Electronic health record software vendor eClinicalWorks has moved into the acute care EHR market with the announcement this week of its eClinicalWorks 10i, a cloud-based EHR platform that creates a unified record across in-patient, out-patient and allied health settings.
The acute care platform will be available in 2017 and the initial release will focus on enterprise operations functionality, including inventory management, support for emergency and operating rooms, analytics, computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and bed management, according to a press release from the company.
Expanding on its experience in the acute care space in international markets where it has deployed technology in about 80 hospitals, the Westborough, Mass.-based health IT vendor is working with strategic partners, such as South Carolina’s Tidelands Health, to bring the product to market. Tidelands Health is a three-hospital health system with more than 300 beds and over 40 outpatient locations.
The vendor’s move into the acute care market has been somewhat anticipated by many in the industry. As previously reported by Healthcare Informatics’ Contributing Editor David Raths, Girish Navani, CEO and co-founder of eClinicalWorks, expressed interest in expanding into the acute market in a profile on the company last year. Speaking with Raths, Navani said, “I am not satisfied and am not going to stop with being an ambulatory vendor long-term.”
And, Raths also spoke with Erik Bermudez, a KLAS research director, who said he was not surprised to hear that the company was considering the acute care market. “They are as advanced as anyone, if not the leader, when it comes to technology. I don’t doubt that soon we are going to hear about them entering the in-patient space.”
According to Judy Hanover, research director of provider IT transformation for IDC Health Insights, acute care processes, including EHR functionality, are prime targets for re-engineering for most hospitals, but such efforts are limited by the flexibility of existing EHR products installed at most U.S. hospitals. “A cloud-based acute care EHR would allow organizations to concentrate on workflows and efficiency in clinical delivery, while supporting process re-engineering with digital workflows. This industry is ripe for a new approach,” she said in a statement.
“The changing landscape makes it even more imperative to have solutions that give a complete, unified view of a patient that is accessible anytime, anywhere. By taking a cloud-centric approach, organizations will achieve higher ROI and lower total cost of ownership than with traditional systems. We are excited to enter the U.S. acute care market and to work with premier organizations, including Tidelands Health,” Navani said in a statement.
