Under terms of the contract, the companies will replace several of the state’s aging public health information systems with a statewide system serving all public health entities. This is valued at roughly $19.8 million over a 19-month period, and will be followed by 42 months of maintenance and support valued at about $4.7 million.
Currently, many of the state’s public health departments maintain independent clinical and practice management systems, while others rely on a state-developed mainframe system with dated technology and significant functional limitations. The new Saber/Netsmart system is expected to standardize and unify all health department clinical and financial transactions by providing an enterprise database and advanced data management and reporting capabilities.
When fully implemented, the system is expected to improve the quality of care for the state’s citizens and save the state time and money in managing its delivery and tracking of healthcare services.
At the core of the Saber’s web-based system is Netsmart’s Avatar software, designed to automate clinical, financial and management functions for community mental health, public health, and substance abuse providers and payers. Saber will integrate the customized Netsmart system among the state’s public health departments.
Saber is all about delivering technology that helps governmental agencies better serve citizens, said Nitin Khanna, Saber CEO. We do this by implementing leading commercial off-the-shelf software technologies like Netsmart’s Avatar system in a manner that uniquely serves customer needs, providing an economical, low-risk alternative to custom software developments.
