MELE Goes Live With VOE

For Immediate Release June 9, 2006

MELE GOES LIVE WITH VOE

Honolulu, HI — MELE Health Information Systems is pleased to announce the success of the ‘Go Live’ launch of VistA Office Electronic Health Record at The Physician Center of Mililani on Monday, June 5.

The clinic’s 33 clinicians, six medical assistants and 15 administrative staff members began end-user training on the VOE system last month. The clinic, which serves 15,000 patients on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, is one of several test sites participating in a national beta test of VOE.

This past April, the Pacific Telehealth & Technology Hui, a joint venture of the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs, began rolling out VistA Office EHR at a family practice clinic located outside of Honolulu. As prime contractor and certified VistA vendor, MELE Health Information Systems collaborated with the Hui to install and implement the VOE system and train end users at the clinic.

In May, MELE installed and configured the VOE network on work stations and printers at the clinic, and updated the system with current CPT codes. Working alongside the clinic’s Medical Director and project champion, Dr. Lee Ellen Buenconsejo-Lum, MELE helped customize the VOE templates, dialog keys and menus to match the needs of the clinicians.

The clinic uses a separate billing system that includes demographics of the clinic’s 15,000 patients in its database. MELE contracted with Blue Cliff, Inc., a VistA software developer, to complete a bulk upload of the demographic data into VOE.

End-user training began in earnest in May. The clinic operates as a resident training site for the University of Hawaii (UH) John A. Burns School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine. All 18 of the residents on clinic rotation have been included in the training along with two UH fellows and 15 faculty and preceptors. MELE’s Customer Service Center has set up a 24/7 hotline for the clinic to troubleshoot technical and training issues.

MELE Health Information Systems plans to pilot VOE at the clinic through December 2006 when CMS concludes the VOE National Beta Testing. Results of the testing will follow in 2007.