The CHIME Foundation Signs New Premier Members

Ann Arbor, MI, February 8, 2008 - CHIME Foundation Executive Director Rich Correll has announced that the CHIME Foundation recently signed four new Premier Members to its 2008 roster. The CHIME Foundation, created in 1994 to provide support the CHIME’s educational initiatives, includes 54 firms in total this year, with 15 firms at the Premier level.

The new Premier Members include:

Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation
QuadraMed Corporation
Wayport, Inc.
Witt/Kieffer

Fujitsu is an international provider of customer-focused information technology and communications solutions. “Fujitsu has been assisting the healthcare industry for many years in solving IT challenges,” said Fujitsu’s Richard McCormack. “At Fujitsu, our goal is not simply to provide standalone products or services. We offer a distinctive combination of strengths in computing and network equipment, plus sophisticated middleware. These enable us to provide a fully integrated IT infrastructure for healthcare professionals.”

Wayport, Inc. is a provider of public and private network support and integration for healthcare facilities. “Wayport is dedicated to the healthcare space, and we continue to enable applications, products and services to improve physician/staff retention and satisfaction, improve the patient/guest experience, create efficiencies for healthcare organizations and provide infrastructure support to enhance the reliability and quality of healthcare," says Kevin McKeand, vice president and general manager, Wayport healthcare division. "We see the converged networks we are deploying in hospitals today as proving our services and business model to be right on track with the needs of the healthcare industry. Wayport is delighted to join the other prestigious members of the CHIME Foundation in serving healthcare CIOs and advocating the more effective use of wireless networks within healthcare.”

QuadraMed develops information technology solutions with the goal of enabling healthcare organizations to leverage quality care into positive financial outcomes. “We are honored to join the CHIME Foundation as a Premier Member, because this elite status is reserved for companies that demonstrate the strongest commitment to leveraging information technology to advance patient care and patient safety, which is our core mission," said Keith Hagen, president and CEO of QuadraMed. "We look forward to actively engaging healthcare CIOs in an ongoing dialogue to solve the significant IT challenges confronting our industry today. Their feedback will help us to further transform quality care into positive financial outcomes for providers.”

Witt/Kieffer has been a national executive search firm for the last 35 years. “Witt/Kieffer is proud to be a CHIME Foundation Premier Member,” said Witt/Kieffer IT Practice Leader Linda Hodges. “Our IT search practice places CIOs, CMIOs and other key IT executives in hospitals and health systems, academic medical centers, managed care organizations, and other organizations dedicated to improving the quality of life. Witt/Kieffer is committed to advancing the CIO role in the healthcare field and supporting CHIME CIOs in their career advancement.”

“We look forward to getting to know these organizations through their participation as Premier members in the CHIME Foundation,” said Rick Schooler, VP & CIO at Orlando Regional Healthcare and Chair of the CHIME Foundation Board of Directors. “Each CHIME Foundation firm contributes so greatly to the success of the organization, as well as to the success of the healthcare IT industry as a whole.”


For more information about the CHIME Foundation, contact Kevin Cleary at (734)665-0000, or visit www.chime-foundation.org.


About the CHIME Foundation

A hallmark of CHIME’s success has been a close collaborative relationship with the HIS vendor and consulting community. The CHIME Foundation was formed by CHIME’s Board in 1994. Incorporated as a separate nonprofit organization, the Foundation was structured to support CHIME’s programs and activities. In 1994, fifteen firms stepped forward to become the Foundation’s first group of firms. The Foundation Board of Directors, chaired annually by the past chair of CHIME, has established a set of educational activities and surveys designed to promote collaboration between the Foundation and members of CHIME. These activities have proven to be entirely successful – the Foundation firms and the members of CHIME have discovered mutual benefits in such activities as focus group discussions, networking at meetings, and image and identity awareness via visibility opportunities on the CHIME member website and communications. To learn more about the CHIME Foundation, see www.chime-foundation.org


About CHIME

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) was formed with the dual objectives of serving the professional development needs of healthcare CIOs and advocating the more effective use of information management within healthcare. CHIME's events and activities were designed to reflect that purpose, including CIO-oriented surveys, education programs, and networking activities. With membership of over 1,200 CIOs, CHIME has established itself as the premier organization serving the needs of healthcare CIOs.

Contact:
Anne Wizauer
Director of Communications
CHIME
(734)665-0000
Communications@cio-chime.org

UPDATED: 7/29/2008 3:04:00 PM