1) Opus was formed in 1987 by two HIS entrepreneurs, Tim Rhoads and Fred Beck, as an LIS vendor but later expanded into clinical systems. 2) Opus got its big break in the late 1990s when it was hired by Universal Health Services, a large hospital chain, to build a custom EHR system for its 20+ hospitals. 3) In 2010, Opus was acquired by NextGen Healthcare as part of NextGen's strategy to expand into a full-suite hospital information system offering.

1. H.I.S.-tory by Vince Ciotti
Episode #81: NextGen Part 3
QSI’s next “Opus”
© 2012 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.

2. Magnum Opus
• If you classic music lovers will forgive the pun,
NextGen’s “Magnus Opus” in hospital EMRs
started out many moons ago as an LIS vendor!
• Sound familiar? Can you think of two other
leading HIS vendors today who started in LIS??
(find one in episode #16 at hispros.com)
• Opus was formed by 2 HIS entrepreneurs
back in 1987, with extensive experience:
- Tim Rhoads, pictured on the left, and
- Fred Beck, portrayed on the right.
• Tim Rhoads early career included employment at hospitals in Texas
and Colorado, including respected facilities such as Texas Children’s
Hospital where he gained first-hand knowledge of patient care and
internal hospital operations. In the early 80’s he left hospitals for
the vendor world, working at several HIS software firms.

3. The Early Days
• Tim and Fred built their LIS on the very latest architecture, using
open-source approaches, being web-based with a SQL data base.
• They quickly learned just how tough the LIS market was, with
such dominant niche players like Sunquest and Soft, as well as HIS
vendors with strong Lab offerings like Cerner, Meditech and SMS.
• So they started expanding beyond the Lab market for better
opportunities in the more generic clinical system space.

4. Big Break
• Opus’ big break came in the late 90s when
they got on the radar screen of a hospital
chain headquartered in SMS’ old stomping
grounds in King of Prussia, PA: Universal
Health Services ,founded by Alan Miller,
CEO, (on left) and Sid Miller, CFO (unrelated).
• In case their names sound familiar to any old SMS vets out
there, Alan & Sid also formed American Medicorps, Inc, (AAM),
the chain that first put SMS’ name on the map in scores of for-
profit hospitals in FL, TX and CA way back in the early 70s. AAM
got bought by Humana in the late 70s, when Alan formed UHS.
• Just like HMS got its big start in HIS through deals with several
chains in Nashville, Opus got hired in 1997 by UHS to build a
custom, web-based Clinical Information System, a radical idea
back then before anyone had their heads up in that “cloud”…

5. Creative Partnerships
• The pilot nurse station at the pilot hospital in 1998 went so well,
that UHS then implemented Opus at its 20+ hospitals in 8 states:
– SC, GA, TX, NV, OK, FL, WA, PA, and D.C.
• Just like AAM helped put SMS on the HIS map and several
Nashville chains gave HMS a nationwide presence, UHS was the
perfect partner to give Opus a toehold in the national HIS market.
• To complete their HIS offering,
they first tried to partner with a
financial system vendor from St.
Louis known as Creative
Healthcare Systems, Inc., whose
“MedGenix” software was running
in a number of hospital clients.

6. Full Clinical Suite
• Opus got on our radar map in the
mid 2000s when they started selling
their E.H.R. to non-UHS hospitals at
our HIS Buyers Seminar (on right).
• By then, their HIS offerings had
grown to encompass the whole suite
of clinical applications & modules:
ClinDoc - clinical documentation for point-of-care and e-charting
OpusMACC - a medication administration checking
OpusOM - order management, results, charges, work orders, etc.
OpusCDR - their clinical data repository
OpusMD - for physician diagnosis and treatment
OpusMobility – runs the system on smart phones and PDAs
OpusLab the original LIS, and OpusAP for anatomic pathology

7. Perfect Timing!
• Around 2010, Opus started talking to
Florian Weiland at Sphere as a better
partner for financials; Florian introduced
them to NextGen who was eager to add
a hospital E.H.R. to their ambulatory one.
• In February 2010, NextGen acquired
Opus, right after Florian’s Sphere.
• Ironically, later in 2010, UHS announced
it would be moving its 20+ hospitals off
of the Opus E.H.R. and on to Cerner’s
Millennium, perfect timing in light of
NextGen’s deep capital reserves making
Opus no longer dependent on a single
client’s prestige & revenue stream!

8. Next Week…
• So that’s how NextGen’s
total HIS system was
acquired from several
smaller HIS vendors.
• Many thanks again to
Florian Weiland for these
inside scoops, especially
while he was on vacation!
• Next week we’ll cover the
story of Rick Opry’s
IntraNexus, the final leg in
NextGen’s current HIS
platform, that also has
fascinating ties to SMS and
another early HIS pioneer...