Allscripts Adds TeamPraxis Quality Reporting Software For Electronic Health Records
Chicago, IL - Allscripts, the leading provider of clinical software, connectivity and information solutions that physicians use to improve healthcare, recently introduced the Allscripts Clinical Quality Solution (CQS), a powerful new tool that automates the burdensome quality reporting requirements of federal pay-for-performance programs and provides additional real-time clinical decision-support information to improve the quality of patient care.
CQS is powered by TeamPraxis, a physician management services organization that provides technology and support services to more than 1,000 physicians in Hawaii. Under agreement with TeamPraxis, Allscripts will integrate CQS into its Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Practice Management (PM) solutions nationwide.
"Physicians today would like to take advantage of the growing number of pay-for-performance initiatives that promise to deliver new income for their practices, but many are discouraged by the time-consuming paperwork required to participate in the programs," said Allscripts Chief Executive Officer Glen Tullman. "Our new Clinical Quality Solution powered by TeamPraxis takes the pain out of pay-for-performance by automating the entire reporting process, letting physicians focus on what they do best -- providing great patient care."
Pay-for-performance programs aim to lower the overall cost of healthcare by providing financial bonuses to physicians who deliver high quality care. One such initiative that is supported by the Allscripts CQS is the Physicians Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI), a program of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that provides bonuses for physicians who successfully report a designated set of quality measures for covered Medicare services.
The Allscripts CQS is a true "no touch" system that makes it easier for practices to qualify for PQRI and other pay-for-performance bonuses by extracting and compiling the appropriate quality measures from the Electronic Health Record, Practice Management system, or outside laboratories. Using flexible clinical algorithms, the Allscripts CQS assists clinicians in determining which patients are eligible for the pay-for-performance program and in finding the appropriate reporting codes, which are then automatically appended to claims submitted electronically. This frees office staff from the time-consuming process of manually reviewing individual patient medical records to determine which patients are eligible for which pay-for-performance programs, and then manually applying the appropriate codes. Practices need only select which pay-for-performance programs they wish to participate in and the measures they want to report, and then use their EHR to document relevant information during each patient visit.
"We are proud to partner with Allscripts in developing this innovative solution that we believe will help physicians across the nation deliver higher quality care while generating new income for their practices," said TeamPraxis President and Chief Executive Officer Creighton Arita. "The Allscripts Clinical Quality Solution powered by TeamPraxis furthers Allscripts mission of eliminating paper from healthcare and delivering information that makes a difference at the point of care."
Beyond automating quality reporting and pay-for-performance initiatives, the Allscripts CQS provides physicians with a real-time display of their patient information. This enables them not only to see their reporting progress in real time, but also to leverage this information at the point of care to deliver more proactive care.
With the CQS Physician Dashboard, physicians can view their aggregate data in real time and drill down to see the status of individual patients. For example, physicians can see how many of their diabetic patients have current blood sugar levels within and outside of recommended ranges, or drill down to view the latest results of individual patients. Unlike quality reports that come after the fact, this actionable information enables physicians to immediately take proactive steps such as scheduling follow-up appointments or lab tests for at-risk patients.
The Allscripts-TeamPraxis agreement is the latest step in a productive partnership. TeamPraxis has been deploying Allscripts solutions among Hawaii physicians since 2005, and is now the state's leading Electronic Health Record provider. During 2007, TeamPraxis implemented more EHR systems in Hawaii than all of its competitors combined.
SOURCE: Allscripts