Lakeland Healthcare Group Selects Merge Healthcare for End-to-End Radiology Solutions

Published on Wednesday, 23 May 2012 07:09 Written by TradersHuddle Staff

CHICAGO, May 23, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Merge Healthcare Incorporated (Nasdaq:MRGE), a leading provider of enterprise imaging and interoperability solutions, today announced that Lakeland Healthcare Group, a multisite practice including two regional hospitals and numerous affiliated and free standing clinics in Illinois, will implement its integrated suite of cloud-hosted radiology solutions to improve workflow and achieve Meaningful Use.

"Hosting applications in the cloud is a fast-growing trend in healthcare," said Jeff Surges, CEO of Merge Healthcare. "It's where the market is going – for a number of reasons, including the fact that practices simply don't have the capital for large hardware expenditures or the resources for ongoing management and maintenance. By utilizing a subscription-based payment model, it frees up practices like Lakeland to re-allocate financial and staff resources and be better positioned to achieve more of their patient-centric goals."

"Lakeland is a national radiology group that performs 300,000 studies a year for hospitals across the country," said Dr. Aldo Ruffolo, President and CEO, Lakeland Healthcare Group. "Our goal is to increase the number of hospitals we contract with, and increase our number of studies to more than one million in the next two years. Because this is happening for us at a fast pace, we realized we needed a vendor whose solutions could quickly and easily scale up to fit our growing needs. With Merge, we have a partner who will grow with us."

Merge Radiology Solutions include Merge RIS, a web-based radiology information system that streamlines workflow and enables providers to meet Meaningful Use criteria; Merge PACS, a real-time picture archiving communication system that provides storage and access to images from any enterprise web-based location; Merge Financials, a web-based billing system; Merge Documents, a paperless office solution to store and manage documents electronically; Merge Referral Portal, a web-based portal to engage referring physicians; and Merge Dashboards, an on-demand business intelligence solution.

About Merge Healthcare

Merge Healthcare is a leading provider of enterprise imaging and interoperability solutions, with a client base consisting of more than 1,500 hospitals and 6,000 clinics across the country. Merge solutions facilitate the sharing of images to create a more effective and efficient electronic healthcare experience for patients and physicians. Merge provides enterprise imaging solutions for radiology, cardiology, orthopaedics and eye care; a suite of products for clinical trials; software for financial and pre-surgical management, and applications that fuel the largest modality vendors in the world. Merge's products have been used by healthcare providers, vendors and researchers worldwide to improve patient care for more than 20 years. Additional information can be found at www.merge.com.

The Merge Healthcare logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=10757

About Lakeland Healthcare Group

With the latest in high quality imaging equipment and services in interventional radiology, Lakeland Healthcare Group offers referring physicians and their patients a host of new treatment options for a wide range of medical problems. Utilizing expertise in imaging modalities such as x-rays and fluoroscopy, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound, and computed tomography, Lakeland provides minimally invasive, targeted treatments performed under imaging guidance. For more information, visit lakelandradiology.com.

Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

The matters discussed in this news release may include forward-looking statements, which could involve a number of risks and uncertainties. When used in this press release, the words "will," "believes," "intends," "anticipates," "expects" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, such forward-looking statements. Except as expressly required by the federal securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update such factors or to publicly announce the results of any of the forward-looking statements.

CONTACT: Media Contact:
         Brenda Stewart
         Director, Marketing Communications
         312.540.6622 | 
 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.