TAMPA, FL--(Marketwire - March 10, 2011) - Sage Healthcare Division, a unit of Sage North America and a major provider of electronic health records (EHR) and practice management software and services, announced today that COSSMA, Inc., a Puerto Rico-based community health center with more than 23 years serving several communities throughout the island, has chosen to implement the Sage Intergy Meaningful Use Edition to meet the practice's financial and clinical needs.
COSSMA, Inc., a comprehensive five-practice, 23-physician nonprofit health center with more than 27,900 patient visits per year, selected Sage's meaningful use software as part of Sage's Customer Appreciation Program (CAP), which was designed as a way to thank customers for their loyalty to Sage.
Sage's CAP allowed COSSMA, Inc. to implement an EHR, moving from Sage HealthPro practice management system at no cost for the software. Through CAP, COSSMA, Inc. only had to incur hardware and service agreement costs.
"We are seeking ways to increase efficiencies, and adding the Sage Intergy Meaningful Use Edition EHR is one of the most logical steps," said Isolina Miranda, Executive Director of COSSMA, Inc. "Like any large clinic, we have a great deal of expense because of paper costs and the Sage system will help us mitigate those costs. There will be no more lost paper, and it will be easier to have complete patient records in hand at any of our locations."
Miranda said that adding an EHR to the clinic will result in a complete, but positive, culture change for the organization and will require educating staff and patients. Miranda is quick to point to the benefits an electronic system will deliver.
"We'll be able to look at every health detail, from any clinic in the system, and provide service to patients from wherever we are," she said. "Specifically, though, we want to be able to track patient outcomes and monitor issues before they arise rather than after, which is not the case when using paper."
Moving to an EHR would not have been possible without Sage's CAP program, which was launched in August 2010 and ends March 31, 2011.
"Many of our customers are asking how to achieve meaningful use compliance and benefit from stimulus funding. COSSMA, Inc., like many of our clients, has the same goals as we do: to improve care outcomes and help make the entire system more efficient," said Betty Otter-Nickerson, president of Sage Healthcare Division. "We're helping our clients reduce barriers they face as they continue making investments in their business."
COSSMA, Inc. is full-service healthcare system, offering educational courses to patients, providing home visits and aggressively managing chronic care conditions, said Miranda. Monitoring health outcomes of its patients through the EHR will only further improve care outcomes and streamline clinical and financial operations.
"We've been looking forward to using the EHR because of the changing practice of medicine," Miranda said. "They make the entire process more efficient; we're able to make decisions with our patients immediately and all the necessary information is directly at hand. Paper hinders that, especially when you can just touch a button and have everything you need at your fingertips."
Along with the benefits of EHR, improved revenue cycle management and having meaningful use reporting data at hand, Miranda said she hopes the technology will create enough practice efficiencies so the clinic's physicians can see more patients and allow her to add even more physicians to the practice.
Sage has been providing ambulatory healthcare systems for almost 30 years, serving more than 400,000 healthcare professionals including 80,000 physicians in the United States with EHRs, practice management systems and other services to streamline patient care.
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About COSSMA, Inc.
COSSMA was founded in 1987 as a private nonprofit organization. In the 1960s, healthcare services were provided exclusively to migrant and seasonal farm workers and their families residing in one of the municipalities of the Caguas Health Region, including Cidra, Caguas, Aguas Buenas, Cayey, Aibonito, Gurabo, San Lorenzo, Juncos, Las Piedras, Maunabo, Naguabo, Yabucoa and Humacao. In 1995, COSSMA expanded its services to the public, responding to the inset of Managed Care/Health Care Reform. For more information, please visit www.cossmapr.org or call (787) 739-8182 ext. 1200.
About Sage Healthcare Division
Sage Healthcare Division provides integrated electronic health records, EDI applications and practice management systems to approximately 80,000 physicians and thousands of ambulatory care practices throughout North America. These systems enable physicians and practice managers to better manage their practices and improve quality of care. Sage Healthcare Division is based in Tampa, Fla., and is a division of Sage North America. For more information, please visit www.sagehealth.com or call (877) 932-6301. Follow Sage Healthcare Division on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/SageHealthcare, and Twitter, http://twitter.com/#!/sagehealthcare.
About Sage North America
Sage North America is part of The Sage Group plc, a leading global supplier of business management software and services. Sage North America employs 4,000 people and supports 3.2 million small and midsized business customers including approximately 80,000 physicians. The Sage Group plc, formed in 1981, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now employs 13,400 people and supports 6.3 million customers worldwide. For more information, please visit the website at www.sagenorthamerica.com. Follow Sage North America on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/SageNorthAmerica, and Twitter, http://twitter.com/#!/sagenamerica.
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