Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital and Bright Health Physicians Expand Partnership with Allscripts to Provide an Electronic Health Record and Practice Management Solution

WHITTIER , Calif., April 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital (PIH) and Bright Health Physicians, PIH's exclusively affiliated medical group, have signed an agreement with Allscripts™ to deploy the Allscripts Enterprise ™ (NASDAQ: MDRX) Ambulatory Electronic Health Record and Practice Management Solution to help its combined team of healthcare providers enhance the quality of patient care, improve patient communications, and better manage the cost of care delivery.  The ambulatory systems will be integrated with PIH's existing Allscripts Sunrise™ solution - providing inpatient Electronic Health Record, Revenue Cycle and Performance Management solutions – thereby improving care coordination and enhancing the exchange of critical data between caregivers inside and outside the hospital. 

A 400-plus bed acute care, non-profit hospital, PIH was recently named as one of the Best Hospitals in the Los Angeles area by U.S. News & World Report.  Bright Health Physicians is an organization comprised of a non-profit medical foundation related to PIH, and a large independent physician association (IPA).  The medical foundation includes 13 medical office locations, 45 primary care physicians, 26 specialty care physicians and more than 400 employees.  Bright Health Physicians operates an IPA with over 130 primary care and more than 160 specialty care physicians, designed to meet the needs of patients in the Greater San Gabriel Valley.

"Deploying Allscripts™ Electronic Health Record for our healthcare providers and connecting them to our inpatient medical records system is a critical strategic imperative that will let us realize the full benefit of having one patient record across the continuum of care," said Jim West, president and chief executive officer of InterHealth Corp., the parent company of PIH and Bright Health Physicians. "Above all, expanding our partnership with Allscripts™ will help us advance our mission of providing high quality, cost-effective care to our patients and will create a seamless information path across our integrated delivery system."

The agreement also allows PIH access to Allscripts Enterprise™, Professional™, and MyWay™ Electronic Health Record and Practice Management Solutions for large, mid-sized and independent physicians as part of its community outreach efforts. This positions PIH and Bright Health Physicians' practitioners, as well as another 600 area physicians affiliated with PIH, to apply for federal incentive payments for the use of an Electronic Health Record under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). To qualify, hospitals and physicians must submit data to Medicare and Medi-Cal demonstrating their "Meaningful Use" of an ONC-ATCB certified electronic health record, which automates many clinical tasks, minimizes human error, and connects caregivers to each other and to critical healthcare stakeholders including labs, pharmacies, insurers and patients. All three Allscripts™ Electronic Health Records are ONC-ATCB certified as 2011-2012 compliant in accordance with the eligible provider certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Brian Smolskis, PIH/Bright Health Physicians' chief information officer, commented, "I know our healthcare providers have been impressed not only by the success we've had with Allscripts Sunrise™ but also by Allscripts™ ability to deliver one patient record that enables our providers to collaborate across transitions in care for a more effective team approach to patient health.  As a health system, we're excited about the power of the combined inpatient and ambulatory electronic health record to further improve the care we provide patients in our communities."

Glen Tullman, chief executive officer of Allscripts™, commented, "PIH has joined the nation's leading integrated delivery networks in opting to build a Connected Community of Health in which providers inside and outside the hospital, whether employed or independent, are joined electronically to deliver truly coordinated patient care. This initiative will also help PIH build the necessary infrastructure to support an Accountable Care Organization, a new model of healthcare that we believe will help physicians and hospitals work together to coordinate patient care, improve quality and share in cost savings."

The PIH and Bright Health Physicians build and configuration of the Allscripts Enterprise™ ambulatory solution will begin in June of this year with a planned "go live" of the first group of offices during the first quarter of 2012.  The remainder of the offices are planned to be completed by the end of September 2012.  

Also included in the implementation will be:

• Shareable Ink®, a specialized ballpoint pen with an optical recorder that lets Bright Health Physicians document patient visits on digital paper in their accustomed fashion while gaining all the benefits of having the information populated within the Electronic Health Record.
• Allscripts Patient Kiosk™, an automated entry device integrated with Fujitsu PalmSecure palm vein authentication, which makes entry easy, reduces paperwork and will help BHP reduce the costs and overhead associated with traditional patient check-in.
• Allscripts Patient Portal™, enabling patients to play a larger and more important role in their own healthcare management while helping the practice to save time, lower costs and increase revenues.
• Allscripts Outsourcing Solutions, enabling PIH to concentrate on their core mission while leveraging Allscripts' deep knowledge of healthcare processes and proven healthcare IT methodologies to deliver predictable, manageable IT costs, improve IT performance and reliability, and optimize clinical and business processes.
• Allscripts Clinical Quality Solution™ (CQS), delivering clinical decision support information at the point of care and automating the time-consuming process of participating in Pay-for-Quality programs.

About Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital

Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital, which was recently named as one of the Best Hospitals in Los Angeles in U. S. News & World Report, is a 400-plus bed acute care, non-profit hospital which was founded in 1959 with the community's trust and support — values retained today by maintaining the highest standards in medical services, in turn making us the area's acknowledged leading healthcare center. Through commitment to outstanding patient care, respect and compassion for all, responsiveness, integrity, collaboration, innovation, and stewardship, the PIH team is devoted to serving the needs of its community. PIH's healthcare team is comprised of a stellar clinical staff of almost 600 board-certified physicians representing a broad range of medical specialties, highly qualified nurses, and other exemplary staff. Those who are interested in supporting PIH via a donation may visit www.pih.net and click the "donate online" button to make a gift to the PIH Foundation.

SOURCE Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital