EMRs/EHRs

By Greg White, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Allscripts TouchWorks

Physician practices now lead more accountable care organizations (ACOs) than do hospitals and health systems. Recent results, reported by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), show that a majority of Medicare Shared Savings Program participants who earned bonuses are physician-led organizations. This trend is arising for commercial payer-based ACOs as well.

Many physician practices are participating in and creating accountable care organizations to achieve the CMS Triple Aim: improving population health and patient experience and managing costs.

What are the results?

• Based on a recent press release, HealthCare Partners Physician Group, one of the nation’s largest operators of medical groups and physician networks, partnered with Anthem Blue Cross to create an ACO providing care to 55,000 patients that has resulted in improved clinical metrics and $4.7M in savings in just six months.
• Coastal Carolina Quality Care, Inc.’s ACO used actionable data to drive improvements in quality, resulting in costs declining by 19 percent, or $2,635 per patient, for beneficiaries who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid.
• Independent physician group models such as Qualuable Medical Professionals, an ACO associated with Holston Medical Group, are positioned to create savings – for Qualuable Medical Professionals, more than $10 million in its first year.

What do these three physician-led ACOs have in common?

They are all using Allscripts TouchWorks EHR as part of their ACO strategy. The use of TouchWorks EHR supports their mission and vision of delivering quality and affordable care for their communities.

According to industry analysts, ACOs are looking to solve select key needs. Allscripts technology allows ACOs to meet these needs by:

• Connecting the community: Ability to collect, aggregate and connect patient data from a variety of sources and then normalize it in preparation for analysis.
• Stratifying patient populations and assessing risk: Ability to analyze patient data to highlight gaps in care and opportunities for improvement. Some risk stratification includes statistical models that produce risk scores and predict utilization.
• Coordinating care to improve outcomes: Ability to guide care managers with patient data and workflows that prioritize patient outreach efforts.
• Engaging patients in a meaningful way: Ability to drive patient behavior with automated tools for reminders, surveys and education.
• Managing referrals: Ability to coordinate transitions of care.
• Financial, operational and clinical reporting: Ability to measure the report quality and cost performance that helps guide ACO participants and meets government and payer requirements.

To read more about how Allscripts can support your practice, go to www.allscripts.com/core.

EHR Comparisons

Black Book releases top 2014 EHR rankings

Black Book's 2014 EHR rankings list top vendor solutions in Ambulatory/Alternate Site and Inpatient EHR systems, among others. More than 22,000 users total were validated in the 2014 ranking process of 614 EHR/EMR suppliers, with results being released this year starting in late February. Black Book collects ballot results on 18 performance areas of operational excellence. More category results are available at www.blackbookrankings.com.

Overall 2014 “Best of the Best”

#1 Top EHR Vendor

Ambulatory/Alternate Site EHR Systems

• Patient Health Data Management & Admin Processing……… Greenway Medical
• Clinical Workflow & Encounter Management…………………………………. e-MDs
• Interoperability, Communications & Connectivity……………………….. Allscripts
• Decision Support & Results Review…………………………………………… Optum
• Electronic Prescribing……………………………………………..…………….. DrFirst
• Meaningful Use, CPOE & Claims Support…………………………………… Emdeon
• Hospital-Employed Physicians…………………………………………………. Cerner
• iPad & Mobile Device EHR……………………………………………………. drchrono

Practice Management + PM/Billing Product

• Practice Management Integrated EHR/EHR/Billing………………………….. Kareo

Primary Care Specialties

• Family Practice…………………………………………………………. Practice Fusion
• Pediatrics………………………………………………………………… Practice Fusion
• Geriatrics……………………………………………………………….. Amazing Charts
• General Practice……………………………………………………….. Practice Fusion
• Nurse Practioners……………………………………………. Healthfusion Meditouch

  Facility-Based/Setting Use Specialties

• ACOs……………………………………………………………………… Optum Insight
• Multispecialty Clinics…………………………………………………………. McKesson
• Independent Practice Associations…………………………………………. Allscripts
• Urgent Care/Occupational Med…………………………………….. Practice Velocity
• Pathology………………………………………………………………………. NovoPath
• Radiology…………………………………………………………………………… Viztek
• Hospitalists………………………………………………………………………… Cerner
• Surgery Centers……………………………………………………………….. SRS EHR
• Surgery Centers…………………………………………………….. Kinnser Software

