News

Sequest Technologies News - April, 2007

Greetings from Sequest President Bill Connors, MSW

I would like to thank you for taking the time to pick up our newsletter. Our intent is to provide additional value, education and training to our TIER® partnerships. Our plans for 2007 include exciting additions to TIER® and Sequest Technologies, Inc. Our newsletter will be one vehicle of communication to you-please also visit our user website at www.sequestuser.net. Our quest to constantly improve partner communication and discussion will remain a focus of our work this year. I encourage your participation in our partnership as we continue to develop strong, productive relationships with you and your organization.

NAATP & Sequest present: Demystifying Electronic Health Records

Sequest and the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP) have designed a series of regional seminars that discuss leadership issues related to technology. Ron Hunsicker, NAATP Executive Director and Bill Connors, Sequest President/CEO, have developed a ¾ day “lunch and learn” format that provides executive management with topics identified in the NAATP IT Survey found at http://www.naatp.org/ITSurvey.html .

The NAATP IT Survey found several key areas of interest among leadership:
1. Aspects of a successful EHR implementation
2. Lessons learned from fellow NAATP members
3. Federal and other impacts on the future of automated records

The first of these seminars was held on March 15, 2007 at Hanley Center in West Palm Beach Florida. The content focused heavily on providing materials and discussion on the above identified topics. Ron Hunsicker and Bill Connors opened with a brief overview of
the seminars’ purpose, “To provide insight into the many technology influences on the day to day business of NAATP members,” as emphasized by Connors.

The initial session was presented as a snapshot of Federal standard setting movements and the push toward interoperability. A concise and broad overview was provided by Bill Connors, describing the Federal mandates for standards and the concepts of derived profiles for substance abuse. “The vision was laid by current administration but the  ractical aspects on how to get there will be very difficult especially when dealing with the right to know and confidentiality as related to addiction records,” stated Ron Hunsicker. Hanley Center was highlighted during the seminar as a case study of how a successful EHR can happen and what it takes to deliver one. Barry Goldman, Hanley’s IT lead, presented a PowerPoint presentation that led attendees through the Hanley software needs, software selection and the implementation of the TIER® Software System. Hanley’s need for software included; intuitive/friendly user interface that they themselves could customize; software that easily adapted to Hanley’s processes which supported JCAHO and HIAA compliance and integrated with billing. Not least of which was to find a software company that clearly focused on its client’s needs. Goldman continued to outline the training process for the Sequest TIER® Workflow System and his 125 end users. He discussed the use of discipline area training-nurses, physicians, financial, etc. The Hanley process was also described in the December 2006 edition of Addiction Demystifying Electronic Health Records Continued Professional.

The final presentation was provided by Bill Connors and focused on leadership involvement in EHR implementations. Key areas of focus were leadership involvement at strategic points, definition of scope, access to resources and the overall process of planning EHR implementation as an organizational project and not an IT project. Attendees shared experiences with implementation and learned of each others issues, problems and major obstacles to the project.

This was Sequest’s and NAATP’s first session and plans are now under way for a northeast seminar. The content was very well received and a discussion with attendees if they had found the day beneficial yielded comments such as “absolutely” and “definitely.” Sequest
has embarked on these seminars as a way to provide some of its knowledge and core  competency to fellow NAATP members. Sequest Technologies, Inc. has been a member of NAATP for several years and has provided development and automation of the NAATP survey processes as well as having developed IT related sessions in the past for NAATP annual meetings.

TIER® Introduces Grid Performance & Functionality

A sci-fi thriller where we enter a world of fantastic powers and destiny? Not that exciting but a pretty neat tool! The GRID will aid you in developing powerful data presentations of data and increased performance.

The GRID is similar to the ListView in the way that data is presented however, the GRID provides additional functionality and performance.

Performance

Time is money so the faster we can make our software tools work the better! In a pure performance comparison of the GRID versus the ListView, the GRID is the clear winner! We performed several tests and will share one with you. The test consisted of developing two TIER® Forms. Form A has a ListView while Form B has a GRID. Both forms have the same data sources: FD__CLIENTS containing 16956 rows. No filtering was performed and the records are loaded into the respective ListView and GRID as the forms open. The Elapsed Time is measured from the moment we clicked open the form until the ListView and GRID display data. The results speak: GRID is 15 times faster than the ListView.

Master / Detail

For example, you have a listing of Staff displayed as the Primary View. The Secondary data includes the staff address. Notice that some Staff names have a + sign to the far left of their names. This indicates that an address exists. If you click on the + it will change to a – and the address information will display. This allows for a consolidated view of staff names and phone numbers as well as accessing the address information when needed. Let your imagination create your own powerful GRID.

Sequest Connects to Clients in a Whole New Way

Sequest Client Services has implemented a new tool that will help us to answer your questions and resolve issues in a timelier manner. We are accomplishing this by using a product called EchoGent (www.echogent.com) that we have customized into Tier Diagnostics. This program is available at http://www.sequest.net/clients/utilities/TierDiagnostics.exe

EchoGent enables a peer-to-peer connection to use a packet relay server (A “packet relay server” is nothing more than a way of “bouncing” an Internet connection from one endpoint to another.) in order to achieve end to end connectivity without adjustment of firewalls or routers.

What this will enable Sequest to do is to make a quicker connection to the problem PC to allow us to see exactly what the end user is seeing so that we can take control of the PC in order to determine the best available method to use for connection.

