UBMD selects Allscripts EHR solution to help its physicians enhance quality of patient care

Allscripts (Nasdaq: MDRX) announced today that UBMD has selected the Allscripts Electronic Health Record (EHR) solution to help its 450 physicians enhance the quality of patient care, improve patient communications, and better manage the cost of care delivery.  

"The Allscripts electronic health record will let us develop a single, comprehensive patient record across multiple practices while still enabling our physicians in different specialties to refine and customize the type of information they enter and the way they work," said Michael Quinn, Chief Financial Officer of UBMD, a multispecialty group practice whose 450 physicians are faculty at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.  

UBMD physicians work in 18 practices across Western New York and also practice at affiliated institutions including Kaleida Health and Erie County Medical Center Corporation. The group will initially implement the Electronic Health Record for 35 physicians and intends to complete the roll out to its physician base within two years.

Streamlined experience for patients

Mr. Quinn continued, "Now each provider in our 18 practices will be able to see what's going on with the patient, which supports our effort to deliver one-stop shopping for patients by referring them to other UBMD providers. It's a streamlined experience for both patients and providers."

UBMD's Internal Medicine division has used the Allscripts Electronic Health Record successfully since 2004. But when UBMD went looking for an enterprise EHR for the full group, they formed a physician-led committee to conduct an exhaustive review of other products on the market.

Research capabilities were critical

"Because we're a research organization as well as a clinical practice, we needed an EHR that could collect, store and retrieve data to support an academic practice," said Peter Winkelstein, M.D., Chief Medical Informatics Officer of UBMD and Chief of the Division of Pediatrics at the Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo.  "Above all, we really needed a product that would be able to collect data coherently and report on it coherently, and Allscripts very rapidly emerged from the herd on that front."

To help with its research efforts, UBMD will deploy Allscripts Analytics, which enables automatic tracking of performance on financial and quality measures – for example, the percentage of all diabetic patients whose blood glucose levels are not controlled – and also provides proactive patient and population management.  

Allscripts also satisfied UBMD's other criteria for an enterprise Electronic Health Record – the proven ability to build interfaces with hospital inpatient information systems, and a strong patient portal solution, Winkelstein said.

"UBMD's physicians are among the best medical school faculty in the nation, working in a complex academic environment supporting teaching activities in multiple acute care settings," said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts. "We are grateful that UBMD selected Allscripts as their partner in developing a unified patient record that will drive critical information to their providers wherever they need it – in the clinic, or in the hospital, or while working remotely."

Allscripts will integrate the Electronic Health Record with UBMD's existing practice management system from GE, and with the inpatient information systems of its teaching hospitals.

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 the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which provides physicians between $44,000 and $64,000 for adopting an Electronic Health Record:

• 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 a new Allscripts financing program requiring no payments for software for six months, as well as new 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 8,000 post-acute care facilities.