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Client: Washington (Pa.) Hospital.

Description: 251-staffed-bed community hospital.

Issue Addressed: Need to replace 26-year-old legacy orders, documentation and results viewing system from Eclipsys; add new applications for OR, ED, and ICU.

Winning Vendor: Eclipsys Corp.

Service: Clinical information system.

Terms: $14.1 million, seven years.

Selection Team: Six executives, including CFO and CNO; led by Rodney Louk, vice president information services and CIO.

Contract Signed: Dec. 30, 2005, after 18-month evaluation period.

Number Vendors Considered: One. “We wanted to determine why we would not stick with Eclipsys,” Louk says.

What Eclipsys Didn’t Know: That no other vendors were under consideration.

Ace in the Hole: If Eclipsys fell short, Louk was prepared to solicit proposals from Cerner (his lab and radiology vendor) and HealthQuest (his financial systems vendor).

Evaluation Tools: Demonstrations of modules; site visits to two Philadelphia hospitals.

Participants: Hundreds of employees and physicians attended demonstrations, ranking Eclipsys on scorecards later analyzed by the selection team.

—Gary Baldwin