St. John Providence Health System to migrate to eClinicalWorks comprehensive EHR solution

eClinicalWorks®, a market leader in ambulatory clinical systems, today announced that St. John Providence Health System, the largest provider of inpatient care in southeast Michigan, will be offering eClinicalWorks comprehensive electronic health record (EHR) solution for its approximately 3,000 employed and affiliated physicians. This solution includes eClinicalWorks electronic medical records (EMR) system, eClinicalWorks Electronic Health eXchange (eEHX), Enterprise Business Optimizer (eBO), eClinicalWorks P2P, eClinicalMobile and eClinicalMessenger - all designed to extend the use of EHRs beyond the practice's walls to improve communication with access to real-time information.

“eClinicalWorks has a proven track record in connecting primary care and specialty providers, providing a comprehensive electronic health record solution that is ideal for use in most ambulatory settings”

"St. John Providence Health System, in conjunction with its physician hospital organization, St. John HealthPartners, is focused on an integrated physician strategy, in which every physician that touches a patient will have access to information wherever they are," said Gayle Duckworth, Director of Application Services for St. John Providence Health System. "To support this, we required a company that would partner with us and share this goal. We additionally needed to change EMR systems to enable our providers to meet the meaningful use objectives. eClinicalWorks is in the best position to aid us in achieving our goals and has shown itself to be the most customer-friendly and willing to work with us as a partner."

Providers will be migrating from their current system to the eClinicalWorks comprehensive EHR solution using a Software as a Service (SaaS) model hosted by St. John Providence so members are able to access the solution via the Internet. The EMR system will also interface with St. John Providence in-patient system by Cerner and its labs system, making vital patient data readily available through the system. This creates a more efficient practice, reduces human errors and improves patient care. St. John Providence has pre-purchased 250 licenses to start and plans to purchase additional licenses to meet demand. For the affiliated practices, the hospital will subsidize the physician's purchase of the technology through Stark legislation.

"eClinicalWorks has a proven track record in connecting primary care and specialty providers, providing a comprehensive electronic health record solution that is ideal for use in most ambulatory settings," said Girish Kumar Navani, CEO and co-founder of eClinicalWorks. "St. John Providence Health System selected eClinicalWorks due to the strength of our system and agility as a company. We look forward to working with St. John Providence to outfit its providers with a system that will help improve patient care."

As part of eClinicalWorks' comprehensive EHR solution St. John Providence will utilize the following:

• eClinicalWorks EMR to manage patient flow, immediately access patient records in-house or remotely, electronically communicate with the referring physicians and securely send consult notes and clinical data;
• eBO for performing clinical and financial analytics;
• eClinicalMobile will permit St. John's physicians to access the system anywhere through their smart phone;
• eClinicalMessenger as a messaging service that utilizes Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) to enable physician practices to send messages, in batches or singularly, to patients for aspects of care including appointment reminders, lab results, diagnostic imaging and statements;
• eClinicalWorks P2P for practice-to-practice, provider-to-provider communications in a peer-to-peer environment; and
• eEHX serves as a hub providing physicians with improved access to patients' health information and allowing them to exchange data more effectively, with each other and with its Cerner in-patient system.

Combined, these technologies will extend the use of electronic health records beyond the practice walls to offer real-time access and updating of patient information anytime, anywhere and enhance communication between providers and patients.

On July 13, 2010, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department released the final rule on "meaningful use" of an EHR under the HITECH Act. Signed into law by President Obama on February 17, 2009, the HITECH Act authorizes the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide a reimbursement incentive for physician and hospital providers who demonstrate the "meaningful use" of an EHR. The final rule can be found online at: http://www.ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2010-17207_PI.pdf.