Northwestern Memorial Hospital to use Organ Transplant tracking Software

Software can lower administrative costs, reduce potential for errors

Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago has entered into an agreement to use the Organ Transplant Tracking Record, or OTTR, which is s oftware for tracking the medical history and progress of patients undergoing organ transplantation.

The Kovler Transplantation Center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital has been a leader in transplantation services since 1964 and is recognized by many to be the regional leader in research, innovation and patient care. Transplant surgeons at Northwestern transplant more than 400 organs each year, which ranks the program as a national leader in both the number of transplants performed and patient outcomes. Among the 230 organ transplant centers in the United States, Northwestern ranks in the top 10th percentile for kidney, pancreas and liver transplantation, and is among a small group of centers pioneering islet and intestinal transplantation.

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. 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.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital is now one of 40 hospitals using OTTR. Those 40 hospitals support 125 solid transplant programs in the United States and Canada. 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, who are tracked for life.

"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 privately held 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 strives to improve the quality of patient care and operational efficiencies for its clients. HKS products include OTTR (Organ Transplant Tracking Record), 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. Clients using HKS products include Georgetown Hospital, and Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. Inc. magazine recently named HKS Medical Information Systems as one of the fastest-growing private businesses in America. More information is available at www.hksys.com or 1-800-411-0975.

About Northwestern Memorial Hospital

Northwestern Memorial Hospital is one of the country's premier academic medical centers and is the primary teaching hospital of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. Northwestern Memorial and its Prentice Women's Hospital and Stone Institute of Psychiatry have 744 beds and more than 1,200 affiliated physicians and 5,000 employees. Providing state-of-the-art care, Northwestern Memorial is recognized for its outstanding clinical and surgical advancements in such areas as cardiothoracic and vascular care, gastroenterology, neurology and neurosurgery, oncology, organ and bone marrow transplantation, and women's health.

Northwestern Memorial received the prestigious 2005 National Quality Health Care Award and is listed in eight specialties in this year's US News & World Report's issue of " America's Best Hospitals." The hospital is also cited as one of the "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" by Working Mother magazine for the past 5 years and has been chosen by Chicagoans for a decade as their "most preferred hospital" in National Research Corporation's annual survey.