Heritage Valley Health System, a community-based health system in southwestern Pennsylvania, has announced it will now use Allscripts’ Sunrise Enterprise™ suite of clinical, access management and performance management solutions to provide a single integrated technology backbone that will allow the sharing of electronic health records (EHRs) for better access to patient care, according to a press release posted at marketwatch.com.
The solution will be used across the health system’s two hospital campuses and more than 70 community-based patient care locations. The health system offers medical, surgical and diagnostic services at its hospitals and community satellite facilities, and in physician offices.
Heritage Valley will now switch from its existing inpatient clinical information system to Allscripts’ solution, which will connect the Sunrise suite to the Allscripts Enterprise™ Electronic Health Record (EHR) currently used by Heritage Valley's 200 physicians, the press release states. The added connectivity “will enhance the safety and coordination of patient care by allowing caregivers in the hospital and physician's office to share a unified up-to-date patient record,” according to the release.
EHRs allow physicians to have access to all patient information, including patient demographics, progress notes, problems, medications, vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, laboratory data and radiology reports, automating and streamlining the clinician's workflow.
"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, CEO, Allscripts, in the press release. "As healthcare moves inevitably toward the value-driven care model to improve quality and remove cost, Heritage Valley will be able to meet the challenge with our full Sunrise suite and ambulatory Electronic Health Record, enabling them to coordinate care across their enterprise."
Sunrise Enterprise includes computerized provider order entry, integrated pharmacy, critical care and emergency department solutions, according to the press release. Sunrise will provide Heritage Valley with “operational and financial improvements through integrated access management, revenue cycle, budgeting and strategic planning solutions.”
In addition, Allscripts and Heritage Valley will integrate Sunrise’s acute care functions with the health system's mobile solutions, including the handheld devices clinicians currently use to view patient medical records, and radio frequency identification tags (RFID) to quickly validate clinicians' identities, allowing physicians who are visiting their patients in the hospital to quickly view expanded radiology images simply by touching their RFID-equipped handheld to any desktop computer, according to the press release. This starts an automatic log-in, opening an expanded view of their handheld device's EHR, including radiology images.
Deborah DiSesa Hirsch is an award-winning health and technology writer who has worked for newspapers, magazines and IBM in her 20-year career. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Rich Steeves
