Orange County agreement is second California implementation for company
VERONA, NJ (September 15, 2009) – LiveProcess, the market leader in web-based emergency preparedness and incident management solutions for healthcare, announced today the implementation of its centralized, disaster preparation and response system in the 32 hospitals of Orange County, California, the nation's fifth largest county.
The agreement with the Orange County Health Care Agency (OCHCA) is the company's second major installation in California in the past 12 months and comes as LiveProcess continues a national expansion plan that is bringing more free-standing hospitals, healthcare systems, regional operations and county entities into its growing national network. Last September, LiveProcess marked its first California agreement when hospitals in bordering Riverside County (the nation's 15th largest county), implemented the companys Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform.
OCHCA is a regional agency charged with protecting and promoting individual, family and community health through coordination of public and private sector resources. An important component of OCHCA's responsibilities is coordinating health-related emergency response activities under the auspices of the state's Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP), a federally funded initiative that guides hospitals on regional surge capacity, equipment, patient tracking, interoperable communications, training and exercises. Current HPP priority areas include communication systems, bed tracking, casualty management planning, and hospital evacuations.
The County of Orange also collaborates with the California Department of Public Health and other state and local partnering entities to ensure consistent disaster and preparedness planning locally, regionally and statewide.
"We are pleased about this agreement and look forward to getting on board and using all the wonderful features the LiveProcess platform offers," said Holly Veale, Division Manager, Health Disaster Management, Orange County Health Care Agency. Veale added that the ability of the LiveProcess platform to generate after action reports will be "a real benefit" for documenting the work of hospital emergency management professionals throughout the county.
Veale said 32 Orange County hospitals are in various stages of implementing the platform and expect to be fully implemented by the end of November. She added that until LiveProcess, Orange County hospitals had not standardized on any formal common emergency management system.
Orange County area hospitals include Anaheim General Hospital, Children's Hospital of Orange County, HealthSouth Tustin Rehabilitation Hospital, Hoag Memorial Hospital, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center-Anaheim, Kindred Hospital-Brea, Saint Jude Medical Center, and University of California, Irvine, Healthcare.
"With a population of over 3.1 million, 34 cities, 800 square miles and a 42-mile-long coastline, Orange County is one of the largest and most diverse population centers in the country, and its emergency preparedness demands are very complex, said Mitch Saruwatari, vice president of quality and compliance for LiveProcess. "We're looking forward to assisting OCHCA and area hospitals to meet emergency and disaster challenges such as earthquakes and the coming influenza season."
About LiveProcess
LiveProcess was established in the wake of the September 11 attacks and the worldwide SARS outbreak in response to widespread recognition that healthcare needed a better way to plan for and respond to disasters. The LiveProcess platform is used by over 400 hospitals nationwide and is exclusively endorsed by the American Hospital Association (AHA) for disaster readiness and incident command solutions for its member hospitals. LiveProcess was recently named to the "Inc. 5000," a list of America's fastest-growing private companies.
For more information, visit www.liveprocess.com.
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