McKesson is building on the strength of its enterprise Horizon Clinicals solution with the acquisition of LMS Medical Systems' intellectual property for obstetrics (OB) surveillance and archival capabilities. Currently marketed by McKesson as Horizon Perinatal Care, the solution integrates the fetal strip with the mother's electronic health record to enhance patient safety, reduce duplicate charting and leverage information across the enterprise. Horizon Perinatal Care is the first and only OB/perinatal information solution designed to support continuity of care between labour and delivery and other areas in the hospital.

"McKesson's purchase of the LMS OB surveillance and archival solution is further proof of our strong commitment to patient safety and helping those on the front line of care to achieve positive outcomes in obstetrics," said Merrie Wallace, BSN, MN, national vice president, Horizon Clinicals, McKesson Provider Technologies. "By owning the surveillance and archival solution, we'll have the autonomy to determine the future direction of Horizon Perinatal Care, and will be positioned to address the needs of our customers and differentiate our solution from both standalone niche offerings and other enterprise products."

LMS Medical Systems, based in Montreal, Canada, is committed to ensuring a smooth transition of all knowledge regarding the solution to McKesson for development, support and implementations. Customers that have purchased, are implementing or are live on Horizon Perinatal Care will experience full continuity of service and support. They also can confidently use the solution as part of an integrated environment that enables more collaborative and safer care for obstetric patients.

"Acceptance of our perinatal strategy has been strong, with more than 60 customers already live on the standalone surveillance and archival functionality of Horizon Perinatal Care," added Wallace. "Integration with our Horizon Clinicals solution promotes patient safety and clinical efficiency by providing complete information and enabling the perinatal environment to benefit from enterprise safety and quality tools. These tools include computerized provider order entry, clinical alerting and bar-code medication administration. The integrated solution has been live for more than a year at two healthcare facilities representing 4,500 annual births."

Horizon Perinatal Care also is part of McKesson's Horizon Clinicals Care Team Release, the first solution to unify medical and interdisciplinary care plans, proactively driving evidence-based practice across all members of the care team. More than two million clinicians rely on Horizon Clinicals solutions every day to manage care complexity, increase safety and achieve measurably better outcomes for their patients.

McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 18th on the Fortune 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to helping its customers deliver high-quality healthcare by reducing costs, streamlining processes, and improving the quality and safety of patient care.