Dairyland -> DHS -> Healthland

Dairyland Healthcare Solutions (DHS) officially changed it's name to Healthland today, after trying the acronym DHS for several years. In the press release, CEO James Burgess stated some prospects in California and NJ would cross the old name off their list because it sounded too Midwest. Funny, I'd often cross prospects from California or NJ off of my list because they sound too weird...

In a more substantive move, Healthland acquired APS, a small vendor headquartered in Waco Texas which claimed 140 clients of their financial systems. Many vendors get creative when counting clients to make their numbers as big as possible, so not sure if that's 140 acute-care hospitals, or if that includes non-acute care modalities like SNFs, LTCs, Psych, Rehab, salesmen's offices, etc. Meditech, for example, claims over 1,500 hospitals, almost 1/3rd of the nations total, but that includes a hundred or more international, ≈200 through a single HCA contract on clinicals only, several hundred with only ancillary systems like Lab or RX, etc. Even so, adding APS' 100+ to Healthland's 350 existing clients, and the total is pretty impressive, moving them closer to small-hospital leader CPSI, which claims about 650 client hospitals. DHS had been taken over last year by a VC firm from San Francisco called, creatively, Francisco Partners (FP). FP's ranks include HIS heavyweights like Carl Witonsky, a VP with SMS back in their halcyon days of the 70s and 80s. Both move bode well for Healthland who should do well as the ranks of small (under 100 bed) hospitals join their larger brethren in chasing after the holy grail of EMRs and CPOE...