Allscripts clinical and practice management IT solutions to be implemented at NuHealth

Feb 10 2010

Allscripts (Nasdaq: MDRX) announced today that NuHealth will implement Allscripts clinical and practice management IT solutions across its network of hospitals and employed physicians, enhancing the quality of care, improving patient communications, and better managing the cost of care delivery. The agreement, valued in excess of $5 million, is the central component of NuHealth's connected healthcare strategy, enabling health information exchange and collaboration among all the members of a patient's care team, inside and outside the health system.

Formerly known as Nassau Health Care Corporation, NuHealth is a 1,200-bed health care system comprised of Nassau University Medical Center, a 530-bed tertiary care teaching hospital in East Meadow that treats more than 250,000 people in over 85 specialty clinics; A.. Holly Patterson Extended Care Facility, a 589-bed skilled nursing facility located in Uniondale; and seven community health centers located throughout Nassau County.  NuHealth works collaboratively with the North Shore-LIJ Health System, Long Island's other major health network and an Allscripts client.

NuHealth will deploy the Allscripts Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Practice Management solution to automate and connect clinical and administrative processes for 200 employed physicians. NuHealth also will deploy the Allscripts Emergency Department Information System (EDIS) to automate administrative and patient care processes in Nassau University Medical Center, which treats more than 80,000 people each year in its emergency room.  The Allscripts systems will exchange health information with each other as well as with NuHealth's currently installed Allscripts Care Management solution, a web-based, Software as a Service (SaaS) application that streamlines and automates the care management process including utilization, case management, discharge and quality management.

"NuHealth is committed to building a fully integrated healthcare system in which all providers have comprehensive, real-time electronic access to critical patient information, and we believe Allscripts has the solutions and resources to help us deliver on that vision," said Gary E. Bie, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NuHealth. "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."

By implementing Allscripts in multiple settings, NuHealth will create a single, comprehensive patient record that bridges common gaps between inpatient and outpatient care and ensures that caregivers inside and outside the hospital have access to the most critical information about patients – everything from what medications they take to their allergies and medical history. Health information exchange between the solutions also will enable NuHealth to ensure each patient's care is more closely coordinated and monitored irrespective of the clinical setting in which care is provided, whether the Emergency Department, inpatient settings, post-acute or a primary care physician's office.

"NuHealth's decision to deploy Allscripts across its enterprise is significant because it demonstrates how leading healthcare systems are building a connected system of health today – something we believe is required if the U.S. is to advance a national goal of providing higher quality care at lower cost," said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts. "This endorsement of Allscripts by a major metropolitan health system is further evidence of the strength of our full suite of solutions for hospitals and physician offices, anchored by our comprehensive Electronic Health Record."

Ron Tomo, Chief Information Officer of NuHealth, said NuHealth selected Allscripts after an exhaustive review of other solutions on the market. “We chose Allscripts not only because we’ve had success with the Allscripts Care Management solution, but because they’ve demonstrated the ability to constantly innovate to help complex health systems like NuHealth thrive and continue to improve the services we provide our patients,” Tomo said.

Allscripts Emergency Department Information System 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 integration among the Allscripts solutions, NuHealth will ensure the exchange of relevant information between the Allscripts solutions and NuHealth's inpatient clinical systems, including Eclipsys Sunrise, Sunquest for laboratory orders and results, and Amicus for radiology orders and results.