GE Healthcare to Supply U.S. Government with Pharmacy Information System
GE Healthcare, a division of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), announced today at the 2005 Annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s (HIMSS) Conference & Exhibition February 14-17 at the Dallas Convention Center, that it has been selected by the U.S. government to serve as the primary pharmacy information system provider for TRICARE Management Activity, the health care provider for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), which manages the healthcare for the U.S. military and its retirees around the world.
GE Healthcare’s Centricity(R) Pharmacy Information System, on display at HIMSS this week at the Dallas Convention Center, electronically manages all pharmacy and drug-related information pertaining to an individual hospital patient or multitudes of patients across a large network of hospitals, clinics and other healthcare facilities. The system also provides the necessary information tools for pharmacy managers and pharmacists to efficiently distribute medications as prescribed by healthcare professionals and allows pharmacists to monitor the use of drugs across the organization, helping to prevent allergic reactions and medication interaction.
“The review and selection process was rigorous and thorough and GE is proud to have been chosen to provide America’s government and soldiers with pharmacy support that will enhance the ability of physicians to provide the best possible patient care,” said Vishal Wanchoo, president and CEO of Information Technologies, part of GE Healthcare. “We believe that GE’s Centricity Pharmacy Information System is the most comprehensive pharmacy product on the market and is an important part of our technology portfolio, which is leading the digital revolution of healthcare.”
GE’s Centricity Pharmacy system includes software and various professional services, including consulting, training, project management and ongoing 24X7 software support.
According to Wanchoo, GE’s Centricity Pharmacy solution is well suited for large, multi-site healthcare organizations, including hospitals, clinics and organizations like Tricare, which operates more than 800 facilities and 500 dispensing pharmacies that manage 93 million prescriptions per year.
“GE’s Centricity Pharmacy Information System was ranked at the top of its class in 2003 by KLAS Enterprises, a leading industry authority,” said Wanchoo. “The qualities that make our product stand out amongst the competition – value, quality and workflow – are all things that will benefit a large organization like the Military Health System.”
Centricity Pharmacy also tracks drug interaction and flags any possible adverse reactions. “It has been documented that approximately 40 percent of all errors are made at the patient’s bedside,” said Wanchoo. “Recent studies have indicated that the implementation of a pharmacy information system can result in a reduction in medication errors by up to 50 percent.”
The Centricity Pharmacy solution is available on a standalone basis or as part of the full GE Centricity suite of healthcare software applications. GE’s Centricity Pharmacy solution is used at some of the leading facilities in the United States, like Johns Hopkins Hospital, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Delivery to the TRICARE Management Activity has already begun. The agreement between GE and TRICARE will proceed on a project-by-project basis with the potential for a 10-year duration and more than $80 million in revenue for GE. The Centricity Pharmacy solution could potentially be rolled out globally for DOD use.
ABOUT GE HEALTHCARE
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies that will shape a new age of patient care. GE Healthcare’s expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, disease research, drug discovery and biopharmaceuticals is dedicated to detecting disease earlier and tailoring treatment for individual patients. GE Healthcare offers a broad range of services to improve productivity in healthcare and enable healthcare providers to better diagnose, treat and manage patients with conditions such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular diseases.
GE Healthcare is a $14 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) that is headquartered in the United Kingdom. Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 42,500 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com .
