CHICAGO — Catholic Health Initiatives, an owner and operator of hospitals and care facilities in 18 states, has selected Allscripts — a player in the electronic health records market — as its sole endorsed Ambulatory Electronic Health Records provider for CHI’s 7,200 affiliated physicians across 18 states.
The arrangement builds on CHI’s existing application of the Allscripts AEHR to 1,050 of its employed physicians, an arrangement that was already in the works. Allscripts, which reported $170.7 million in revenues last year and has reported quarterly increases of 16 percent in 2010, replaced an EHR competitor that could not CHI’s scale of operations, according to reports.
Michael O’Rourke, vice president and chief information officer at CHI, says that the two companies share a common vision of a health community built on the premise that all providers have access to the same patient information, giving them the ability to provide superior care.
“We’re pleased to partner with Allscripts to provide independent physicians affiliated with our hospitals a practical option for participating in that community,” O’Rourke says. “At the same time, we will leverage Allscripts expertise in performance management and revenue cycle technology within CHI to improve our own financial health.”
Stephen Moore, senior vice president and chief medical examiner at CHI, says he expects the AEHR community program to change how independent physicians are forced to practice without knowledge of the way their patients were previously treated by providers in local hospitals or other facilities. He added that these new changes would be significant in improving care delivery and satisfaction for both the patient and provider.