Lexicomp Announces Multi-Year Contract with Catholic Health Partners

Agreement provides site-wide access to Lexicomp's drug and clinical information in 31 hospitals

Hudson, OH (PR Web) - June 10, 2011 - Lexicomp, a global provider of clinical information and drug data solutions for healthcare professionals, announced today that they have signed a multi-year agreement with Catholic Health Partners (CHP). The agreement provides Lexicomp's site-wide drug information solutions to clinicians across 31 hospitals currently operating throughout eight regions in Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky. CHP is the largest health system in Ohio and is also one of the largest nonprofit health systems in the U.S.

The contract gives CHP clinicians hospital-wide access to the Lexicomp Knowledge Solution™, a suite of comprehensive drug information databases and clinical modules accessible online and on the latest Smartphone/PDA/Tablet devices.

Alan Mutnick, Corporate Director of Clinical Services for CHP, understands the important role reliable resources play when providing exceptional patient care. "With the continuing increase in our system's need for quality drug information, both for healthcare professionals as well as the patients we serve, the need to identify the most "cost-effective" strategy for providing such information becomes critical. I personally believe that Lexicomp fits that bill," said Mutnick.

He went on to comment that two additional benefits of the switch to Lexicomp, beyond the pricing, include readily available "hot links" directly to the most recent "state of the art consensus clinical guidelines" within each drug monograph, as well as the ease of access to Lexicomp's mobile resources from his BlackBerry®.

CHP clinicians began evaluating Lexicomp in mid-2010, in an effort to select a new drug information provider that offered all clinicians (pharmacists, physicians and nurses) a faster, more concise point-of-care solution than the resource they were using. Lexicomp's easy-to-use interface, layout and navigation, integration capabilities with their EMR provider and site-wide mobile access ultimately led CHP staff to choose Lexicomp.

"We are pleased to have been selected by Catholic Health Partners as their drug information provider," said Steven Kerscher, Lexicomp President and Chief Operating Officer. "We are not only honored to have the opportunity to positively affect patient care for more than 250,000 patients admitted to CHP hospitals annually, we are also very happy to be serving the drug information needs of Ohio's largest health system. As an Ohio-based company serving clinicians worldwide, Lexicomp understands the value of supporting regional growth and well-being in order to impact lives on a national scale."

Lexicomp resources available to CHP clinicians system-wide include: Lexicomp Online™, a Web-based drug and disease information resource for pharmacists, physicians and nurses offering two levels of drug information (Lexicomp and AHFS), both concise and in-depth; Harrison's Practice, created by the editors of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine offering efficient delivery of key clinical information on more than 800 diseases and disorders; Martindale, an international drug reference containing information from more than 40 countries and regions; and Lexicomp's information on Smartphone/PDA/Tablet devices, including iPhone®, iPad®, BlackBerry®, iPod touch®, Palm®, Palm webOS™, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile® and Android™, including the Motorola XOOM™.

Lexicomp has completed more than 65 comprehensive on-site training and webinar sessions to successfully transition clinicians at all 31 CHP facilities to the new drug information resource.

For additional information about site-wide access to Lexicomp, visit http://www.lexi.com/institutions/hospitals/ or call 1-800-837-5394 to speak with a sales representative.

"Due to the growing number of Punjabi speakers in Canada and the fact Lexicomp is now the drug information provider of AHS, it made sense for us to translate our patient education handouts for medications into Punjabi," said Steven Kerscher, Lexicomp president and chief operating officer. "The handouts will enable clinicians to provide Punjabi-speaking patients with educational information in their native language."

Lexicomp's patient education handouts provide patients with in-depth information about their condition, care and overall health. Ideal for patient counseling, the handouts cover thousands of medications, diseases and procedures, and are written in an easy-to-read, 5th - 7th grade reading level. The materials help patients better understand complex details about their disease or medications - ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes.

"We work hard here at Lexicomp to provide tailored, personalized service to our customers," said Kerscher. "So when AHS asked us to translate our patient education materials into Punjabi, we didn't think twice about it. We jumped on the opportunity knowing that these handouts would help clinicians improve drug safety and patient care."

Since switching to Lexicomp in August 2010, AHS clinicians - including AHS drug information pharmacist Gayle Pearson - have come to rely on Lexicomp's patient education handouts. "I use Lexicomp for a number of reasons, but mostly because of the patient education handouts in different languages, including Punjabi," said Pearson. "The information provided is straight forward, simple and easy-to-read."

According to Canada's 2006 census, Punjabi is currently the fifth most widely-spoken language in Alberta, and the sixth most widely-spoken language in Canada. But by the next census in 2011, Canadian Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney expects Punjabi to be Canada's fourth most spoken language, after English, French and Chinese.

About Catholic Health Partners

Catholic Health Partners is the largest health system in Ohio, the fourth largest employer in the state, and one of the largest non-profit health systems in the U.S. With $5.59 billion in assets, CHP employs more than 37,000 associates in more than 100 organizations, including 31 hospitals which serve the health needs of people in Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and contiguous states. True to its mission, in 2010, CHP provided $365.1 million in targeted community benefit. CHP earned national ranking as a Top 10 Health System for quality and efficiency in both 2009 and 2010 by Thomson Reuters, which studied more than 250 health systems across the country.