Inpatient EHR Systems

Ambulatory/Alternate Site EHR Systems

Overall……………………………………………………………………………. Cerner

Inpatient: Small & Rural Hospitals (<100 beds)....................................CPSI

Acute Care EMR: Community Hospitals (101-250 beds)………………….. Cerner

Acute Care EMR: Large Med Centers/Hospitals (>250 beds)………….. Allscripts

Inpatient Emergency Department……………………………………………….. Picis

EHR Trends

Stats for office-based docs

Wondering how your EHR progress is stacking up against other office-based physicians? Well the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) has just the report for you. Newly released, “Trends in Electronic Health Record System Use Among Office-Based Physicians: United States, 2007–2012” presents EHR adoption rates compared by selected physician and practice characteristics. Download the full report 

EMR/EHR Solutions

Make care transitions seamless athenaCoordinator Enterprise is a first-of-its-kind clinical integration and patient access service designed to help hospitals and health systems connect and track care across settings, networks and disparate HIT systems. This solution delivers a full suite of capabilities not found as part of any of today’s inpatient EHR systems and can be overlaid across multiple HIT systems to enable the sharing of clinical briefings with providers (even out-of-network providers) using different EHRs. athenahealth

Paragon for hospital-owned practices Paragon Ambulatory Care Practice Management is designed for hospital-owned practices of all sizes. This solution extends McKesson’s affordable, single-database hospital information system (HIS) beyond the inpatient setting into the ambulatory care setting, providing a single patient record and the same look, feel and intuitiveness of Paragon in physician practices. One solution for billing, registration, scheduling, patient health record, patient education and health maintenance support provides multiple advantages, including continuity, increased patient satisfaction and workflow improvements. McKesson

Radiology data in real time Advanced Data Systems Corporation has partnered with Merge Healthcare to integrate Merge’s iConnect Network with ADS’s MedicsRIS. This alliance will enable the referring physician communities of ADS’s radiology clients to receive and view exam results and diagnostic-quality images as transmitted from within MedicsRIS. This advanced interoperability results in decreased duplicate tests and radiation exposure, and helps referring physicians attest for MU Stage 2 requirements by receiving real-time access to viewing critical diagnostic information directly into their EHR. ADS, Merge Healthcare

Southwest FL gets UpToDate Tampa General Hospital has finalized integration of UpToDate into its Epic EMR system and deployment of UpToDate Anywhere. As a result, affiliated physicians and residents can access trusted, evidence-based clinical information and treatment recommendations at the point of care and beyond via their EMR and mobile devices. Authoritative clinical information is available on more than 10,000 topics in 21 medical specialties, and an HL7 Infobutton further streamlines point-of-care decision-making by providing search results directly from the patient’s problem list. Wolters Kluwer

Enhanced drug info direct to EHR PDR Brief provides enhanced drug information and patient safety services from PDR Network within the e-MDs EHR platform. This new integration aims to support providers and their patients while enhancing the overall EHR user experience. Updated drug information and safety alerts are integrated into the EHR workflow through PDR+ for Patients, which supplies patient-appropriate information at the time a prescription is given and aims to increase the likelihood that patients will fill their prescription and remain on therapy. e-MDs

Total solution for physician-led ACOs eClinicalWorks Care Coordination Medical Record (CCMR) provides organizations visibility into a patient’s care across all settings, facilitates smooth transitions of care, engages patients and providers in preventative care, improves outcomes among populations and reduces costs. A vendor-neutral, open network securely connects ambulatory EHRs with hospital in-patient systems and payer claim feeds, including CMS, to provide cost and utilization for services delivered to patients. eClinicalWorks

Decision support built right in The Allscripts TouchWorks EHR is a powerful, multi-specialty ambulatory system that offers automated clinical decision support at the point of care, a configurable clinical desktop and nearly 800 peer-reviewed Care Guides. It is a highly customizable solution with an open architecture and efficient workflows that can help improve the patient experience. In 2013, Allscripts TouchWorks registered improved year-over-year KLAS scores for every major category in the ambulatory EHR segment. Allscripts