Prestigious Pittsburgh-Based Hospital Group to Automate and Connect 165
Physicians Across 36 Medical Groups
CHICAGO and PITTSBURGH, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Allscripts
(Nasdaq: MDRX), the leading provider of clinical software, connectivity and
information solutions that physicians use to improve healthcare, announced
today that West Penn Allegheny Health System (WPAHS) has selected Allscripts
as its Electronic Health Record (EHR) provider for its primary care network.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061005/ALLSCRIPTSLOGO-b)
Comprised of some of the oldest and best-known names in health care in
western Pennsylvania, WPAHS includes two tertiary and four community hospitals
with a total of more than 2,000 beds. Allegheny General Hospital serves as
the Pittsburgh clinical campus for the Drexel University College of Medicine
in Philadelphia, and The Western Pennsylvania Hospital serves as the clinical
campus for Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia. The health
system, which admits more than 80,000 patients into its hospitals each year,
also owns a primary care network of 36 physician practices employing 165
physicians who will receive the Electronic Health Record.
“We selected Allscripts first as our e-prescribing vendor, but it soon
became clear to us that the full electronic health record would have a
profound impact on improving the quality of care and reducing expenses for our
physicians in the primary care network,” said Nick Valadja, Vice President of
Information Systems for West Penn Allegheny Health System. “Allscripts will
provide an electronic dialogue among all the members of a patient’s care team
no matter their location, and help to deliver truly integrated patient care.”
The Electronic Health Record brings WPAHS physicians instant access to
patient information when and where they need it — at the hospital, in their
offices or while on-call at home. Allscripts automates everyday clinical
tasks such as prescribing and refilling medications, ordering and reviewing
tests, and documenting patient care, while making the process more efficient
and safer than ever before. An easy-to-use and customizable solution, the
Electronic Health Record features robust clinical tools that support safe
medical practices, including health maintenance alerts, clinical decision
support, and automated drug safety checking.
“Our experience with West Penn demonstrates how electronic prescribing,
the first application they started with, can serve as an on-ramp to the
electronic healthcare highway and lead to the adoption of a comprehensive
Electronic Health Record,” said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of
Allscripts. “West Penn’s commitment to connect 36 separate physician
practices, two tertiary and four community hospitals and their two clinical
campus locations demonstrates their vision of moving toward an interconnected
healthcare system, something we believe is not only compelling but necessary
to advance our national healthcare system. We applaud their leadership.”
In addition to providing the core Electronic Health Record to its primary
care physicians, WPAHS will provide view-only access to key parts of the
Electronic Health Record for all employed caregivers in the system’s
hospitals. That functionality ensures that hospital caregivers will have
access to the medication history, problems, allergies and other critical
information about patients admitted to the hospital from the primary care
group.
The health system will integrate Allscripts with IDX/GE’s Centricity
Business, the practice management system used by its employed physicians.
Linking the clinical and financial information systems will help WPAHS’s
physician practices become more productive while improving service to
patients.
About West Penn Allegheny Health System
West Penn Allegheny Health System includes Allegheny General Hospital and
The Western Pennsylvania Hospital, both in Pittsburgh; Alle-Kiski Medical
Center in Natrona Heights; Canonsburg General Hospital in Canonsburg; The
Western Pennsylvania Hospital — Forbes Regional Campus in Monroeville; and
AGH-Suburban Campus in Bellevue. Offering a comprehensive range of medical and
surgical services, the hospitals serve Pittsburgh and the surrounding five-
state area, house more than 2,000 beds and employ more than 13,000 people.
Together, the WPAHS hospitals admit more than 80,000 patients each year, log
in excess of 173,000 emergency visits and deliver nearly 6,000 newborns.
Combined, the hospitals are among the leaders in percentages of total
surgeries, cardiac surgeries, neurosurgeries and cardiac catheterization
procedures performed throughout the region.
West Penn Allegheny Health System hospitals have won — and continue to
win — both national and international recognition for their programs in
numerous specialty areas. Supporting both a charitable and an academic
mission, WPAHS has a strong commitment to medical research and education and
is also dedicated to training future generations of health-care professionals.
For more information, visit http://www.wpahs.org.
About Allscripts
Allscripts is the leading provider of clinical software, connectivity and
information solutions that physicians use to improve healthcare. The Company’s
business units provide unique solutions that inform, connect and transform
healthcare. Allscripts award-winning software applications include Electronic
Health Records, practice management, e-prescribing, document imaging,
emergency department, and care management solutions, all offered through the
Company’s Clinical Solutions units. Additionally, Allscripts provides clinical
product education and connectivity solutions for physicians and patients
through its Physicians Interactive(TM) unit, and medication fulfillment
services through its Medication Services unit. To learn more, visit Allscripts
on the Web 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 2006 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- 09/14/2007
/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 Thomas
Chakurda, Vice President, Communications and Marketing of West Penn Allegheny
Health System, +1-412-359-6896, tchakurd@wpahs.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
http://www.wpahs.org /
(MDRX)
CO: Allscripts; West Penn Allegheny Health System
ST: Illinois, Pennsylvania
IN: HEA MTC CPR STW
SU:
CL-EW
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3930 09/14/2007 09:00 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com