified[R], and meets the Commission's inpatient electronic health record (EHR) criteria for 2007. Inpatient EHRs are designed for use in acute care hospitals. Pre-market, conditionally certified EHRs are new products that are fully certified once their operational use in a hospital site has been verified. The Commission - an independent, nonprofit organization - is the Recognized Certification Body in the United States for certifying health information technology products.

In addition to meeting foundation standards such as security, certified inpatient products are examined for clinician order entry (often called CPOE) and medication administration capabilities (often called eMAR), including related clinical decision support. As a CCHIT Certified product, Clinical Information Systems has been tested and passed inspection of 100 percent of a set of criteria for CPOE and eMAR. The Commission focused certification testing on these areas first because they have the lowest rate of adoption in hospitals but are thought to offer the highest value for improvement of care.

"The thorough inspection process ensures that certified products have demonstrated their ability to have a positive impact on the quality and safety of patient care," said Mark Leavitt, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Commission. "I'd like to congratulate the certified product companies, who now represent the leading edge in advanced EHR products for the inpatient setting."

The CCHIT Certified mark -- a "seal of approval" for EHR products -- provides the first consensus-based, government-recognized benchmark for inpatient EHR products. By looking to products with the CCHIT Certified seal, acute care providers can reduce their risk in selecting EHR products for CPOE and eMAR.

"We are honored that CCHIT has certified Dairyland for operational use in hospitals," said James Burgess, Dairyland CEO. "This certification is critically important and our community hospital partners should be assured that Dairyland solutions continue to meet the highest quality standards in patient care," he added.

CCHIT's certification compliance criteria and its design for a certification inspection process have been thoroughly researched, taking into account the state of the art of EHRs and available standards, and comparing certification processes in other industries and other countries. The inspection process is based on real-life medical scenarios designed to test products rigorously against the clinical needs of providers and the quality and safety needs of healthcare consumers and payers. One script, for example, recreates a scenario of a middle-aged man admitted through the emergency department after sustaining fractures in an automobile accident. The script tests the ability of the EHR to provide clinical decision support during the ordering and administration of medications, and to track whether laboratory and radiology orders have been entered and received.

About Dairyland Healthcare Solutions

Dairyland Healthcare Solutions is an award-winning healthcare information systems company that links essential information between small community hospitals and their healthcare delivery and business networks. Dairyland enables its hospital partners to deliver the highest level of patient care by providing the information infrastructure required to operate effectively in the dynamic and complex healthcare delivery environment. For almost three decades, Dairyland has partnered with leading community hospitals to help them improve efficiencies, enhance profitability and ensure patient safety by providing solutions to manage, integrate and access key financial, clinical and patient information. Dairyland is the only company to be awarded three consecutive "Best in KLAS" ratings in the Community Hospital Information Systems category. To learn more, visit: http://www.dhsnet.com .

About CCHIT

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT[R]) is an independent, nonprofit organization that has been named by the federal government as the Recognized Certification Body for health information technology. Its mission is to accelerate the adoption of health information technology by creating a credible, sustainable certification program. The certification requirements are based on widely accepted industry standards and involve the work of hundreds of expert volunteers and input from a variety of stakeholders throughout the health care industry. More information on CCHIT and CCHIT Certified[R] products is available at www.cchit.org.

"CCHIT[R]" and "CCHIT Certified[R]" are registered marks of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology.