CARTSOFT Announces Integration of Milliman Care GuidelinesTM 8th Edition for Use by Hospitals

Chattanooga, TN - CARTSOFT, a hospital software provider for quality improvement and utilization management, has completed the integration of the newly released 8th Edition of Milliman Care GuidelinesTM. The new care path format improves CARTSOFT's performance as a tool for hospitals.

CARTSOFT takes the guidelines from an outstanding clinical resource to an interactive tool. Use of the new format supports physicians and hospital staff in the care of patients by highlighting key factors in the recovery process and identifying individual variances during the hospital stay. "Our focus is on helping hospitals improve quality of care," said Manoo Bhakta, M.D., CARTSOFT Developer and Chief Medical Officer. "Milliman has done an impressive job of presenting The 8th Edition in a hospital friendly format. CARTSOFT will allow the hospital to use the new format to track the patient's status during the hospital stay and record that progress in a patient specific record."

C.A.R.T.-UM, which stands for Care Accountability and Resource Tracking for Utilization Management, was developed around hospital workflow. The program allows: the tracking of system inefficiencies that impact patient treatment and discharge, communication with managed care companies, reducing unnecessary days of care and coordinating case management.

• Return on Investment - CARTSOFT assists in reducing managed care denials and length of stay in DRG based payers.
• Quality Impact - While CARTSOFT can show an immediate ROI, the long-term impact is in the data collection and support to quality initiatives. With CARTSOFT, a hospital can focus on length-of-stay or quality of care issues. Hospital-specific care paths can also be customized and easily incorporated into the system.
• Information Impact - CARTSOFT interfaces with hospital systems and the database, when linked with decision support or quality improvement activity, is useful in identifying strengths and weaknesses for improvement in various specialties or diagnoses.

Mike Todai, Director of Care Management at Erlanger Health System said, "We have been pleased with CARTSOFT and its support of the utilization management and quality improvement process. The new format will allow us to move to the next level and further improve the quality of care our patients receive."

About Milliman

The Milliman Care GuidelinesTM are continually adapting to incorporate new developments in the fast-changing medical world. The recently released 8th Edition provides the most current medical practice research. A team of experienced physicians, nurses and other health care professionals analyzed thousands of abstracts, articles, databases, textbooks, nationally-recognized guidelines and practice observations to develop these up-to-date evidence-based Care Guidelines.

In Inpatient and Surgical Care, the Optimal Recovery Course is presented in a new "care pathway" table, clearly displaying each element's daily status. Users can now track patient progress more accurately and quickly than ever before in an easy-to-use, familiar format. One of the most important features of the Care Guidelines is the benchmarks they provide to assist an organization to establish appropriate goals.

Don't structure improvement initiatives around old information - you need to know what's happening now in order to target the best possible results. For more information and to view the Guidelines for a 15-day free trial, visit the web site at www.careguidelines.com or email tom.snyder@milliman.com. Milliman Care Guidelines can also be contacted directly at 888-464-4746.

About CARTSOFT

Cartsoft (www.cartsoftweb.com) is a software development company providing software products to support hospital in utilization management, case management and quality assurance. Based in Chattanooga, the company was founded by Manoo Bhakta, MD. Bhakta is a pediatric oncologist at T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital, part of the Erlanger Health System. For more information, visit the web site at www.cartsoftweb.com or email sales@cartsoftweb.com.

Call or email today for a 90-day free trial with CartSoft. (423) 855-1198

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