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Heritage Valley Health System Selects Allscripts Electronic Health Record

Posted on: Thursday, 18 June 2009, 08:56 CDT

Physicians will use EHR to Enhance the Quality and Cost-Effectiveness of Patient Care

CHICAGO and TOLEDO, Ohio, June 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Allscripts (Nasdaq: MDRX) announced today that Heritage Valley Health System, a progressive community-based health system in southwestern Pennsylvania, has selected the Allscripts Enterprise(TM) Electronic Health Record (EHR) to automate and enhance the care provided by 150 of its employed physicians.

The rapidly growing Heritage Valley Health System is a $450 million integrated delivery network consisting of two hospital campuses, two surgery centers, two cancer treatment centers, a number of community based diagnostic & treatment facilities rehabilitation and behavioral health centers, with more than 70 community based patient care locations. Heritage Valley Health System's selection of the Allscripts EHR will further the system's efforts to improve patient care and reduce costs through greater access to critical information at the point of care.

"As an integrated delivery network, we're relying on the Allscripts solution to help us create a single electronic patient record that will drive greater integration and improvement in care delivery, better coordination of care, less duplication of effort, and better documentation," said Norm Mitry, President & CEO of Heritage Valley Health System. "Whether it's the government's electronic prescribing mandate, quality based pay for performance programs from insurers and government or the increasing demand from patients for web-based access to information, it's clear that physicians need an electronic solution to provide state-of-the-art care today. It's also becoming a competitive necessity, because if you don't give patients what they want, they'll go elsewhere."

The Electronic Health Record builds upon Heritage Valley Health System's successful electronic prescribing program, which was developed in partnership with Allscripts in 2006 and enables physicians to use their computer, smart phone, or wireless handheld PDA to prescribe or renew medications and securely transmit them to the patient's pharmacy of choice. Today, 150 providers at Heritage Valley use Allscripts e-prescribing every day to create more than 50,000 prescriptions every month.

In recognition of its success with e-prescribing, earlier this year Heritage Valley Health System was awarded a $661,500 grant from the Highmark Health Information Technology Grant Program, an affiliate of Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. The Highmark grants are designed to help physicians acquire electronic prescribing technology, part of the payer's larger campaign to encourage adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHR).

"Heritage Valley Health System is a model for healthcare organizations across the country who want to leverage the power of real-time information to transform the care process and improve their performance," said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts. "Heritage Valley has developed a strong record of success using technology to provide tools that their physicians can use to deliver care and their successful e-prescribing program is proof that payers will reward physician behaviors that improve care and quality. We are excited that Heritage Valley has elected to build on their e-prescribing success by implementing our comprehensive electronic health record for their employed physicians."

The Allscripts Electronic Health Record automates clinical workflow and gives physicians instant access to critical data from hospitals, labs, pharmacies, payers and patients. Healthcare providers can access the Electronic Health Record at any time, whether they are in the clinic, at the hospital or on-call at home. By automatically tracking key patient metrics and providing automated decision support, the web-based solution helps physicians evaluate and improve their practices and enables them to deliver more effective disease management, preventive care, and long-range health maintenance.

Heritage Valley Health System also uses Allscripts Care Management in its two hospitals to streamline their case management workflow, manage insurance claims, and to monitor each patient's length of stay and health status.

About Heritage Valley Health System

Heritage Valley Health System provides comprehensive healthcare for residents of Allegheny, Beaver, Butler and Lawrence counties, in Pennsylvania; eastern Ohio; and the panhandle of West Virginia. In partnership with more than 400 physicians, Heritage Valley offers a broad range of medical, surgical and diagnostic services at its two hospitals, Heritage Valley Beaver and Heritage Valley Sewickley; in physician offices; and community satellite facilities. Additional information about Heritage Valley Health System is available online at www.heritagevalley.org.

About Allscripts

Allscripts uses innovation technology to bring health to healthcare. More than 160,000 physicians, 800 hospitals and nearly 8,000 post-acute and homecare organizations utilize Allscripts to improve the health of their patients and their bottom line. The company's award-winning solutions include electronic health records, electronic prescribing, revenue cycle management, practice management, document management, medication services, hospital care management, emergency department information systems and homecare automation. Allscripts is the brand name of Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc. To learn more, visit www.allscripts.com.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Statements regarding future events, developments, the Company's future performance, as well as management's expectations, beliefs, intentions, plans, estimates or projections relating to the future are forward-looking statements within the meaning of these laws. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, some of which are outlined below. As a result, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated by the forward-looking statements. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements are: the volume and timing of systems sales and installations; length of sales cycles and the installation process; the possibility that products will not achieve or sustain market acceptance; the timing, cost and success or failure of new product and service introductions, development and product upgrade releases; competitive pressures including product offerings, pricing and promotional activities; our ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships; undetected errors or similar problems in our software products; compliance with existing laws, regulations and industry initiatives and future changes in laws or regulations in the healthcare industry; possible regulation of the Company's software by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; the possibility of product-related liabilities; our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel; our ability to identify and complete acquisitions, manage our growth and integrate acquisitions; the ability to recognize the benefits of the merger with Misys Healthcare Systems, LLC ("MHS"); the integration of MHS with the Company and the possible disruption of current plans and operations as a result thereof; maintaining our intellectual property rights and litigation involving intellectual property rights; risks related to third-party suppliers; our ability to obtain, use or successfully integrate third-party licensed technology; breach of our security by third parties; and the risk factors detailed from time to time in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our 2007 Annual Report on Form 10-K available through the Web site maintained by the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Allscripts

Source: PR Newswire

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