Community-Wide Personal Health Record Tied to the Electronic Health Record
CHICAGO and LEWISBURG, Pa., Aug. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Allscripts,
the leading provider of clinical software and information solutions that
physicians use to improve healthcare, announced today that Evangelical
Community Hospital has selected the Allscripts Electronic Health Record (EHR)
solution to automate and connect clinical processes for their 40 employed
physicians and 60 affiliated physicians in independent practice.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061005/ALLSCRIPTSLOGO-b)
The agreement with Allscripts leverages recent changes to the federal
Stark regulations that now allow hospitals to assist non-employed physicians
in purchasing healthcare information technologies such as the Electronic
Health Record. Evangelical Community Hospital will host the Allscripts
solution and subsidize the cost and ongoing fees associated with providing the
system to physicians in the community
“In seeking to fulfill our vision of healthy communities, we’re bringing
our close-knit network of physicians together to share clinical and financial
information on one Allscripts network,” said Scott Peterson, Chief Information
Officer at Evangelical Community Hospital, which previously provided its
physicians the Allscripts Practice Management solution to automate back-office
functions such as billing, scheduling and revenue cycle management. “We
planned to take this step eventually but the Stark rule change provided us the
opportunity to move forward in a much more aggressive manner and to build
physician support for the deployment over a much shorter time.”
The Allscripts Electronic Health Record delivers instant access to patient
information when and where physicians need it – at the hospital, in their
offices, or while on-call. The web-based solution also automates everyday
clinical tasks for physicians and other healthcare providers, including
prescribing and refilling medications, ordering and reviewing tests, and
documenting patient care.
“We are pleased that Evangelical Community Hospital is able to support the
deployment of the Allscripts electronic health record to our staff members who
might not otherwise adopt and use an Electronic Health Record, either because
of cost or fear of implementation difficulties,” said J. Lawrence Ginsburg,
MD, MMM, Vice President of Medical Affairs at Evangelical Community Hospital.
“We carefully evaluated multiple vendors and believe that Allscripts offers
the best combination of functionality and support. It is clear that the use of
an electronic health record will enhance patient safety and the quality of
care delivered by these physicians.”
“The connectivity to other community physicians that Allscripts will
provide is especially important,” Dr. Ginsburg added. “It means that patients
being seen by multiple providers, or going to the emergency room, may be
confident that all their physicians have access to the same information,
including medical history, test results, medication lists, and allergies. This
will allow provision of more timely, safer care and avoid duplication of tests
and procedures.”
Evangelical Community Hospital is a 135-bed community hospital that serves
Pennsylvania’s central Susquehanna Valley with a full spectrum of inpatient
and outpatient services. The hospital’s emergency department serves more than
30,000 patients each year, including a large contingent of students from
nearby universities, as well as residents of local retirement and skilled
nursing facilities.
To better serve these populations, Evangelical Community Hospital will
provide its patients and the broader community with Allscripts iHealth – a
secure, online Personal Health Record (PHR) and patient-provider
communications service from Medem that is linked to the Electronic Health
Record.
“A big challenge that we face is that a large number of college students
in the area have no medical history on file at the hospital,” said Scott
Peterson, Vice President, Information Systems. “Also, elderly patients who
often have multiple health issues and are on numerous medications are brought
to the Emergency Department for care. We want to diagnose and treat these and
all patients in the most efficient and effective manner possible. iHealth
clearly gives us the ability to deliver quality care for them by making it
easier for our providers to quickly locate vital clinical information,”
Peterson added.
Allscripts Chief Executive Officer Glen Tullman, an alumnus of nearby
Bucknell University, commented, “Having spent four years in the Susquehanna
Valley, I’m pleased that Allscripts will be helping to keep the local
population healthier. And I applaud Evangelical Community Hospital for their
commitment to developing an end-to-end community care model, ensuring that
physicians throughout the community have the information they need, when and
where they need it, to improve the quality of care they deliver and ultimately
lower the cost of running a medical practice.”
Evangelical Community Hospital also will deploy Allscripts Study Manager,
providing the data tools to more easily participate in clinical research,
resulting in a new revenue stream for physicians inside and outside the
hospital, and advanced care options for patients. And the hospital will
integrate the Electronic Health Record with its inpatient information systems,
enabling physicians to view the charts, schedules, lab results and radiology
results of their hospitalized patients.
About Evangelical Community Hospital
Since 1926, Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg, PA, has promised
and delivered the very best to its patients and their communities by providing
compassionate and accessible health care. Evangelical is licensed to
accommodate 135 overnight patients and 12 Acute Rehabilitation Unit patients
and 18 newborn babies. It is a not-for-profit community hospital offering a
full continuum of care. Services range from comprehensive diagnostic tests to
delicate microsurgery and from specific treatment programs to numerous
outpatient services. To learn more, visit www.evanhospital.com.
About Allscripts
Allscripts (Nasdaq: MDRX) is the leading provider of clinical software,
connectivity and information solutions that physicians use to improve
healthcare. The company’s unique solutions inform, connect and transform
healthcare, delivering improved care at lower cost. More than 40,000
physicians and thousands of other healthcare professionals in clinics,
hospitals and extended care facilities nationwide utilize Allscripts to
automate everyday tasks such as writing prescriptions, documenting patient
care, managing billing and scheduling, and safely discharging patients, as
well as to connect with key information and stakeholders in the healthcare
system. To learn more, visit Allscripts at www.allscripts.com.
This announcement may contain forward-looking statements about Allscripts
Healthcare Solutions that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements
are developed by combining currently available information with Allscripts
beliefs and assumptions. Forward-looking statements do not guarantee future
performance. Because Allscripts cannot predict all of the risks and
uncertainties that may affect it, or control the ones it does predict,
Allscripts’ actual results may be materially different from the results
expressed in its forward-looking statements. For a more complete discussion of
the risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may affect Allscripts, see the
Company’s 2007 Annual Report on Form 10-K, available through the Web site
maintained by the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov.
SOURCE Allscripts
-0- 08/05/2008
/CONTACT: Dan Michelson, Chief Marketing Officer, +1-312-506-1217, or
dan.michelson@allscripts.com; or Todd Stein, Senior Manager/Public Relations,
+1-312-506-1216, or todd.stein@allscripts.com, both of Allscripts; or Angela
Brouse, Public Relations Manager of Evangelical Community Hospital,
+1-570-522-2959, or abrouse@evanhospital.com/
/Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061005/ALLSCRIPTSLOGO-b
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com /
/Web site: https://www.allscripts.com
http://www.evanhospital.com /
(MDRX)
CO: Allscripts; Evangelical Community Hospital
ST: Pennsylvania, Illinois
IN: CPR STW HEA MTC
SU: CON
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4455 08/05/2008 09:00 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com