Compuware Helps Detroit Medical Center (DMC) Become a Leader in Healthcare Automation

Compuware Professional Services Modernizes DMC’s Application Portfolio by Streamlining Processes, Reducing IT Costs and Improving Patient Safety and Care

DETROIT--December 18, 2007--Compuware Corporation (NASDAQ: CPWR) today announced that it has helped the Detroit Medical Center (DMC) become a leader in healthcare automation. HIMSS AnalyticsTM LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) ranks DMC in the country’s top two percent of hospitals for healthcare automation based on its EMR Adoption ModelSM and on data from the HIMSS Analytics Database (derived from the Dorenfest IHDS+ DatabaseTM).

Compuware assisted in this achievement by reducing IT operational costs, streamlining processes, reducing costly vendor support, and effectively managing and staffing major clinical automation projects. Compuware Professional Services also modernized DMC’s application portfolio, saving the organization millions of dollars in IT costs while providing innovative technology that helps the Center’s caregivers provide better quality of care to patients at its nine hospital facilities in Southeastern Michigan.

DMC was on an IT journey that required the modernization of its application portfolio to align and support rapidly increasing business demands. The organization’s leadership knew that technology would play a critical role in the healthcare industry and enable the DMC to provide the best quality of service to its patients. In order to achieve these objectives, DMC partnered with Compuware Professional Services and outsourced the Center’s information systems division.

“We had some very aggressive strategic IT initiatives we were pursuing and needed a technology partner who was flexible and would take the time to really understand our strategic IT business goals as well as move quickly on them,” said Mike LeRoy, Chief Information Officer of Information Services at DMC. “Compuware Professional Services fit the bill. We really liked the fact that they viewed our outsourcing partnership as a long-term relationship and not just as a business transaction. Since the partnership began in 1999, Compuware has helped us implement a variety of new technologies that have helped us serve our patients better.”

One of the largest projects DMC and Compuware have collaborated on delivered an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system for the automation of patients’ paper medical records. The DMC EMR paperless system records and retrieves medical information, eliminating clinician error and improving patient safety and care. Through this achievement, clinicians now have complete EMR information at their fingertips, supporting good and timely clinical decisions.

The DMC EMR environment consists of nursing documentation, physician order entry and barcode medication administration, allowing clinicians to electronically document patients’ conditions and care at the bedside, using wireless mobile technology. EMR’s barcode medication administration ensures that the right medication dose is delivered to the right patient at the right time. It also indicates any allergic or drug reactions a patient may have that would conflict with medication administration. Additionally, timely delivery of legible medication orders to the pharmacy department assures efficient and accurate verification of medication, ensuring patient safety. Finally, physicians can check the status of patients from any network-connected PC, anytime and anywhere.

“The EMR allows our physicians and clinicians instant access to patient information from any location. It also eliminates the use of paper charts,” said LeRoy. “Now, DMC medical staff can input patient information electronically with the click of a button, ultimately providing better patient safety and care.”

With EMR in place, compliance with best practices and healthcare regulations is enhanced with the consistency that automation brings to clinical processes. Managing clinical workflow throughout inpatient operations has improved the data that can be reported to management. Length of stay—a key efficiency indicator—can be better managed with the wealth of data captured during patient care.

According to HIMSS Analytics, DMC is one of very few hospitals in the country—less than two percent —that has implemented an EMR environment to achieve Stage 5 of the EMR Adoption Model. Through the use of Compuware’s enterprise legacy modernization solution, quality assurance tools, testing methodology and Professional Services team, DMC’s automation was delivered with a defect-free rate of more than 98 percent.

Future modernization projects upon which DMC and Compuware will collaborate include:

Development of self-serve kiosks that will allow patients to quickly check themselves in.
Expansion of the inpatient EMR to ambulatory outpatient care.
Extension of the electronic inventory management system, which already tracks medication, to include larger items like equipment used in radiology and surgery.

Click here to read more about DMC’s partnership with Compuware: http://www.compuware.com/dl/DMC_success_story.pdf

Compuware Corporation

Compuware Corporation maximizes the value IT brings to the business by helping CIOs more effectively manage the business of IT. Compuware solutions accelerate the development, improve the quality and enhance the performance of critical business systems while enabling CIOs to align and govern the entire IT portfolio, increasing efficiency, cost control and employee productivity throughout the IT organization. Founded in 1973, Compuware serves the world's leading IT organizations, including more than 90 percent of the Fortune 100 companies. Learn more about Compuware at http://www.compuware.com/.

The Detroit Medical Center

The Detroit Medical Center operates nine hospitals and institutes, including Children’s Hospital of Michigan, Detroit Receiving Hospital, Harper University Hospital, Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital, Hutzel Women’s Hospital, Kresge Eye Institute, Michigan Orthopaedic Specialty Hospital, Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan and Sinai-Grace Hospital. Established as a nonprofit corporation in 1985, the Detroit Medical Center is a leading regional health care system with a mission of excellence in clinical care, research and medical education.

The Detroit Medical Center is proud to be the Official Healthcare Services Provider of the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Pistons, Detroit Shock and Detroit Grand Prix. Visit their website at http://www.dmc.org/.