Impact of Health Reform, Emerging Care Models Explored at GE Healthcare IT National Users’ Conference

Industry changes are top of mind for executives at hospitals, medical colleges and hospital networks across the United States and will be actively discussed at this week’s GE Centricity® Business National Users’ Conference. A record number of Centricity Business customers are in Boston for the summit, hosted by GE Healthcare August 30-31 at the Sheraton Boston Hotel and Fairmont Copley Plaza. Nearly 600 customers representing 180 unique healthcare organizations are attending the two-day conference to connect with GE Healthcare and share best practices for optimizing the use of their Centricity Business healthcare IT solutions for revenue cycle management, patient access and more.

The 2010 Centricity Business Users’ Conference features more than 100 sessions presented by customers and GE Healthcare IT leadership and staff, in addition to solution demonstrations and numerous opportunities for customers to collaborate and provide feedback to GE. John Dineen, Chief Executive Officer of GE Healthcare, kicks the conference off Monday morning with an opening session designed to share the company’s vision for healthcare transformation. A parallel Executive Track designed to further strengthen the Centricity Business user community brings together C-suite customers with GE Healthcare leadership to focus on the challenges and opportunities faced by leading healthcare organizations today and in the future.

Featured speakers include Dr. David Blumenthal, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Dr. Simeon Schwartz, President and CEO, WestMed, Paul R. Newman, Executive Director, Duke University Faculty Practice Plan, Duke University Health System, and Don McDaniel, CEO of Sage Growth Partners. Dr. Blumenthal will discuss the government’s recently passed health reform bill and its impact on healthcare organizations. Dr. Schwartz plans to address the trend driving practices toward becoming Accountable Care Organizations. On Monday evening, keynote speaker and extreme adventurer Jamie Clarke will describe the lessons in teamwork he has gained from multiple Everest climbs, inspiring customers and vendors to strive for greater collaboration to deliver coordinated, team-based patient care.

"I’m thrilled to be part of the conference and have the opportunity to connect with so many of my valued peers,” said Dr. Schwartz. "These summits are always fascinating and never fail to yield tangible takeaways that can help improve the way we practice.”

This year’s featured speaker, Elizabeth Woodcock, is a trainer and author who is passionately dedicated to helping physician practices achieve and sustain patient satisfaction, practice efficiency, and profitability. A nationally recognized expert at practice operations and revenue cycle management, Ms. Woodcock will present four sessions during the conference.

New this year, the Center for Innovation will showcase current development initiatives focused on delivering Low Touch Billing and Clinical Connectivity strategies to GE customers. Participants will have the opportunity to preview Centricity Business v5.0 development initiatives and discuss current and future revenue cycle solutions to help continue to shape GE’s strategy and product development.

"The record number of attendees at the national summit is a clear recognition of its value, and a sign of the high degree of engagement between GE Healthcare and our customers,” said Jim Corrigan, Vice President and General Manager of GE Healthcare IT. "Nearly half of the educational sessions will be presented by customers or jointly, with customers and GE staff presenting together. It’s a truly collaborative event and one of the key ways we’re continuing our 40-year history of listening to customers and supporting the strong regional communities of Centricity Business users.”

This year’s summit is made possible by the generous support of its sponsors; Beacon Partners, Catch Data Systems Inc., Culbert Healthcare Solution, EMC Corporation, Hayes Management Consulting, HP, Ingenix, Intersystems Corporation, mdlogix, NCR Corporation, NetSPI, Nuance Communications, Patient Keeper, Precision Revenue Strategies, Precision BI, Tecsys Development Inc. Televox and Think First.

ABOUT GE HEALTHCARE:

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems.

Our "healthymagination” vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employees are committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.

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