St. Vincent Health Partners With iSALUS Healthcare To Provide OfficeEMR, An Electronic Medical And Health Records Software, To Independent Physicians

Collaboration provides cost-effective solution for physicians digitizing records to achieve meaningful use

St. Vincent Health and iSALUS Healthcare, a privately held electronic medical and health records (EMR-EHR) solution provider, recently announces a collaborative partnership to assist independent physicians with their adoption and conversion to an electronic medical record system.

Through this partnership, St. Vincent Health and iSALUS Healthcare will offer the OfficeEMR service to independent physicians throughout Indiana. This effort is geared to assist medical practices with converting their patient medical and health records to an electronic format in a timely, compliant and cost-effective process.

“This collaboration with St. Vincent Health, a nationally recognized health system, demonstrates how iSALUS can partner to deliver market driven solutions in order to improve population health. In working with St. Vincent Health, independent physicians can enroll in a ‘one-stop-shop’ program for EMR and revenue cycle management – a terrific step toward better outcomes and meaningful use,” said Michael Hall, chief executive officer and founder of iSALUS Healthcare. “Independent physicians can now put their faith in OfficeEMR, knowing that it’s an established program that has historically delivered solid results for physicians nationwide.”

Benefits for independent physicians
Converting medical and health records to an electronic format has multiple benefits for providers ranging from improving patient care to timely access of medical information.

Now, through the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act –enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – providers who adopt health information technology may demonstrate meaningful use and receive federal stimulus incentives.

OfficeEMR is an affordable and fully integrated EMR and practice management solution designed for physicians, practice managers and billing services personnel. The web-based system provides features designed to streamline office workflow. The solution also includes a record management system that generates quality and compliance reports, thus simplifying regulatory reporting.
  
There are a number of barriers for physicians when implementing an EMR-EHR solution. Typically, such barriers are centered on disruption to a physician’s workflow, converting from legacy software that does not meet federal standards or simply has not met the needs of a physician’s practice, in addition to the cost implications associated with an EMR-EHR implementation. By nature of this collaboration with iSALUS, St. Vincent Health has negotiated a discounted rate for the OfficeEMR service on behalf of independent physicians. Once physicians have subscribed to the OfficeEMR service, locally-based iSALUS personnel will provide ongoing training and support that translates into a physician’s practice going live within 60 days. Once live, a physician can achieve meaningful use and qualify for their federal stimulus dollars 90 days thereafter.

“Our goal is to assist independently-aligned physicians, and provide them with an appropriate electronic medical record system solution,” said Ian Worden, chief operating officer for St. Vincent Health. “By partnering with iSALUS, our independently-aligned physicians will have the opportunity to access a viable software platform that delivers results for their patients and individual practices.”

iSALUS Healthcare’s OfficeEMR is now recognized by St. Vincent Health, the Indianapolis Medical Society (IMS) and the Purdue Regional Extension Center (PurdueREC). iSALUS has offered discounted electronic medical records (EMR-EHR) and practice management software subscriptions to IMS members since 2010.

“We have maintained a long standing relationship with iSALUS and their entrusted partnerships and programs for independent physicians, and are thrilled that St. Vincent Health will be offering their OfficeEMR solution for independently-aligned physicians,” Dr. Richard H. Rhodes, president of the Indianapolis Medical Society, said.  Rhodes added, “The improved patient care and experience will make a tremendous difference in physicians’ practices; that is why we have offered and will continue to offer iSALUS discounts to all IMS Members.”

In addition to offering an EMR-EHR solution, iSALUS has partnered with CIPROMS for medical billing and revenue cycle management services and with Health Dynamix – a division of PCMall – to offer computer hardware, networking and related support activities.

CIPROMS is an Indianapolis-based revenue cycle management provider is nationally recognized for specializing in a robust consulting, billing and compliance services for independent physicians throughout Indiana for nearly 30 years. This combined offering of hardware/networking, revenue cycle management and EMR provides independent physician a credible “one-stop shop” resource that saves time, dramatically improves efficiency, avoids market confusion, delivers improved financial performance and ultimately delivers better patient care.

“We are happy to partner with St. Vincent Health and be resourceful to independent physician groups throughout Indiana,” Dr. Chuck Dietzen, chief medical officer and co-founder of iSALUS Healthcare, said. “OfficeEMR will empower fellow physicians to comply with industry mandates, achieve meaningful use, preserve patients’ continuum of care and help physicians maintain their independence in the community setting.”

Benefits for patients
Patients will also receive the benefits, as this partnership will ensure patients’ records can be easily viewed by primary care physicians and doctors involved in a patient’s care at the hospital. Because OfficeEMR is web-based, physicians can securely access patient files from anywhere, including their mobile devices. This HIPAA compliant visibility provides physicians a clear view of a patient’s health, including test results, current medications, allergy information and previous diagnoses.

St. Vincent Health and iSALUS Healthcare plan to begin offering OfficeEMR to independently-aligned physicians beginning September 12, 2012 at the St. Vincent Health “Connect the Docs” physician networking event.

About St. Vincent Health
St. Vincent Health is a nonprofit, spiritually-centered health system, sponsored by Ascension Health of St. Louis, MO., the nation’s largest Catholic health system.  St. Vincent Health is one of Indiana’s largest employers with 22 health ministries serving central and southern Indiana. The 131-year-old health system delivers high quality, compassionate care in service areas such as cardiovascular, women’s, children’s, neurosciences, cancer care, orthopedics, bariatrics, primary care, emergency medicine, imaging, general surgery and long-term acute care. For more information, visit www.stvincent.org.

About iSALUS Healthcare
Founded in 2000, Indianapolis-based iSALUS Healthcare is a privately held electronic medical and health records (EMR-EHR) and Practice Management solution provider. The company’s web-based EMR service – called OfficeEMR – is one of a few market solutions that is fully unified with a state-of-the-art Practice Management, online Patient Web Portal and secured Chart Sharing capabilities. The innovative, web-based software provides time-saving and money-enhancing solutions to small, medium and large-sized physician practices, health care offices, medical clinics and ambulatory hospital settings. OfficeEMR meets the Meaningful Use criteria to receive federal funding from the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). Along with its comprehensive network of Value-Added Resellers (VARs), iSALUS services more than 45 distinct medical specialties in 48 states and processes nearly a half billion dollars in medical claims each year. For more information, visit www.isalushealthcare.com.