LAFAYETTE, LA - The Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce its Innovation Award finalists. Out of the 20 innovations, five were selected as finalists. The Chamber began an area-wide search in November for innovation to receive the second annual Acadiana Innovation Awards. The Chamber established the awards to help build upon its long-term goal of perpetuating a "Community of Innovators." The award is designed to educate, celebrate and inspire the people of Acadiana to create the transformational changes found in an economically and culturally thriving community.

Chamber President & CEO, Rob Guidry commented, "This type of community outreach and participation is essential to our perpetuating a 'Community of Innovators.'"

Criteria for the award was established by a special Innovation Committee Task Force. Applicants must reside or work in the Acadiana area. Chamber membership was not a requirement. Judges focused on results and creativity of the innovation. Applicants were encouraged to include any pictures, videos, etc. to be reviewed by the Selection Committee, which was made up of Chamber members from all industry types.

Two recipients will be announced at the Chamber's Annual Banquet on January 20, 2011. Please contact the Chamber's Marketing Relations Specialist, Carley Ste. Marie, by email at carley@lafchamber.org or by phone at 337-408-3655 with any questions about the award.

The 2010 Acadiana Innovation Award Finalists are (descriptions provided in applications):

Affinity House Calls, PLLC -- Nurse Practitioner House Calls
Nurse Practitioner based medical house calls - medical care provided in the comfort of the patient's home. Providing medical visits to the elderly, disabled or otherwise infirmed who have difficultly leaving the home setting. While working in a private practice setting, we became aware of the great difficulty for some patients to leave their home for medical office visits. Common complaints include the long waiting times in lobbies full of other sick people, being exhausted for days after that appointment, and family members (if existent) having to take time off of work to bring them to this appointment. This is a fledgling healthcare model in the Lafayette, LA area, but is thriving in other parts of the country. Medical care will be provided primarily to an underserved, aging population. Typically, with such difficulty leaving the home, many choose to avoid seeking medical care at all. Acute and chronic health conditions either go un- or under-treated, or the emergency room is used due to ease of access. With the recent changes in Medicare reimbursement, many private practices are no longer accepting Medicare patients. If the patient can find a practitioner who accepts Medicare, the time frame to an available appointment is typically too long when there is a new or exacerbated health condition. This leads to more serious illness, often with longer, complicated hospital stays. Providing routine healthcare has been shown to lessen the incidence and severity of acute illnesses, and can prevent emergency room visits and hospital admissions. This saves many thousands in healthcare dollars. Because these patients often have mobility deficits, an ambulance service is called for transportation. If deemed not to be a true medical emergency, such as for an office visit, the patient is billed for this very expensive mode of transportation.

Apex Innovations, LLC -- Education for Healthcare
Apex Innovations is an international leader in interactive, engaging online education for healthcare. Based in Lafayette, Louisiana, with distributors across the country and products around the world, Apex Innovations began in 2002, to fill a need for visually superior, intriguing and effective educational tools. Since inception, the company has been designing, manufacturing and providing unique tools, software, competencies, resources and educational web-based programs for individuals, universities, organizations and corporations in the healthcare industry around the world, including the Acadiana community. Our 3D templates are like none other, and we are known for amazing graphics, innovative and intuitively interactive online healthcare education for nurses, physicians and paramedics. We present basics to advanced information to improve the knowledge and competency of healthcare practitioners providing post level testing, robust administrator reporting, benchmarking, 24/7 technical support and continuing education credit (CNE, CME, CEH) with passing scores. MI Rule® Visions™ is an innovative 3D template making recognition of myocardial infarction and ischemia location in a 12 lead ECG rapid and simple. imPULSE™ ECG Competency Series is an online, amazingly interactive ECG and chest pain education and competency series addressing the educational needs of all levels of staff in acute care organizations from monitor technicians to nurses, practitioners and physicians. Hemispheres™ Stroke Competency Series Hemispheres™ is the first comprehensive stroke series available to students, paramedics, nurses and physicians and is comprised of eight courses: Brain Anatomy & Physiology, Stroke Pathophysiology, Pre-Hospital & ED Stroke, In-Hospital Ischemic Stroke, In-Hospital Hemorrhagic Stroke, Stroke Prevention, Excellence in Stroke Care, and the National Institutes of Health ("NIH”) Stroke Scale Training and Certification. Responder™ STEMI Recognition will be released in November 2010, and focuses on ST Elevation MI (STEMI) recognition, management and disposition for EMS.

