Eclipsys - Easing Nursing Challenges: VSA Joins Eclipsys
This past December, Eclipsys was proud to acquire Van Slyck & Associates, Inc. (VSA), a leading provider of nursing management solutions.
This acquisition adds both content and software to Eclipsys' suite of offerings. In addition to patient acuity determination within Sunrise Clinical Manager™, Eclipsys now provides nurse staffing, productivity management and quality indicator software. Clients will also benefit from the National Comparative Database exclusively provided to Eclipsys clients, ensuring comparability of patient acuity and staffing benchmarking information across hospitals.
VSA's solutions use patient and staff information to effectively manage patient care and the cost of that care. The two industry innovators decided to join forces because of a shared commitment to providing professionally sound, patient-focused outcome solutions - solutions that make it easier and more intuitive for nurses to provide the highest level of care possible.
Eclipsys and VSA have enjoyed an extremely close and productive relationship for more than two years. We've collaborated to integrate VSA's patient acuity methodology into the interdisciplinary documentation capabilities of Eclipsys' Sunrise Clinical Manager.
This solution, called Sunrise Patient Acuity™, continues to make
Eclipsys not only the first, but the only healthcare IT company to embed a patient-classification system featuring content, methodology and algorithms into its clinical solutions.
Marrying Two Industry-Leading Solutions
According to Ann Van Slyck, RN, MSN, CNAA, FAAN, VSA's founder, chief executive officer and a recognized industry leader in this field, "We recognized that we needed to be part of a much-larger company to respond to the escalating evidence-based patient and nurse staffing information required by hospitals. The two companies have shared a strong relationship since 2004. This acquisition now builds upon that great partnership.
"VSA has been recognized for our ability to generate patient, staff and financial information that has positioned our clients to meet or exceed their care quality and fiscal performance goals," she continued. "Eclipsys is known and respected for its interdisciplinary clinical documentation, clinical decision support content and software, and revenue cycle management solutions. So a marriage of the two seemed an ideal combination."
For more than 25 years, VSA has provided the most professionally sound comprehensive patient classification system available on the market. Unlike the historic timed-tasked acuity criteria, VSA's multi-dimensional methodology - in addition to being time-sensitive - also incorporates the risk and the complexity of the nursing care being provided to the patient, and the skill level required to provide that care. This enables nursing leaders to make timely, patient-focused staffing decisions, and healthcare executives to have more-comprehensive information to guide their operational and financial decisions.
Nursing personnel can work more efficiently and effectively, spend less time documenting and more time at the bedside. This is mission-critical, particularly in an era of increasing staff shortages and the costs of recruitment, education and retention, as well as the growing potential for legislation impacting reimbursement based on patient acuity. And as we've said, it's a capability only Eclipsys can provide.
Using Nurses' Skills Most Effectively
This acquisition is important to Eclipsys customers for several reasons. Nurses are the foundation of high-quality healthcare healthcare and superior outcomes and we understand the potential threat posed by the scarcity of nurses. VSA's software, services and expertise will help Eclipsys deliver comprehensive technology-based nursing workforce-management solutions that will ensure that healthcare organizations are maximizing this increasingly valuable and scarce resource - the nurse.
Eclipsys is also excited about the possibilities this offers our clients, because the acquisition of VSA enables us to provide the only embedded system that automatically calculates patient acuity from nursing documentation. "The decision to acquire Van Slyck
& Associates reflects Eclipsys' ongoing commitment to deliver innovative solutions that help our clients improve the quality of care as part of their workflow, particularly in a high-acuity setting," said R. Andrew Eckert, Eclipsys president and CEO. "With the addition of VSA, we are excited to be able to provide a uniquely embedded system that calculates patient acuity so management can make more-informed staffing decisions to improve employee productivity and patient outcomes."
Support by a Staff of Over 2,000
The response to this announcement by Eclipsys and VSA customers has been enthusiastic. Van Slyck notes that "Without exception, every VSA client I have spoken with has been very, very excited and positive about Eclipsys and the acquisition. I noted that over the years, VSA has served them with a team of a dozen or so staff; now, they have a team of over 2,000 professionals looking out for them!"
Ann and Tom Van Slyck will continue to provide their valuable insight as members of the Eclipsys leadership team, and VSA consultants will continue their work as part of the Eclipsys Services team to help clients incorporate Eclipsys Nurse Executive Solutions™ in which to best manage the fragile balance of care quality and the cost of care. We welcome the entire VSA team to the Eclipsys family!
"VSA has been recognized for our ability to generate patient, staff and financial information that has positioned our clients to meet or exceed their care quality and fiscal performance goals."
Ann Van Slyck, RN, MSN, CNAA, FAAN Van Slyck & Associates Founder, Eclipsys Vice President
This article appeared in the Outcomes in Nursing newsletter.
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