The latest issue of Healthcare IT News features insights from some local players — including Stratasan's Jason Moore — on states' performance in providing meaningful data to health care organizations.

“Some states do a much better job than others,” said Jason Moore, president of Nashville-based Stratasan. “Florida is one of the best in the nation in providing hospital discharge data that’s timely, comprehensive and reasonably priced. And Virginia will likely be the first state to release first quarter 2012 discharge data. But the quality and timeliness of the data varies widely from state to state.”

Also quoted in the issue is HealthStream's Mollie Condra, who speaks about IT's enabling huge leaps forward in surgery simulations.

“There are now simulation mannequins that actually sweat, bleed and talk,” said Mollie Condra, associate vice president of Nashville-based HealthStream. “We partner with Laerdal Medical, the Norwegian-based global leader in mannequin design. Our SimCenter family of products provides software ‘scenarios’ that can be downloaded into the mannequins, plus software to help manage the complex logistics of scheduling and certification.”

ICA partner AlliedHIE has been awarded a coveted Health Information Service Provider (HISP) certification in Pennsylvania and, according to the announcement, a large thanks goes to the Nashville company.

Receiving a HISP certification is critical to becoming a participant in advancing the State eHealth Collaborative Strategic Plan. With HISP certification, AlliedHIE is also grant-eligible for several opportunities to help advance health IT initiatives in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. AlliedHIE is a nationwide health information exchange (HIE) leading secure clinical messaging "DIRECT/HISP" pilot projects in Pennsylvania.

"We are very pleased to announce that AlliedHIE has received the HISP certification from the Pennsylvania eHealth Collaborative," said Kelly Lewis, president and chief executive officer of AlliedHIE. "ICA is our technology partner in this venture and this dynamic relationship is already paying dividends. Certainly, this HISP certification is very important for AlliedHIE and for our goal to play a significant role in advancing health IT across Pennsylvania and the nation."

Parental Health announced yesterday that it is among the new partners of Ingram Micro in offering "a new suite of turnkey solution bundles based on HP technology for U.S. channel partners."

Showcased last month at Ingram Micro's 2012 SLED (State, Local, Government and Education) and Healthcare Summit, the solution bundles pair HP hardware -- such as HP Workstations and the HP Slate 2 -- with select healthcare-specific software applications from independent providers within the new HP Healthcare Alliance program, including Canvys, Medweb and Parental Health. As part of the go-to-market strategy, Ingram Micro is responsible for the integration, delivery and support of these new HP based healthcare solutions. Canvys and Parental Health are available now to Ingram Micro channel partners in the U.S. The Medweb solution is coming soon and will be available for purchase in the U.S. through the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace.

Longtime local health care IT player HMS has announced that it has helped another hospital reach meaningful use standards.

Mountainside Hospital, a 365-bed suburban facility in Montclair, N.J., has met Stage 1 meaningful use criteria using the certified electronic health record (EHR) from Healthcare Management Systems Inc.(R) (HMS). By successfully attesting for Stage 1 meaningful use with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Mountainside can receive payments from EHR incentive programs.

HMS announced today that one of its clients has acheived stage 1 meaningful use thanks to the use of HMS' electronic health record (EHR) technology.

Crittenden Regional Hospital, a 152-bed facility located in West Memphis, Ark., has met Stage 1 meaningful use criteria for Medicare and Medicaid with the certified electronic health record (EHR) from Healthcare Management Systems Inc.® (HMS). Crittenden Regional also engaged HMS’ EHR Initiatives Group for meaningful use consulting services to help accelerate the attestation process.

Crittenden Regional successfully attested with the certified HMS EHR, which is 2011/2012 compliant in accordance with the criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The hospital leadership credits the meaningful use attestation to organization-wide commitment and its partnership with HMS.