Hartford Healthcare Leverages Federal Rule Change to Subsidize Electronic
Health Record for Affiliated Physicians
CHICAGO and HARTFORD, Conn., Aug. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Allscripts,
the leading provider of clinical software, connectivity and information
solutions that physicians use to improve healthcare, today announced that
Hartford Healthcare Corporation (HHCC) has selected the Allscripts Emergency
Department Information System (EDIS) for two hospitals, as well as the
Allscripts Electronic Health Record (EHR) for 200 physicians in affiliated
medical groups.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061005/ALLSCRIPTSLOGO-b)
The Allscripts Electronic Health Record automates and improves the safety
of everyday clinical tasks, including prescribing and refilling medications,
ordering and reviewing tests, and documenting patient care. The Allscripts
EDIS electronically streamlines processes for the entire Emergency Department
(ED), including tracking, triage, nurse and physician charting, disposition
and reporting. Connectivity to the Electronic Health Record provides ED
physicians with immediate access to many patients’ medical histories and
medication lists — information that has historically been provided by
patients.
The Allscripts EDIS solution also will exchange information with Hartford
Healthcare’s existing Eclipsys inpatient information system for a seamless
information handoff when patients are admitted to the hospital from the
Emergency Department.
“Hartford Hospital remains committed to using the best technology in
caring for our patients,” said Stephan D. O’Neill, Vice President of
Information Systems at Hartford HealthCare Corporation. “With Allscripts, we
will be able to link our physicians in the Emergency Department with our
providers outside the hospital. This will enable us, for the first time, to
notify and update a patient’s primary care physician when the patient is at
the ED, so there will be minimal delay in communicating that critical
information.”
Hartford-based HHCC is the parent organization of Hartford Hospital, one
of the oldest and largest hospitals in New England, as well as Midstate
Medical Center in Meriden, Conn. Non-profit Hartford Hospital, the major
teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Connecticut Medical
School, is a 867-bed facility with more than 6,600 employees and more than
80,000 annual emergency department visits. Midstate Medical Center is a
130-bed acute care hospital with 70,000 annual emergency department visits.
“Hartford HealthCare is addressing one of the most common complaints and
serious issues in healthcare today,” said Allscripts Chief Executive Officer
Glen Tullman. “In emergency departments all over this country, we’re tying the
hands of our world class physicians by not providing them with critical
information they need to treat the patients they see. HHCC is bridging the
information gap and taking an important step in fulfilling the vision of a
connected healthcare system that enables physicians to improve the quality of
patient care, reduce unnecessary procedures, and therefore lower costs.”
In deploying the Allscripts Electronic Health Record for 50 physicians in
Hartford Medical Group (HMG) — also a HHCC subsidiary — and another 150
physicians affiliated with its hospitals, HHCC is leveraging recent changes to
the federal Stark regulations that allow hospitals to subsidize the purchase
of healthcare information technology for non-employed physicians. HHCC will
cover most of the cost of the Electronic Health Record, and provide
implementation services and front-line technical support for physician
practices.
“The changed Stark rules make it far easier for physicians in our
community to adopt an electronic health record, especially those in smaller
practices who may have felt they can’t afford this technology or would have
difficulty implementing it alone,” said Kent Stahl, MD, Chief Executive
Officer of Hartford Medical Group. “We’re looking forward to expanding our
existing Allscripts implementation and building a ‘virtual care network’ with
the other physicians affiliated with Hartford HealthCare Corporation.”
HMG implemented the electronic prescribing functionality of Allscripts
three years ago and plans to now deploy the entire EHR. The group is one of
two HHCC-affiliated practices to have deployed the Allscripts EHR. The other,
Connecticut Multispecialty Group, implemented the full Allscripts EHR for its
60 physicians in 2005. The two groups’ positive experience with Allscripts was
a primary reason HHCC selected the company, according to O’Neill.
“We assessed the competition, but Allscripts was ultimately our partner of
choice because of the reputation of the company and the value of its
products,” O’Neill said. “We were really impressed by the technical and
implementation teams we worked with, and the positive experience we had with
HMG and some of the other medical groups.”
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 https://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 http://www.sec.gov.
SOURCE Allscripts
-0- 08/05/2008
/CONTACT: Dan Michelson, Chief Marketing Officer, +1-312-506-1217,
dan.michelson@allscripts.com, or Todd Stein, Senior Manager|Public Relations,
+1-312-506-1216, todd.stein@allscripts.com, both of Allscripts; or Michaela O.
Donnelly, Public Relations Manager of Hartford HealthCare Corporation,
+1-860-545-4658, mdonnelly@harthosp.org/
/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/
(MDRX)
CO: Allscripts; Hartford Healthcare Corporation
ST: Illinois, Connecticut
IN: CPR STW HEA MTC
SU: LIC
NH-AS
-- AQTU071 --
4390 08/05/2008 09:00 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com