Sutter Medical Center purchases Organ Transplant Software

Software can lower administrative costs, reduce potential for errors

Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento has entered into an agreement to use the Organ Transplant Tracking Record, or OTTR, which is software for tracking the medical history and progress of patients undergoing organ transplantation. Sutter Medical Center performs kidney transplants and is the only provider in the region to perform heart transplants.

OTTR was developed and is marketed by HKS Medical Information Systems to meet the unique clinical and patient management needs of the organ transplant community.

"The Sutter Medical Center Transplant Program has the second highest survival rate in the nation and we continually examine how we can continue to improve what we do," said Kelley Jaeger Jackson, transplant program manager.

Sutter Medical Center , Sacramento was the first in the region to perform a successful heart transplant, in 1989. Today it provides heart transplant patients with a 100 percent chance of survival for one year and 100 percent at two years.

Sutter joins more than 90 different transplant programs in the United States and Canada now using the OTTR software. OTTR helps reduce the potential for errors in an area of medicine where hundreds of pieces of data, such as blood type, medications, lab reports, test results, and other information are required to provide quality patient care. At Sutter, for example, the transplant team consists of the transplant surgeons, anesthesiologists, immunologists, nurse coordinators, social workers, dieticians and specially trained nurses.

One of the founders of HKS Medical Information Systems was a transplant surgeon who wanted to eliminate the vast amount of paper charting necessary with transplant patients.

"Our software allows transplant teams to track and access hundreds of pieces of vital health care information," said Doug Perry, President of HKS Medical Information Systems. "That in turn, allows the medical staff to spend more time with the patient and less time with the paperwork."

About HKS Medical Information Systems

HKS Medical Information Systems, Inc. is a private company headquartered in Omaha , Nebraska . Founded in 1993 by Dr. Byers Shaw of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Hubert Hickman and Paul Kenyon Ph.D., HKS products improve the quality of patient care and operational efficiencies for its clients. Products include OTTR, the market leader in patient tracking software for organ transplant centers and OTTR-HLA, which is a comprehensive software system to support the patient management, reporting and regulatory needs of the HLA laboratory. HKS Medical Information Systems was named by Inc Magazine as one of 2003's fastest growing private businesses.

About Sutter Medical Center

Sutter Medical Center , Sacramento , is part of Sutter Health, a family of not-for-profit hospitals and physician organizations that share resources and expertise to advance health care quality. Serving more than 100 communities in Northern California , Sutter Health is a regional leader in pediatric, obstetrical, heart and cancer care, and is a pioneer in advanced patient safety technology.