Video: History of MEDHOST

For those who call rural America’s vast landscapes home, the hospital often represents the beating heart of their communities. MEDHOST understands the value these essential healthcare providers hold for the people they serve and the unique challenges they face. For more than 35 years it has been a key part of our mission to help make sure those vital rural lifelines remain resilient, relevant, and strong.

Over the past three decades the healthcare industry has evolved —new healthcare technologies like the electronic health record and patient portals have helped provide better access to care, improve delivery, and enhance the patient experience. However, many of those healthcare innovations often leave rural populations on the fringes.

As the need for relevant healthcare services grow in rural America, we believe no community should ever be left without access to quality care. Access to high quality care in the far-removed parts of our country is not just a necessity, it is a right. With a spirit built upon collaboration, energized by a good deal of innovative agility, we are proud of a history that reflects that ideal.

In celebration of our 35 years of partnerships with both community and corporate hospitals, we’d like to share with you our journey towards that vision. We invite you to turn back the clock with us to 1984 to see how we became one of the most trusted leaders in the healthcare IT industry.

Further Reading:

35 Years of Partnership with Community-Based Providers

Infographic: 35 Years of Pushing Frontiers in Healthcare IT

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To the over 60
million underserved

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and aging population
living in rural America,

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the community hospital is often
the heart of their community.

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Not only does the hospital
provide critical lifesaving

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services, the community
hospital plays a key role

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in preserving the community by
enabling the aging residents

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to remain in their
homes, and checking

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a box in economic development.

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MEDHOST understands the value
and the unique challenges

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facing community hospitals.

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Our vision is simply
stated, we strive

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to be the trusted partner
that empowers health care

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organizations to advance
the patient care experience,

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and to improve
business operations.

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How has this partnership
become what it is today?

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The predecessor to MEDHOST
was founded in 1984

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with the goal of offering
general financials and patient

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accounting to the
community hospital market.

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For the next 15 years, we
enhance those products,

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as well as adding things in the
clinical area such as pharmacy

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and nursing.

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So the company
that was formed out

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of creating these applications
was the fancied pricing

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concepts.

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Smaller hospitals needed
the same capabilities

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as larger ones, so the two
founders of the company

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decided to use the new
mini computers, what

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we call the system
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to help automate these processes
for the smaller facilities.

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The company started in a
garage with two co-founders,

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and they worked on not
just a DRG payment system,

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but they also created
the accounts payable,

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the general ledger, and
also the patient accounting

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and a billing system.

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This company soon came to be
called Healthcare Management

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Systems.

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And they called
their system Monitor.

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One year after
Monitor's release,

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HMS landed their first
hospital, and a year later,

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the first multi-facility
corporate client.

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Little did they
know, that system

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would act as a
launchpad for MEDHOST,

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and a drive towards innovation
in the health care IT sector.

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When I first started in 1990,
there was 15 total employees.

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We only had five employees
in product development.

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As we focused on
departmental clinical systems

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like results, radiology,
pharmacy type systems,

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we did coding, we did
quality assurance,

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we did implementation,
and we did sales.

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So you had to wear many hats.

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Four years after
Monitor's release,

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coinciding with the release of
IBM's AS/400 computer system

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platform, HMS began to develop
a suite of clinical health care

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products, driven by advancements
in computer technology that

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expanded practical business
applications throughout

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the early and mid-'90s.

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HMS enhanced its product
line and grew its footprint.

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So we're really a
technology company.

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And we have tried
to run our business

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and to build our culture
like a technology company.

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I think our associates
have viewed this

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as a very rewarding
type of culture.

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And they've enjoyed
working here.

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I am, by training, a
mechanical engineer.

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One of the things
that I remember

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is that if you can't measure
it, you can't manage it.

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There's a revolution going
on because it's finally

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understood that we need
predictable results to improve

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healthcare.

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In the early 2000s,
there was a initiative

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to move from paper systems
to electronic systems.

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The whole intent behind
this was the ability

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to be able to share
data between facilities

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and have a continuum
of patient care

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throughout all the settings in
the health care environment.

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The needs of the
community hospital market

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fundamentally changed with the
passage of the HITEC Act.

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The HITEC Act required
that all hospitals have

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a full complement of
clinical applications,

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and that doctors actually
use these applications.

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Fast forward a decade,
past the move to HTML5

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and the introduction
of a physician's tool.

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HMS acquires MEDHOST,
a Texas-based emergency

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department information
system provider.

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We acquired MEDHOST's EDIS
system, the [INAUDIBLE]

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perioperative
system, and rebuilt

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all of our clinical applications
at a more modern, industry

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leading user interface.

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At the same time, we
invested heavily in services

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to help our customers
use these new products,

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including in customer service,
implementation, and hosting.

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The hosting idea actually
came from a customer.

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A customer of ours wanted
us to host their systems

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so they could focus on
taking care of the patients

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and rolling out
clinical systems.

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The customer did
not want the burden

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of upgrading our
hardware or keeping up

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with the changing of the
complex platforms needed

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to run the system.

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So this created an opportunity
for us to do the hosting.

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So in 2001, we started
our hosting business.

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In the following
years, MEDHOST would

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continue as a leader in
the healthcare IT Industry.

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Not only do we hold
our people accountable

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and ensure they exceed the
expectations of our customers,

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but we also hold our products
to high expectations as well.

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We do that through programs at
MEDHOST, such as our quality

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management systems.

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Our diverse teams of clinical
and technical resources

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understand our customers
challenges and consistently

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seek new ways to improve
and support our products.

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In the past 35 years, MEDHOST
has developed partnerships

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with more than 1,000 health
facilities nationwide,

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and has grown to become one
of the largest healthcare IT

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development hubs in Tennessee.

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It employs over 600
people from developers

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to clinicians to customer
support specialists.

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We're very happy to reach the
35-year milestone at MEDHOST.

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Our systems, our culture,
and our whole approach

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to how we do business
is built to facilitate

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multi-facility entities.

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Today, we've
demonstrated an ability

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to be able to take care
of not only problems,

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but adapt to new circumstances.

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MEDHOST enterprise systems are
competitive with the leaders

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in the industry.

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But throughout that
whole time, we never

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lost sight of our mission,
which is to offer high quality,

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comprehensive solutions to our
community hospital customers

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at affordable prices.

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