The Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and many new laws and regulations have been implemented by healthcare reforms to introduce new levels of efficiency in the industry. In order to comply with these rules and meet the mandates required by these reforms, healthcare systems have been collaborating with technology companies to improve overall efficiency and cut costs. With the right information system, solutions can be put in place to promote quality care as well as improve clinical, administrative and revenue processes. Avita Health System, an organization with two hospitals, 20 medical offices and close to 1,200 employees in Ohio, has entered into an agreement with NextGen Healthcare Information Systems to deploy several NextGen technologies.
NextGen provides healthcare information systems and connectivity solutions along with revenue cycle management services for ambulatory, inpatient and dental provider organizations. Avita is looking to upgrade its existing system as the software it has in place approaches its end-of-life and the functionality it once provided dwindles. The company is also preparing to adopt ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases). NextGen will be providing assistance for a smooth transition while the U.S. complies with this World Health Organization (WHO) medical coding system.
Avita is going to be integrating the following NextGen solutions into one system:
NextGen Practice Management—a practice management platform fully integrated with NextGen Ambulatory EHR that helps organizations improve operational results.
NextGen Patient Portal—an online tool, integrated with NextGen Ambulatory EHR and NextGen Practice Management that offers patients secure communication with providers.
NextGen Ambulatory HER—an ONC 2014 Edition certified complete electronic health record (EHR) that is Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2 and ICD-10-ready.
NextGen Population Health—protocol-based communication solution that tightly integrates with core NextGen solutions to track and enhance patient care.
NextGen EHR Connect—an interoperability package that enables NextGen Ambulatory EHR to exchange standards-based data with any Health Information Exchange (HIE), disease registry state designated entity, or public health entity in real time, within normal provider workflows.
NextGen Emergency Department Solution—it helps manage emergency department patients, increase work flow and improve efficiencies throughout emergency care settings.
By integrating all these solutions into one system, Avita will be able to access patient data from the time they are admitted until the time they are discharged. Making this data readily available allows healthcare providers, patients and the state Health Information Exchange (HIE) to share information in real time. With timely and accurate information exchange, Avita will save money, time and resources, which costs the healthcare industry hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
"As the impetus to improve the quality of healthcare accelerates, so does the need to champion all the components that come with the successful, future delivery of healthcare. Our scalable, multi-product offering supports the infrastructure needed for healthcare organizations to stay ahead of the curve and thrive in our nation’s evolving healthcare system," said Michael Lovett, executive vice president and general manager for NextGen Healthcare.
