When you look at the history of Health Care Software, it's easy to trace the flexibility and stability—which today have become hallmarks of the company—back to its founding 40 years ago. By 1968, Joe Fahey, a former 10-year IBM veteran and then Project Manager at Monmouth Medical Center in NJ, and Joe Manzi, a Systems Director at that facility, already had the world's first hospital information system installation under their belts. Visitors from around the world came to see the system, which according to Fahey, took all orders entered by physicians and routed them throughout the hospital for proper action and follow-up. Updates would then flow back to the doctors and appropriate departments.

With a vision of installing similar clinical systems at hospitals throughout the US, Fahey asked Manzi to join him. On October 6, 1969, together with seed money from a New York banking firm, the two formed Hospital Computer Systems. Early on, however, they had to change direction, demonstrating, for the first time, the flexibility they would need to build their successful enterprise. "We weren't in business very long when we discovered there was no market, '"says Manzi. According to Fahey, the problem was that they were 5 - 10 years ahead of the market. "No one had anything like it except Monmouth and the system we were proposing was so big and all encompassing that it was hard for the hospitals to even understand the concept. "Temporarily putting their clinical solutions on hold, they went back to the drawing board and Manzi created a streamlined, financial information system. In July of 1971 they installed their first system. By 1977 the company had systems in eight NJ hospitals including Englewood, Jersey Shore and Muhlenberg. In these early years the company supported its software by providing both system hardware and on-site personnel to the hospitals.

By 1982 changes in administrative personnel at some of their client hospitals, as well as the appearance of sizable competitors, resulted in the loss of a couple of hospitals. Concerned, the company's investment banking firm asked Fahey and Manzi to find buyers for Hospital Computer Systems. Two outside bidders emerged. Recognizing the value of what they had built and continuing to believe in the potential of their system, Fahey and Manzi stepped up as the third bidders. When all bids were in, Fahey and Manzi came out on top and assumed the company as a whole in October of 1982.

In the 1980s the company continued to successfully program and operate financial systems and even sold their first clinical system as originally envisioned. The company remained viable into the 1990s but foresaw a new challenge. Closings, mergers, and consolidations resulted in the overall number of US hospitals dropping significantly: the market was drying up. Once again the company needed to demonstrate its flexibility.

Tom Fahey, HCS's current President, who joined the company in 1996 explains, "As an organization the decision was made to expand our focus – while we remained dedicated to hospital information systems, we increased our R&D to include the sub-acute market, meaning long- term care, as well as behavioral health and human services organizations. " he says. According to Manzi, the company had worked with a client that had long-term care, home care and psychiatric units, so they were not totally inexperienced in the area. It was, however, a necessary broadening of their focus. "We expanded our software's functionality and started to diversify," said Tom. Reflecting the company's broader target market, the name was changed to Health Care Software, Inc. (HCS).

HCS was able to quickly close two long-term care facilities and began a steady upward growth pattern. Today, HCS's premier software package, INTERACTANT™, is used by providers in all 50 states. With its roots in the original programming developed by Manzi, INTERACTANT has evolved into a web-based, centralized architecture solution that offers a complete suite of applications for clinical, financial, EHR and revenue cycle management. The system is especially suited for multi-site long-term care facilities, acute care hospitals and outpatient facilities.

The same flexibility that enabled HCS to change with the times and react to the market place comes through in INTERACTANT and its implementation process. It is, in fact, the key to making HCS different according to Joe Fahey.

"We appreciate the fact that no two healthcare organizations run the same way, " he explains. "What we do is go in and perform a systems review, then tailor the system to meet those needs. We install the software, we train their people and continue to support the application. We have approximately 40 programmers in our office in Farmingdale, NJ, where we provide support services 24/7. This support, according to Joe Fahey includes anything the client has a question about, as well as any changes they want. Dedicated account managers monitor the client's systems everyday to make sure that they are on top of what the client needs.

"They don't have to change the way they do business, " says Fahey. "We change our system to fit their organization: That's the difference. "Manzi refers to this as "flexibility by design."

Efficiency through Competency

When asked if this degree of flexibility and tailoring doesn't slow the installation process or make it more expensive, the answer reveals another trait inherent in the company: Stability.

HCS is able to streamline the implementation process—even with a high degree of customization—because of efficiencies resulting from its highly competent technical staff. That competency is the result of long-established hiring practices at HCS.

"We hire young, bright recent college graduates who enter into a rigorous training program to learn our programming language, naming conventions and system structure, " says Tom Fahey. "This process ensures a certain technical consistency across all applications and clients."

Six associates hired and trained just this way—now all vice presidents at HCS—have been with the company for more than 20 years. "These are some of the most knowledgeable people in the healthcare field, " says Joe Fahey. "We hired these people out of college, trained them and they stayed with us, so they know our systems inside and out. "All new technical hires go through the same process and work under one of these six vice presidents.

"For most of the company history, due to our way of hiring, getting technical talent has not been a challenge, "says Tom Fahey. The result is a high degree of stability and competency that allows the flexible, custom programming done for each account to be completed smoothly and efficiently.

According to Tom Fahey, the strength of the technical team also allows HCS to better meet today's demands for more intuitive user interfaces and a higher level of functionality. "Clients expect the software to do more, perform more and to be cutting- edge. We are in a better position to meet those demands because we have a deep understanding of our application architecture and languages, " he says.

The Next 40 Years

The company founded by Joe Fahey and Joe Manzi in 1969— and now led by Tom Fahey—has provided clients with flexible software solutions for 40 years. But what about the next 40 years - and beyond? According to Tom Fahey, HCS's history and culture make it well suited to meet today's challenges and take advantage of tomorrow's opportunities for its clients.

"The biggest challenge for any clinical and financial software is how the healthcare business is changing, " says Tom. "Interoperability and exchanging information from one system to another is a challenge for every vendor, but we are particularly well positioned to handle it. "He points out the company's 100% in-house control of its software solutions continues to allow the company to control its own destiny when it comes to modifications. He notes their technical expertise and experience exchanging information with other systems. These are all HCS assets when it comes to interoperability and the direction the government is heading in terms of increased consistency between systems.

Going forward, Tom Fahey wants the expanded use of EMR (Electronic Medical Records) to be among the ultimate benefits HCS provides to its clients. He, however, emphasizes the importance of the integration of EMR and revenue cycle management.

"We want to expand EMR but not diminish the importance of collecting monies for our clients. These two areas are where we are focused because a client could have the best EMR, but if they are not generating charges and maintaining regulatory compliance with regard to reimbursement, they will fail, " he explains. "We dedicate technical resources and interact with our clients to ensure that all applications exceed client's expectations."

It's just one aspect of the future HCS intends to take a leading role in. But, whatever lies ahead for the industry, it is a certainty that HCS will bring a flexible approach developed by its experienced, long-term technical and management teams.