81. next gen part 3

H.I.S.-tory by Vince Ciotti

Episode #81: NextGen Part 3

© 2012 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.

QSI’s next “Opus”

Magnum Opus• If you classic music lovers will forgive the pun,

NextGen’s “Magnus Opus” in hospital EMRs started out many moons ago as an LIS vendor!

• Sound familiar? Can you think of two other leading HIS vendors today who started in LIS??

(find one in episode #16 at hispros.com)• Opus was formed by 2 HIS entrepreneurs

back in 1987, with extensive experience:- Tim Rhoads, pictured on the left, and- Fred Beck, portrayed on the right.

• Tim Rhoads early career included employment at hospitals in Texas and Colorado, including respected facilities such as Texas Children’s Hospital where he gained first-hand knowledge of patient care and internal hospital operations. In the early 80’s he left hospitals for the vendor world, working at several HIS software firms.

The Early Days• Tim and Fred built their LIS on the very latest architecture, using

open-source approaches, being web-based with a SQL data base.• They quickly learned just how tough the LIS market was, with

such dominant niche players like Sunquest and Soft, as well as HIS vendors with strong Lab offerings like Cerner, Meditech and SMS.

• So they started expanding beyond the Lab market for better opportunities in the more generic clinical system space.

Big Break• Opus’ big break came in the late 90s when

they got on the radar screen of a hospital chain headquartered in SMS’ old stomping grounds in King of Prussia, PA: Universal Health Services ,founded by Alan Miller, CEO, (on left) and Sid Miller, CFO (unrelated).

• In case their names sound familiar to any old SMS vets out there, Alan & Sid also formed American Medicorps, Inc, (AAM), the chain that first put SMS’ name on the map in scores of for-profit hospitals in FL, TX and CA way back in the early 70s. AAM got bought by Humana in the late 70s, when Alan formed UHS.

• Just like HMS got its big start in HIS through deals with several chains in Nashville, Opus got hired in 1997 by UHS to build a custom, web-based Clinical Information System, a radical idea back then before anyone had their heads up in that “cloud”…

Creative Partnerships• The pilot nurse station at the pilot hospital in 1998 went so well,

that UHS then implemented Opus at its 20+ hospitals in 8 states:– SC, GA, TX, NV, OK, FL, WA, PA, and D.C.

• Just like AAM helped put SMS on the HIS map and several Nashville chains gave HMS a nationwide presence, UHS was the perfect partner to give Opus a toehold in the national HIS market.

• To complete their HIS offering, they first tried to partner with a financial system vendor from St. Louis known as Creative Healthcare Systems, Inc., whose “MedGenix” software was running in a number of hospital clients.

Full Clinical Suite• Opus got on our radar map in the

mid 2000s when they started selling their E.H.R. to non-UHS hospitals at our HIS Buyers Seminar (on right).

• By then, their HIS offerings had grown to encompass the whole suite of clinical applications & modules:ClinDoc - clinical documentation for point-of-care and e-chartingOpusMACC - a medication administration checkingOpusOM - order management, results, charges, work orders, etc. OpusCDR - their clinical data repositoryOpusMD - for physician diagnosis and treatmentOpusMobility – runs the system on smart phones and PDAsOpusLab the original LIS, and OpusAP for anatomic pathology

Perfect Timing!• Around 2010, Opus started talking to

Florian Weiland at Sphere as a better partner for financials; Florian introduced them to NextGen who was eager to add a hospital E.H.R. to their ambulatory one.

• In February 2010, NextGen acquired Opus, right after Florian’s Sphere.

• Ironically, later in 2010, UHS announced it would be moving its 20+ hospitals off of the Opus E.H.R. and on to Cerner’s Millennium, perfect timing in light of NextGen’s deep capital reserves making Opus no longer dependent on a single client’s prestige & revenue stream!

Next Week…• So that’s how NextGen’s

total HIS system was acquired from several smaller HIS vendors.

• Many thanks again to Florian Weiland for these inside scoops, especially while he was on vacation!

• Next week we’ll cover the story of Rick Opry’s IntraNexus, the final leg in NextGen’s current HIS platform, that also has fascinating ties to SMS and another early HIS pioneer...