Advocate Health Care Selects Allscripts Electronic Health Record

Allscripts, a provider of clinical software, connectivity and information solutions that physicians use to improve healthcare, announced that Advocate Health Care will deploy the TouchWorks(TM) Electronic Health Record (EHR) from Allscripts to automate and connect 225 physicians in the first phase of a system-wide roll-out of the solution.

Advocate Health Care, repeatedly ranked among the nation’s top health systems, includes approximately 800 staff physicians and nearly 2,100 independent physicians within Advocate Health Partners — the care management and managed care contracting network — working in over 900 medical offices across metropolitan Chicago. The agreement announced today expands upon a successful pilot program involving 40 physicians within two divisions of Advocate Health Care.

"Our physicians have demonstrated that, with Allscripts technology, they can deliver on the promise of providing high quality care more efficiently," said Jim Skogsbergh, President and Chief Executive Officer of Advocate Health Care. "We are pleased to be able to extend the benefits of the Electronic Health Record to more of our physicians as part of our ongoing effort to continually improve the quality and efficiency of care for our patients."

The web-based TouchWorks EHR provides instant access to patient information and automates everyday clinical tasks such as prescribing medications and documenting patient visits, while connecting physicians electronically to laboratories, pharmacies, insurers and other key healthcare stakeholders. The Electronic Health Record also automatically tracks key patient outcomes, providing the information needed to improve the effectiveness of disease management, health maintenance, and care planning initiatives. And the solution’s full-spectrum connectivity is increasingly important for public and private pay-for-quality initiatives, where the focus is overall health of patient populations.

"Allscripts has proven to us that they’re a great partner with a strong focus on helping us succeed at the business of medicine," said Lee Sacks, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Advocate Health Care. "The Electronic Health Record is intuitive, easy for our specialists and general practitioners to customize for their particular needs, and above all highly effective at promoting patient safety by giving physicians the critical information they need to make the best decisions at the point of care."

The Allscripts pilot program involved physicians in two divisions of Advocate Health Care — Advocate Medical Group and Advocate Health Centers. Dr. Sacks said the pilot demonstrated that physicians would utilize the EHR and were convinced that it made them more effective and more efficient.

"Initially, we were concerned that an Electronic Health Record might slow us down or not fit into our workflow," said Martin Doot, MD, medical director of Illinois Professionals Health Program and an early Allscripts user at Advocate. "While we had to make some adjustments to our processes, it was no more difficult than using a computer or iPod at home and the end result has been a faster process for us and better care for our patients."

Advocate Health Care will integrate TouchWorks with its Centricity Business (formerly IDX Flowcast) practice management system to directly link clinical and financial information across the network. The integration improves end-user productivity, increases patient satisfaction and enhances revenue cycle management by combining clinical and financial data into a common, easy-to-navigate architecture.

"We are extremely proud that Advocate, one of the nation’s premier healthcare delivery networks, has proven the effectiveness of our Electronic Health Record and chosen to deploy it to all of their physicians," said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts. "Together, we’re providing physicians the information they need, when and where they need it to support safer, more effective care for Chicagoland patients."