Erie County Medical Center Selects Allscripts Electronic Health Record

CHICAGO and BUFFALO, N.Y., July 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Allscripts (Nasdaq: MDRX) announced today that Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) Corporation, a 550-bed academic medical center in Buffalo, has selected the Allscripts Electronic Health Record (EHR) for 100 of its physicians to enhance the quality of patient care, improve physician and patient communications, and better manage the cost of care delivery in 24 outpatient clinics.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081013/AQM041LOGO)

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081013/AQM041LOGO)

A major teaching facility for the University at Buffalo, ECMC also is a key participant in a regional health information organization (RHIO) that recently received a $16 million federal grant to increase the use of health IT in the Buffalo area for clinical quality improvement. ECMC was the value of the Allscripts solution in helping the organization to satisfy the "meaningful use" requirements of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). In addition, ECMC's relationship with UBMD, the University of New York at Buffalo's faculty practice, a current user of Allscripts, will facilitate the transition from paper to electronic records for ECMC.  

"The ability of Allscripts to make our healthcare system more efficient and to meet the needs of our clinicians is very important to us," said Leslie Feidt, Chief Information Officer of ECMC. "The Allscripts EHR will also help us satisfy the government's 'meaningful use' requirements, in part by enabling us to collect and report quality data. This will be very important in improving the quality of care and patient outcomes."

Katrina Karas, Director of Ambulatory and Renal Services for ECMC, commented, "The Allscripts EHR meets the needs of our primary-care clinics as well as our many specialties, ranging from surgery and orthopedics to gastroenterology and anti-coagulation therapy."

ECMC will link the Allscripts solution to the hospital's inpatient Meditech Electronic Health Record and billing system, ensuring that their physicians inside and outside the hospital have access to the same patient information. ECMC also will implement the Allscripts Analytics solution to run quality reports and display them on an easy-to-use dashboard. According to Feidt, ECMC will use the analytics application not only for external reporting of quality data, but also internally to help physician leaders identify and remedy gaps in care.

Additionally, ECMC will deploy the Allscripts Universal Application Integrator (UAI), which enables customers to interface the Allscripts EHR with medical devices and third-party software without writing special interfaces. UAI allows Allscripts to add best-of-breed functionality quickly, often 12 to 18 months faster than other vendors can achieve using traditional development methods.

"At a time when information silos, whether paper or digital, hamper the ability of providers to care for patients, building interoperability among health IT systems is more important than ever," said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts. "The Erie County Medical Center and its physicians are ahead of the curve in their focus on interoperability, not only connecting our solution with their own inpatient system, but also helping to create a community platform that will improve the coordination of care and care outcomes for all patients in the Buffalo area."

With the help of the Allscripts READY program, which accelerates EHR implementation, ECMC expects to go live on the Electronic Health Record by the beginning of 2011.

Additional Information on ARRA and Meaningful Use

Allscripts has recently deployed a number of resources to help physician practices demonstrate "meaningful use" and take advantage of ARRA:

• The Allscripts Stimulus Program provides physicians with a guarantee that the Allscripts Electronic Health Record they select will meet the EHR certification criteria provided by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Physicians can also benefit from an Allscripts financing program requiring no payments for software for six months, as well as programs focused on faster implementation to ensure physicians can access the Federal Stimulus incentives.
• The Allscripts Stimulus Center provides the latest information on ARRA, including frequently asked questions on Meaningful Use and Certification.
• The Allscripts Legislative & Regulatory Action Center is a place to learn about and take action on issues that are critical to the provider community, providing a simple, 'one touch' connection to elected officials.
• 'Go' is a website designed for physicians and other providers who are considering deploying Electronic Health Records and other healthcare information technologies.  Available at www.allscripts.com/go, the site provides easy access to best practices and success stories from the Allscripts client community of more than 160,000 physicians, 800 hospitals, and 10,000 post-acute care facilities.

About Erie County Medical Center

The ECMC Corporation includes an advanced academic medical center (ECMC) with 550 inpatient beds and 136 skilled-nursing-home beds, on- and off-campus health centers, more than 30 outpatient specialty care clinics, and the Erie County Home, a skilled nursing facility. ECMC is the regional center for trauma, burn care, rehabilitation and is a major teaching facility for the University at Buffalo. Most ECMC physicians, dentists and pharmacists are dedicated faculty members of the university. More Western New York residents are choosing ECMC for exceptional patient care and customer service provided as a result of its Culture of Care. 

About Allscripts

Allscripts uses innovation technology to bring health to healthcare. More than 160,000 physicians, 800 hospitals and more than 10,000 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 Record, Electronic Prescribing, Revenue Cycle Solutions, Practice Management, Document Management, 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.

For more Allscripts news, follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/AllscriptsMisys

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 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.