Now you may be asking yourself how secure of a connection is this? The answer is that this program is as secure as asking yourself the question “Do you trust the person that runs the software that you are using?” If you do then your connection is secure. This program also utilizes OpenSSL’s 128-bit AES encryption for the end-to-end data connections.Sequest Connects to Clients in a Whole New Way.

TIER® 5 Released Via Webcasts

In December 2006, Sequest announced the release of TIER 5. In order to get the word out to users, a series of Webcasts to feature TIER 5 were offered to organizations with support contracts.

Clients had the opportunity to attend two sessions. Session I was an overview of the TIER 5 product. During this session, ReadMe items were discussed, installation procedures offered reviewed and the new TIER Designer was demonstrated.

Session II were advanced design features showing users how to use the TIERChart and TIERGrid. At the end of each session, a question and answer opportunity was given so clients could learn more.

Stuart Swann, Sunpaths, Inc., offered his comments on the webcasts, “I’m glad to see you testing the webcast platform and look forward to future offerings.” Other users agreed and sent their kudos to Bill Connors.

If you were unable to attend one of these webcasts, please contact Customer Support for more information.

TIER® 5 is a free upgrade to organizations with support contracts and is available for download via www.sequest.net website.

Sequest presents at CIMH

Sequest will be exhibiting at the California Institute for Mental Health. Bill Connors will present along with Denny Morrison, CEO of Center for Behavioral Health, on April 11, 2007. The presentation will focus on the long-term national and state goals for widespread EHR adoption. They will discuss how behavioral health counties and treatment organizations should move ahead with EHR adoption. (Additionally, in the next few years, how can organizations minimize the risk that those investments will diverge from emerging standards & policy requirements?) Joe Kocisis LCSW, Sequest Business Development Executive, will join Bill Connors MSW and we encourage clients in the area to visit and meet with our representatives.

Sequest weighs in on Biggest Loser Contest

Ready…Set…Weigh In!
In the name of friendly competition or a way just to gain some extra “mula”….a few of us here at Sequest Technologies have decided to have our own version of the Biggest Loser. On Tuesday January 25, 2007, we decided to have a weigh in…the competition will run until May 11, 2007. There was a $20 buy in and the pot will go to the winner that looses the most percentage of weight….the loser has to buy the rest of the contestants lunch on May 11, and the restaurant will be hand picked by the runner up. Involved in the competition are:

1. Satya Pothamsetti
2. Bill Connors
3. Jeff Piantek
4. Susan Pedersen
5. Kari Alvarez
6. Dan Rizzo
7. Gayathri Raghavan

In recent weeks the competition seems to be headed the way of the biggest gainer, but at this point who’s counting, we still have another month. So wish us luck as we continue on our “weigh” and we will keep you posted of the results in the next newsletter.

Client News — NYU Child Study Center

Each quarter we will “Spotlight” one of our client’s. The “Spotlight” allows our client’s to share news and information
with each other. This quarter, we spotlight The NYU Child Study Center. The NYU Child Study Center has been a client of Sequest’s since 2000. Dave Fu, Director of Information Technology, has coordinated Regional User Groups for the Northeast and has participated in our Annual User Group Conference as well. Dave shared some exciting news with Sequest:

The NYU Child Study Center hosted its Ninth Annual Child Advocacy Award Dinner honoring Stanley and Fiona Druckenmiller raising more than $6.5 million to support research necessary to advance prevention, identification, and treatment of mental health disorders in children and adolescents. Childhood: Lost and Found, a short film produced by Nathaniel Kahn, Academy Award-nominated director of My Architect (2004), premiered at the gala. New York University also announced
the establishment of a separate child and adolescent psychiatry department with the NYU Child Study Center at its core.It is only the second independent department of a major university in the United States. The NYU Child Study Center also recently kicked off a series of meetings with the Nathan S. Kline Institute to coordinate research efforts in the areas of child and adolescent mental health issues. This partnership began with the announcement of Harold S. Koplewicz,
MD, Director of the Child Study Center, as the new Executive Director. NKI is nationally and internationally known for its pioneering contributions to psychiatric research in areas of schizophrenia, major mood disorders, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Congratulations!

Welcome to Sequest Technologies, Inc.

Sequest welcomes Mike Myrick to our Client Services Department. Mike has over 25 years of Business, IT and Financial
experience. The past 14 years focused on Healthcare and Human Services. Mike earned a BA in Business however, his emphasis quickly turned to addressing business challenges using information technology. Particular areas of expertise include Project Management, Software Design and Development, Developing Financial Reporting and Analytical Systems and General Consulting. Mike’s experience ranges from small detox organizations to large integrated healthcare systems to nationally recognized consulting groups. He has expertise with payors and providers from financial, clinical and administrative perspectives. Mike is married with five children living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “Mike brings us a tremendous amount of energy and experience with regard to successful product design and implementation within our targeted markets,” stated Bill Connors.

Sequest also welcomes Cristina Prince to our Sales and Marketing Department. Cristina has several years experience in Marketing. Her areas of focus include: client account management, and developing/maintaining customer relationships. Cristina formerly worked in the Healthcare Industry for 6 years and was vital to their marketing department. She has worked extensively with Adobe Photoshop, SQL (Sequel) database and in MS Access – Intermediate Certified.”