The service, installed by healthcare IT specialist Allscripts, will allow physicians to access patient records through a single data repository, enabling workers across 22 locations to instantly access patient information as well as the latest evidence-based knowledge at the point of care.
The system will also enable the clinic to create a centralized call center that patients from across the region may contact with medical questions and prescription refill requests, said Jim Hewitt, Springfield Clinic’s CIO.
Mr Hewitt said a key reason for selecting Allscripts was that its electronic health record will help Springfield Clinic’s physicians adopt pay-for-performance programs that offer financial incentives for meeting care benchmarks such as improved outcomes for patients with diabetes and hypertension.
There is no way we could participate in pay-for-performance without Allscripts, Mr Hewitt commented. It would take a small army to pull 2,000 paper charts and analyze them to determine how well we were doing on management of diabetes or immunizations. With Allscripts, we can do this instantly, and we can survey and proactively manage our entire patient population.
