Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions has signed two more contracts to provide healthcare IT solutions for healthcare providers and affiliated physicians in four states.
The Chicago-based company has announced a deal to provide the Allscripts Electronic Health Record and Practice Management solutions to Baptist Memorial Health Care in Memphis, Tenn., automating and connecting clinical and business functions for 65 employed physicians and 3,100 independent physicians in the 15-hospital system, which serves Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi.
Allscripts has also signed a strategic alliance with the West Penn Allegheny Health System, which comprises two tertiary and four community hospitals and 92 physician practices in and around Pittsburgh. As part of the deal, the health system will expand its deployment of the Allscripts EHR from 165 physicians to all 645 in the health system and implement the Allscripts Emergency Department Information System at AlleKiski Medical Center in Natrona Heights, Pa., and its affiliated Citizens Ambulatory Care Center in New Kensington, Pa. In addition, the health system will implement the Allscripts discharge planning solution in all five of its hospitals and deploy the Allscripts patient portal throughout the network.
“West Penn Allegheny is committed to building a fully integrated healthcare system in which all providers have comprehensive, real time electronic access to vital patient information,” said John Foley, the health system’s chief information officer, in a press release. “We believe Allscripts has the clinical portfolio of solutions and resources to help us deliver on that vision. Allscripts will facilitate an electronic dialogue among all the members of a patient’s clinical team regardless of their location and help us achieve a truly integrated patient care model.”
“West Penn’s decision to provide preferred status to Allscripts for our clinical solutions across its enterprise is significant because it demonstrates how leading healthcare systems will address the integrated clinical care required in the future and how they are building an interconnected system of health today – something that we believe is not only compelling but necessary to advance our national healthcare objectives,” added Glen Tullman, Allscripts’ chief executive officer. “For Allscripts, the endorsement by a respected health system is further evidence of the importance of having a full suite of solutions for hospitals and physician offices, anchored by our comprehensive Electronic Health Record.”
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As part of the deal, Allscripts will provide view-only access to key parts of the EHR for all employed caregivers at the healthcare system’s hospitals, allowing clinicians real-time access to vital data such as medication history, health issues and allergies.
“An effective electronic health record is critical to maximizing both the efficiency and coordination of our clinical operations across the system and to providing the highest quality of care for our patients. With Allscripts’ state-of-the-art software and technology, our capabilities in this regard will be significantly advanced,” said David Chuirazzi, MD, an emergency medicine physician at Allegheny General Hospital and medical director of West Penn Allegheny’s electronic medical record initiatives.
Baptist Memorial, meanwhile, will install the Allscripts EHR solution for all 65 physicians employed in Baptist’s urgent care centers and offer the software at a later date, via the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, to non-employed community physicians. Baptists and Allscripts officials are now developing a cost-effective plan to offer the EHR and PM solutions to all community physicians for one fixed fee.
“Baptist has set itself apart as a leader among hospitals nationally by delivering on a strategy to not only automate their own physicians but connect to the communities in which they provide services, offering full electronic health records as well as practice management,” said Tullman. “By partnering with Allscripts, Baptist is encouraging more widespread and rapid adoption of technologies that will ultimately lead to better care for patients and more productive and informed interactions for physicians.”
“To support Baptist’s goal of providing compassionate, safe, high-quality care for patients, Allscripts will enable our physicians to utilize a state of the art clinical documentation and practice management system,” said Richard Drewry, MD, chief medical officer of the Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp. “We believe Allscripts will help us practice better medicine and more efficient care by providing immediate access to evidence-based best practices at the point of care.”
