Eclipsys Signs 10-Year Agreement with Lake Forest Hospital, Illinois, for IT Outsourcing Services

Eclipsys Corporation, today announced that Lake Forest Hospital, Lake Forest, IL, has entered into a 10-year agreement with Eclipsys for the company to provide its industry-leading information technology (IT) outsourcing services to support the hospital's main campus and its remote locations. Lake Forest Hospital will also continue to leverage Eclipsys' management decision support solution, Sunrise Decision Support Manager(TM), which is remote hosted by the Eclipsys Technology Solutions Center in Mountain Lakes, NJ.

Eclipsys provides strategic outsourcing services to support its customers' Eclipsys software and third-party systems. By assuming operational responsibility for key IT initiatives, Eclipsys' outsourcing group delivers greater reliability, cost efficiencies and faster time to value than most healthcare organizations can achieve on their own.

Eclipsys outsourcing services have earned the top ranking for customer satisfaction of healthcare outsourcing services based on KLAS Enterprises' Professional Services Full IT Outsourcing Study 2005. A full 100 percent of Eclipsys outsourcing customers participating in the study stated they would buy outsourcing services from Eclipsys again and would recommend Eclipsys outsourcing services to their peers.

"We are excited to expand our relationship with Lake Forest Hospital," said John Adams, Eclipsys executive vice president of Business Solutions. "This significant outsourcing contract is reflective of our leadership role in IT services for the healthcare industry and the confidence that healthcare organizations have in our solutions. We look forward to becoming a close, strategic IT partner with Lake Forest Hospital."

"Eclipsys outsourcing was selected because of its ability to understand our business imperatives as an independent, community-based hospital," said Sean Barden, chief financial officer at Lake Forest Hospital. "The company also articulated viable solutions and demonstrated an ability to support our IT vision. After reviewing Eclipsys' successful track record in systems implementations and support of third-party systems, we were convinced that Eclipsys was best equipped to become our strategic IT partner."

Consistent with Lake Forest Hospital's priorities, Eclipsys will provide support for major financial and clinical information systems projects involving non-Eclipsys information products, while implementing strategies to promote the integration and interoperability among Eclipsys software and the various other information systems installed at Lake Forest Hospital. Eclipsys will also implement its ISO 9001:2000-certified Quality Management System, along with its best practices and proven IT governance model at the hospital. Anticipated benefits for Lake Forest Hospital include improving the end-user's IT experience, enhanced support for clinicians and increased capabilities to meet patient safety and quality objectives.

"Eclipsys' outsourcing services will be the driving force behind Lake Forest Hospital's efforts to maintain competitive IT capabilities and apply them to meet our strategic goals for patient safety, cost-efficiency and clinician satisfaction," Barden said. "We'll especially rely on Eclipsys to help us accomplish the mission-critical systems migrations for both clinical and financial information systems that we have planned over the next three years."