Centra, a three-hospital system in Central Virginia, USA, selects the Allscripts Electronic Health Record (EHR) solution for its staff physicians, and the Allscripts Community Exchange as the platform for electronically connecting the medical community in its region.
Centra will also provide its home health nurses with the Allscripts Homecare solution to improve the continuity of care and help prevent the need for patient readmissions after they leave the hospital. Centra has been using the Allscripts ED solution to automate emergency department operations and improve access to clinical information since 2008. Centra will initially provide the Allscripts EHR to over 70 providers, including physicians and midlevel practitioners. Both employed and affiliated private-practice physicians will receive the Allscripts solution. Centra plans to first introduce the EHR in an independent internal-medicine practice consisting of 18 providers, and to gradually provide the Electronic Health Record to over 250 providers in its service area. 'Our goal is to achieve true community physician integration,' said Ben Clark, Chief Information Officer of Centra. 'That's why we're offering the Allscripts EHR and Exchange products to both affiliated and non-affiliated practices. Our goal is to connect the community and extend our electronic health record across our whole sphere of service. We selected Allscripts because they can help us achieve this goal, and also because of the rich functionality and flexibility of the solution. Several groups in our community already use this product, and we're confident that it will serve our physicians well.' Another advantage of Allscripts Community Exchange, Clark said, is that it can be used to exchange key clinical data among disparate EHRs. With at least nine different EHRs deployed in the community, this capability will enable Centra to connect those systems. Staff physicians will also use their EHRs to order tests from Centra facilities and receive lab results and other hospital reports. In addition, Clark pointed out, Allscripts Community Exchange allows the healthcare system to use an Enterprise Master Patient Index, or EMPI, helping ensure that every piece of medical information is associated with the correct patient across the continuum of care. Centra will host the Allscripts EHR and provide implementation and technical support to both affiliated and independent practices. With the EHR rollout slated to begin this Fall, Centra expects to have most of its affiliated practices online by 2011 so they can demonstrate meaningful use and qualify for incentives under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The Allscripts Homecare solution replaces another product that Centra's home health nurses have been using. It will enable the clinicians to access more information and report on each patient's condition more accurately, while sharing that data with other caregivers via the enterprise physician portal. 'Centra has a history of treating the patient for the whole continuum of care, from birth to end of life,' Clark said. 'The Allscripts Homecare solution is the perfect fit. We have Allscripts in our emergency department today, and now we're about to deploy the EHR in the ambulatory environment. When we add the Homecare product, we'll be using the same platform across a large part of the care continuum. As we continue to expand our connectivity, the Allscripts suite of products will continue to improve the quality of care and show our community the value of a truly integrated health system.' A custom interface will link Allscripts Homecare to Centra's enterprise information system, noted Clark. By posting the home health data on the physician portal, Clark said, Centra hopes to keep physicians better informed about their patients' progress, which should lead to reduced readmissions. Similarly, the use of Allscripts Community Exchange will ensure proper medication reconciliation during care transitions and will prevent duplication of orders as patients move from one care setting to another. And when a patient presents in the ED, the ED physicians will have instant access to all of his or her records, speeding medical decision-making. 'A connected community enables clinicians to get the maximum value out of health information technology,' said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts. 'By having the right information on the right patient at the right time, physicians and other providers can make better decisions and deliver the appropriate care when it will make the most difference in outcomes. We commend Centra for taking this visionary approach to the deployment of Electronic Health Records and connectivity across the community. Everyone will benefit from this approach - especially patients, who will be able to count on getting optimal care from Centra and its physicians.' |
