ACS and Clinical Solutions partner to help local gov

Wednesday, 8th April 2009

07 April 2009: First-of-its-kind fully managed pandemic solution assists local government in assessing symptoms and planning for public health incidents.

Government organisations looking to better prepare for a public health outbreak will now have access to a complete pandemic management solution thanks to a new partnership between Affiliated Computer Services (NYSE: ACS) and Clinical Solutions.

In the event of a pandemic outbreak, this fully managed solution would help local healthcare professionals, governments and citizens safely and consistently assess symptoms and direct patients to the most appropriate level of care – thereby alleviating strain on local primary care providers during a public health crisis.

“As a leading provider of government healthcare solutions, ACS is pleased to add this end-to-end pandemic management solution to its wide variety of government offerings,” said Chris Deelsnyder, managing director and senior vice president of ACS’ Government Healthcare Solutions. “ACS’ mature global infrastructure and extensive customer care capabilities serve as the perfect complement for Clinical Solutions’ Web-based products. Together, we can equip local governments with the necessary tools to better prepare for and manage possible public health outbreaks.”

Under the partnership agreement, ACS will provide the infrastructure, telephony and call centre services to complement the Clinical Solutions IntefleCS™ Health Watch tools and software. With nearly 30,000 customer service representatives and 118 call centers that offer support in 20 different languages, ACS can provide an instant pool of operators that can help assess symptoms, provide further information and direct citizens to the most appropriate level of care.

Richard Craven, director at Clinical Solutions adds, “This partnership provides local governments with the combined expertise of specialists in telecoms and call centre services with Web-tools and software. The Clinical Solutions and ACS technologies offer effective tools for assessing symptoms and planning for public health incidents, pandemics and bio-threats; giving governments confidence and peace of mind that they’re fully prepared.”

IntefleCS™ Health Watch is a suite of Web-based tools used to detect, assess, contain, communicate, manage and report during a public health incident. The software was piloted in 2006 in Exercise Cumpston, Australia’s largest ever health simulation exercise, which tested the country’s preparations for a pandemic flu outbreak.

In the United Kingdom, Clinical Solutions is helping to deliver a multi-channel National Pandemic Flu Line Service ensuring the country is one of the most prepared in world. In partnership with Department of Health, NHS Direct and BT the service will provide rapid Web- and telephony-based assessment, direction of care, advice, guidance and, where appropriate, authorisation of antiviral medicine treatment to the public.

About ACS

ACS is a national leader in state healthcare program administration, offering a full spectrum of systems and complementary services through an integrated solution; from care management solutions and child health programs to pharmacy benefits management and traditional Medicaid fiscal agent services. ACS supports more than 23 million program recipients and processes nearly 550 million Medicaid healthcare claims annually, representing close to $50 billion in provider payments. As the nation's largest government program pharmacy benefits administrator, ACS serves 28 states, the District of Columbia and the Department of Labor with drug expenditures totaling more than $13 billion.

ACS, a global FORTUNE 500 company with 74,000 people supporting client operations reaching more than 100 countries, provides business process outsourcing and information technology solutions to world-class commercial and government clients. The company's Class A common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "ACS."