MELVILLE, N.Y., March 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Henry Schein, Inc. (Nasdaq: HSIC), the largest distributor of health care products and services to office-based practitioners, today announced the launch of Henry Schein ConnectHealth™, an innovative new initiative that is a partnership of Henry Schein and leading electronic health record, medical device, and computer services companies, which have come together to help physicians meet the demands of creating and maintaining a coordinated, efficient digital office. Henry Schein ConnectHealth will help physician practices by simplifying the selection of compatible digital equipment that will seamlessly connect to their electronic health record, coordinating the implementation, providing enhanced decision support and single-call customer concierge support after implementation.
“Henry Schein ConnectHealth provides a reliable, relevant, and coordinated solution for physicians who are looking for the best way to leverage the benefits that electronic health records can bring to their practice,” said Stanley M. Bergman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Henry Schein. “By facilitating a sophisticated interaction of the data derived from digital devices in a medical office with the electronic medical record, Henry Schein ConnectHealth makes it easier for the modern physician’s office to achieve the future of information-technology based medicine. This exciting, new collaborative enables physicians to deliver superior quality care for their patients, improve efficiency, and increase the profitability of their practice.”
“Physicians are currently faced with hundreds of individual products, services and companies providing electronic health records, equipment and hardware options. Henry Schein ConnectHealth brings together this extraordinary alliance of industry leaders to provide a total technology integration solution for our customers’ practices. It does so by consulting, selecting, implementing, financing and providing front and backend support services to a physician,” said Dave McKinley, President of Henry Schein Medical. “Henry Schein ConnectHealth includes the best of the best in the medical technology industry: Allscripts (Nasdaq: MDRX), the leading electronic health record company; Midmark, Siemens Healthcare (NYSE: SI) and Welch Allyn, the leading digital medical device companies uniquely working with Henry Schein; Dell, the industry’s leading healthcare IT services provider; and Medline, a primary manufacturer and distributor in major hospitals and health care systems.”
Henry Schein ConnectHealth will seamlessly connect electronic health records with medical devices and coordinate all information technology aspects of the physician’s office. By providing certified connectivity between Midmark, Welch Allyn, and Siemens Healthcare devices and Allscripts Professional EHRs, Henry Schein ConnectHealth will ensure that all of the information from the connected medical devices is automatically populated as discreet data within a patient’s health record at the push of a button. Physician practices will no longer need to manage the difficulties that typically arise when trying to integrate a third-party device into their EHR.
Connecting digital equipment to electronic health records will provide many benefits, including eliminating errors in transcription, eliminating duplicate data entry, saving time and cost through effective workflow, and enabling practitioners to access patient information anywhere.
In 2009, Henry Schein signed an exclusive marketing agreement for Allscripts award-winning Professional Electronic Health Records, which provides health care professionals with instant and secure access to patient records anytime and anywhere; automates everyday clinical tasks; and connects physicians to pharmacies, laboratories, and other health stakeholders.
“Physicians want to practice medicine using the best tools that provide the best information. ConnectHealth will make it easier for physicians to adopt and use comprehensive Electronic Health Records,” said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts. “We’re proud to be partnered with Henry Schein and expect to benefit from their close relationships with more than 112,000 physicians across the United States.”
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 provides maximum incentives of between $44,000 and $64,000 over five years, beginning in 2011, for physicians who adopt and use a certified electronic health record to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of patient care.
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