Benefis selects NextGen Ambulatory EHR, Health Information Exchange as technology foundation

NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Quality Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: QSII) and a leading provider of healthcare information systems and connectivity solutions, announced today that Benefis Health System has selected NextGen® Ambulatory EHR, NextGen® Practice Management and NextGen^sm Health Information Exchange as its technology foundation.

Great Falls, Mt.-based Benefis Health System provides care across 40 specialties and serves patients throughout a 15-county area in North Central Montana. Furthering its mission to deliver more consistent care to this large and diverse patient population, Benefis will offer the NextGen® platform to more than 80 physicians at its hospital-owned practices. Implementation of the new technology will begin in June 2011 and is expected to finish in January 2012.

"We needed a robust platform that could support our evolving clinical and operational needs and affect the consistency of the quality of care we deliver," said Lee Roath, chief information officer for Benefis Health System. "The wealth of specialty content and reporting features that NextGen Healthcare provides, coupled with its capability to exchange patient data with other organizations in our market, made it the clear choice for our system."

NextGen® technology will play a critical role as Benefis creates a seamless technology platform across its ambulatory enterprise, with an eye on participation in several healthcare reform efforts. The organization is actively planning its health information exchange (HIE) initiative, which potentially includes sharing critical patient data with the North Central Montana Healthcare Alliance, a 14-hospital critical access network that includes 10 critical access hospitals.

"Benefis is leveraging health information technology to tackle many of the clinical and operational challenges typically found across rural areas," said Scott Decker, president of NextGen Healthcare. "The integrated NextGen platform can effectively interface across the continuum of care and among large healthcare enterprises. As deployment continues to grow rapidly, more and more physicians have the opportunity to improve patient care and practice efficiency - both critical to participation in today's health reform initiatives."