SAN JOSE, CA – Certify Data Systems, Inc. announced today that MultiCare Health System has expanded its deployment of Certify’s interoperability solution for health information exchange systemwide to its four acute care hospitals and affiliated physicians.

Certify’s HealthDock appliance aims to enable the electronic flow of clinical data securely between hospitals and physician practices, regardless of the electronic medical record (EMR) system being used. Working in concert with Certify’s enterprise-class hospital Gateway as a completely integrated health information network, the HealthDock allows disparate IT systems to securely and seamlessly exchange clinical data, such as laboratory results and orders, radiology reports and orders, discharge summaries and other critical patient information. Through the HealthDock appliance, Certify simplifies the time-consuming, resource-intensive and difficult process of interfacing with physician EMRs.

MultiCare, an integrated health organization, is the largest provider of healthcare services in the Tacoma, Wash., area. MultiCare received the 2009 HIMSS Davies organizational award for its leadership in EMR implementation.

MultiCare officials said the technology helps achieve the needed functionality to meet the criteria for “meaningful use” as defined to date by the Health Information Technology Policy Committee. The HITECH Act provisions of ARRA dedicate $19.2 billion to the “meaningful use” of health information technology.

“Before we had the Certify HealthDock our nurses were spending two days a week re-keying the hospital’s lab results into our EMR,” said Robert Middleton, M.D., Cardiologist at Cardiovascular Consultants in Auburn, Wash. “Now they focus that time on patient care. The amount of time this has saved our physicians, nursing staff and medical records team has been significant. The electronic merging with our EMR has been effortless and continues to allow our staff to get results to patients in a timely manner.”