St. Elizabeth, a CHRISTUS® Health Hospital, is Selected to Pilot STELLARA™ Clinical Information System
Posted: 05-03-2007 : DURHAM, N.C.

DURHAM, N.C. — bioMérieux, Inc, a leading international diagnostics group, is proud to announce CHRISTUS® Health has selected STELLARA™ clinical intervention and patient monitoring software for St. Elizabeth Hospital in Beaumont, Texas. The STELLARA system is a Web-based application, providing knowledge-enriched, infectious disease-specific recommendations to clinicians for medication treatment management. Implementation of the new system at St. Elizabeth marks the first of 19 CHRISTUS hospitals planning to use the STELLARA software.

STELLARA software integrates pharmacy and lab data, including microbiology results (identification, susceptibility and resistance) from bioMérieux’s BacT/ALERT® 3D blood culture system and VITEK® 2 directly to the pharmacist and clinician to allow for quicker and more accurate treatment decisions for the patient. Additionally, bioMérieux’s program operates on most mobile computing and PDA systems, offering mobility and real-time alerts for the clinician.

“I realize the value of standardizing pharmacy interventions, including improved documentation and cost tracking throughout multiple CHRISTUS hospitals,” explained Sam Colletti, Director of CHRISTUS Pharmacy Services, Broadlane, Inc. “As a pharmacist, I understand the importance of receiving real-time information for the clinician to rapidly match the identified bacteria to the most effective antibiotic therapies. STELLARA is real-time and the fact that antibiotic recommendations are supported by integrated online evidence-based references is a powerful tool. The ability to write customized alerts based upon other lab values will also be valuable to the clinical pharmacist in managing workflow, identifying patients that represent intervention opportunities, and setting priorities. Of equal value to the clinical pharmacist, is the ability to write additional rules to produce real-time data mining based on other lab values and patient demographics, directly impacting patient care in our hospitals.”

STELLARA can access the Internet regarding reference citations associated with therapy or best practice recommendations and allows clinicians to customize alerts from most any drug therapy, micro, or lab screen. STELLARA supports CHRISTUS Health’s mission to reduce adverse drug events (ADEs) and improve patient safety and care, thus shortening hospital stays.

“STELLARA will play an important role in creating better records for hospitals, which has become vital in today’s ‘pay for performance’ environment,” said Herb Steward, Executive Vice President and General Manager, bioMérieux North America. “The software provides reports that show evidence-based outcomes, cost recovery and real savings.”

The patient management software is ideal for CHRISTUS Health because it is available in four performance levels, called Étages, to fit the needs of any size hospital. Additional levels are available to upgrade the system to fit a hospital’s future needs. STELLARA is powered by TheraDoc® Expert System Platform®. TheraDoc is a Salt Lake City-based medical informatics company focused on clinical decision support.

St. Elizabeth hospital is a 461-bed, short-term acute care hospital and operates as a not-for-profit health care facility. The hospital is part of CHRISTUS Health and is accredited by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO).

About CHRISTUS Health
Headquartered in Dallas, CHRISTUS Health is a faith-based, not-for-profit health system comprised of more than 40 hospitals, inpatient and long-term care facilities as well as dozens of clinics, physician offices and health care services in more than 70 cities in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Utah and Mexico. To provide care and support for patients, the system employs more than 25,000 Associates, with 8,000 physicians on facility medical staffs. CHRISTUS Health is listed among the top ten Catholic health systems in the U.S. and among the nation's Top 100 Integrated Healthcare Networks. For more information, visit www.christushealth.org.

About bioMérieux
Advancing Diagnostics to Improve Public Health - A world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics for over 40 years, bioMérieux is present in more than 150 countries through 35 subsidiaries and a large network of distributors. In 2006, revenues reached €1.037 billion with 83% of sales outside of France.

bioMérieux provides diagnostic solutions (reagents, instruments, software), which determine the source of disease and contamination to improve patient health and ensure consumer safety. Our products are used for diagnosing infectious diseases and providing high medical value results for cardiovascular emergencies and cancer screening and monitoring. They are also used for detecting microorganisms in agri-food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. bioMérieux is listed on Eurolist by Euronext. For more information, visit www.biomerieux-usa.com.

bioMérieux: Christelle Chabert-Toujas, Tel.: +33 (0)4 78 87 52 01, christelle.chabert-toujas@eu.biomerieux.com