Frank's Casing Crew and Rental Tools, Inc -- 1250 Ton Drill Pipe Spider and Elevator
The Frank’s 1250 Ton Elevator and Spider are the first-ever drill pipe handling tools in the industry to boast a safe working load rating greater than 1000 tons. (Tested to 5,000,000 lbs. in order to achieve a 1250 SWL Rating in accordance with API 7K and 8C criteria). Frank’s broke this 1000 Ton barrier by introducing its 1250 Ton tools to the deepwater market. This development is another step in Frank’s history of innovation. In recent years, Frank’s also introduced 1250 Ton casing handling tools to the industry. The Frank’s 1250 Ton Elevator contains bushings to handle the weight of the string by grabbing the upset of the tool joint. It differs from other drill pipe elevators in that it is a solid body type elevator that does not include doors, latches or hinges. During operation, the elevator is lowered over the stand of drill pipe being held by the PRS. Alternatively, a single joint elevator can be suspended beneath the Frank’s 1250 Ton Drill Pipe Elevator to allow single joints of pipe to be raised from the horizontal position. A major advancement in oilfield technology, these tools are the first in the industry to handle 1250 Tons. This allows rig operators to set longer casing strings in deeper water and provide an increased factor of safety against failure. By developing this new technology, (the first drill pipe tools with a rating of more than 1000 Tons) Frank’s has again proven itself as a leader in innovation and technological advances in the Oil Field.This is beneficial to Acadiana because of the fact that Frank’s main headquarters is located here in Lafayette. This technology that is used around the world, was developed, manufactured, and tested here in Lafayette, by local workers.

National Incident Management Systems and Advanced Technologies Institute -- University of Louisiana at Lafayette
The National Incident Management Systems & Advanced Technologies (NIMSAT) Institute was conceived as a "national-scale” research institute, based on the experiences of researchers at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette during the devastations of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The Institute’s research team accomplishes its national-scale mission through research into public-private partnerships, and by establishing best-practice linkages between government and industry stakeholders at all levels and across all critical infrastructure sectors. The team focuses on analyses of critical infrastructure and supply chain interdependencies in an overarching effort to minimize the loss of life and impact on economy. The NIMSAT Institute is working on many projects that contribute to the overall innovation within the community and the state. The Institute is currently working with the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources to model the demand and supply of fuel during large-scale evacuations in order to minimize loss of life and disruptions to the quality of life during hurricanes. Secondly, the NIMSAT Institute pioneered the development of public-private partnership research and implementation during hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008, resulting in the establishment of the Louisiana Business Emergency Operations Center (LA BEOC), an innovative, first-of-its-kind public-private partnership model in Louisiana that was activated during the recent BP Oil Spill crisis to coordinate the interactions between the public and private sectors. Additionally, FEMA has recently recognized the LA BEOC as a "national model.” The Institute’s success in public-private partnerships has raised the attention of the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) and the International Association of Emergency Mangers (IAEM) who requested that NIMSAT lead a public-private partnership best practices research analysis. The results will be published in a nationally recognized handbook to be used by governors across the nation to help create these partnerships in their communities.

Schumacher Group -- Innovative Analytics in Emergency Medicine
The innovative solution we implemented was a bottom-up method using advance analytics to predict revenue and cash flow. Our methodology prior consisted of a top-down industry approach. The new process is 98% accurate on the first run, 99.5% in month two vs. 75-80% for the old process. The tool creates variables based off of historical data trends to predict revenue and cash flow. The new process provides an audit trail down to the individual patient visits. We now have the capability to analyze trends in payment velocity, conversion factors, operating efficiency, patient demographics and new hospital contract behavior. This provides incredible insight into our business. The implemented solution gives us better data from our billing companies. It is a revenue tool that accommodates changes in the business and results in less manual intervention by the Accounting department. It also allows us to match cash collection to revenue by Date of Service that the patient was seen. We had a great team of innovators from across the enterprise collaborating together to make this a reality from Accounting and Finance to our Billing companies to our Information Technology departments and our Executive Team. The innovative solution included improved accuracy, shorten cycles, improved audit trail, automated and reduced manual work, provided analytical leverage, the solution aligned with our staffing philosophy, leveraged existing tools and skills, created a supportable solution, improved performance and availability, and gained trust and respect of the Business. We are changing physicians’ behavior which is impacting the care that patients are receiving is the best that it can possibly be. This process allows us to educate our physicians on change in care practices and reach them at any time of the day. This is also a "green solution” since physicians are answering questions electronically and not utilizing paper.