West Penn Allegheny Health System Selects Allscripts as its Preferred Healthcare IT Provider, Expands Electronic Health Record Deployment to 645 Physicians
Prestigious Pittsburgh-Based Health System also Selects Allscripts Emergency Department Information System for Two Facilities; Allscripts Discharge Planning for Five Hospitals; and Allscripts Patient Portal for Online Patient-Provider Communications
CHICAGO and PITTSBURGH (September 29, 2009) –
Allscripts (Nasdaq: MDRX) announced today a strategic agreement with West Penn Allegheny Health System (WPAHS) naming Allscripts as West Penn Allegheny’s preferred provider of clinical IT solutions across its network of hospitals and owned physician practices.
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As part of the agreement, WPAHS will expand its current deployment of the Allscripts Electronic Health Record (EHR) from 165 physicians to all 645 of the health system’s employed physicians. Additionally, Alle-Kiski Medical Center in Natrona Heights will implement the Allscripts Emergency Department Information System (EDIS) to automate administrative and patient care processes at both its main campus and its affiliated Citizens Ambulatory Care Center in New Kensington, PA. WPAHS also will implement the Allscripts discharge planning solution in five hospitals to streamline and automate the process of referring discharged patients to post-acute facilities for further treatment. And the health system will deploy the Allscripts patient portal, providing patients an online portal to communicate with their providers.
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 network of 92 physician practices, employing 645 primary care and multi-specialty physicians.
“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. We believe Allscripts has the clinical portfolio of solutions and resources to help us deliver on that vision,” said John Foley, Chief Information Officer of WPAHS. “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.”
As part of this strategic enterprise agreement, WPAHS has agreed to give first preference to the entire Allscripts solutions portfolio.
“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,” said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts. “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.”
The Allscripts Electronic Health Record brings WPAHS physicians 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 highly customizable solution popular with both primary care and specialty physician practices, 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.
Allscripts Emergency Department Information System electronically streamlines processes for the entire Emergency Department, including tracking, triage, nurse and physician charting, disposition and reporting. Integrated features include “one-click” access to individual patient charts, the ability to view multiple charts simultaneously, to track the entire patient treatment experience at a single glance, and alerts that notify the clinician of overdue treatment times, medication conflicts and conflicting orders.
In addition to providing the core Electronic Health Record to its 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, health issues, allergies and other critical information about patients admitted to the hospital by the primary & specialty care groups.
“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, M.D., an emergency medicine physician at Allegheny General Hospital and Medical Director of West Penn Allegheny’s electronic medical record initiatives.
WPAHS also will implement the web-based Allscripts discharge planning solution, a “software-as-a-service” application that eliminates the cumbersome and costly process of case managers manually phoning and faxing to secure post-acute care services one provider at a time. Allscripts enables a detailed electronic referral to be sent to selected locations across its proprietary network of 90,000 providers, and interested facilities reply, often within minutes. The patient and family then receive a discharge packet that details their facility choices, making their decision more transparent and informed. The solution will enable the referral of patients to regional post-acute facilities that meet WPAHS’s quality thresholds.
To improve patient-provider communications, WPAHS physicians will be given the option of providing Allscripts Patient Portal, which enables patients to make appointment requests, renew prescriptions, view test results and conduct other common tasks on-line.
About West Penn Allegheny Health System
West Penn Allegheny Health System is a physician led healthcare organization based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Recognized as the healthcare quality and personalized service leader in its market, WPAHS’ sole purpose and mission is to improve the health of the people in the western Pennsylvania region. Offering a comprehensive range of advanced medical and surgical services, the System consists of two tertiary academic medical centers in Allegheny General Hospital and The Western Pennsylvania Hospital, and four community hospitals; Allegheny General Hospital Suburban Campus in Bellevue, PA, Alle-Kiski Medical Center in Natrona Heights, PA, Canonsburg General Hospital in Canonsburg, PA and The Western Pennsylvania Hospital Forbes Regional Campus in Monroeville, PA. Allegheny General Hospital is the western Pennsylvania campus of Drexel University College of Medicine and The Western Pennsylvania Hospital serves as a campus of the Temple University School of Medicine.
West Penn Allegheny Health System hospitals have received 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 www.wpahs.org.
About Allscripts
Allscripts uses innovation technology to bring health to healthcare. More than 160,000 physicians, 800 hospitals and nearly 8,000 post-acute and homecare organizations utilize Allscripts to improve the health of their patients and their bottom line. The company’s award-winning solutions include electronic health records, electronic prescribing, revenue cycle management, practice management, document management, hospital care management, emergency department information systems and homecare automation. Allscripts is the brand name of Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc. To learn more, visit www.allscripts.com.
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This news release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Statements regarding future events, developments, the Company’s future performance, as well as management’s expectations, beliefs, intentions, plans, estimates or projections relating to the future are forward-looking statements within the meaning of these laws. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, some of which are outlined below. As a result, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated by the forward-looking statements. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements are: the volume and timing of systems sales and installations; length of sales cycles and the installation process; the possibility that products will not achieve or sustain market acceptance; the timing, cost and success or failure of new product and service introductions, development and product upgrade releases; competitive pressures including product offerings, pricing and promotional activities; our ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships; undetected errors or similar problems in our software products; compliance with existing laws, regulations and industry initiatives and future changes in laws or regulations in the healthcare industry; possible regulation of the Company’s software by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; the possibility of product-related liabilities; our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel; our ability to identify and complete acquisitions, manage our growth and integrate acquisitions; the ability to recognize the benefits of the merger with Misys Healthcare Systems, LLC (“MHS”); the integration of MHS with the Company and the possible disruption of current plans and operations as a result thereof; maintaining our intellectual property rights and litigation involving intellectual property rights; risks related to third-party suppliers; our ability to obtain, use or successfully integrate third-party licensed technology; breach of our security by third parties; and the risk factors detailed from time to time in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our May 31, 2009 Annual Report on Form 10-K available through the Web site maintained by the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
SOURCE Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc.
Dan Michelson, Chief Marketing Officer, +1-312-506-1217, dan.michelson@allscripts.com,
or Seth Frank, Vice President, Investor Relations, +1-312-506-1213, seth.frank@allscripts.com,
or Todd Stein, Senior Manager/Public Relations, +1-312-506-1216, todd.stein@allscripts.com,
all of Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc.;
or Dan Laurent, Director, Media Relations of WPAHS, +1-412-330-2429, +1-412-807-8103, mobile, dlaurent@wpahs.org
Source: Allscripts
