CHICAGO and FERGUS FALLS, Minn. – Allscripts announced Tuesday that Lake Region Healthcare has selected the Allscripts Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Practice Management (PM) solution to enhance the quality of patient care, improve patient communications, and better manage the cost of care delivery for 50 affiliated physicians and mid-level providers employed by Fergus Falls Medical Group.
While they are separate organizations, Lake Region Healthcare and the Fergus Falls Medical Group have a history of working closely together in building one of the most successful rural health care corporations in Minnesota, and a national model. Lake Region Healthcare received the Thomson 100 Top Hospitals award for performance improvement.
“Lake Region Healthcare and Fergus Falls Medical Group have worked together for years to build a medical community where the patient comes first, and the electronic health record and practice management system is the fruit of that shared vision,” said John Peterson, Chief Executive Officer of Fergus Falls Medical Group. “Allscripts will help us accomplish a number of strategic goals, from helping to recruit new physicians who used an EHR in medical school, to letting us easily generate reports about productivity and other key measures we need to manage our business more effectively.”
In deploying the Electronic Health Record for physicians who are not employees, Lake Region Healthcare is leveraging recent changes to the federal Stark regulations, which allow hospitals to subsidize the purchase of healthcare information technology for non-employed physicians.
Allscripts will enable Lake Region Healthcare to bridge common information gaps, enabling caregivers in the hospital and the medical group to access electronic information on shared patients, which improves the coordination of care, reduces duplication and streamlines administration. Allscripts will integrate the Electronic Health Record with Lake Region Hospital’s McKesson Paragon inpatient health information system to enable seamless information sharing across both care settings. Fergus Falls Medical Group also will replace its existing practice management system.
Patient Portal, Pay-for-Performance and Rapid Implementation
As part of its Allscripts deployment, Fergus Falls Medical Group will implement the Allscripts Patient Portal, enabling patients to play a larger and more important role in their own healthcare management while helping the practice to save time, lower costs and increase revenues.
The group also will implement the Allscripts Clinical Quality Solution (CQS), delivering clinical decision support information at the point of care and automating the time-consuming process of participating in Pay-for-Quality programs.
Additionally, Fergus Falls has selected the new Allscripts READY methodology for rapid deployment of the Electronic Health Record. READY is a series of complete solution packages that combine best-in-class recommendations for products, certified workflows and implementation procedures. The program leverages the Company’s experience from thousands of successful clients to alleviate the most common pain points encountered with an Electronic Health Record implementation.
Allscripts clients using READY have reduced the time to implement their EHR by an average 65 percent, resulting in lower costs.
“Physicians want an electronic health record that is easy to install and easy to use. They want to easily connect to other physicians involved in the care of their patients and to involve patients directly in their own care. And they want real-time information to make better decisions at the point of care,” said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts. “We’re partnering with leading organizations like Lake Region Healthcare and Fergus Falls Medical Group to deliver their physicians what they need to continue to provide world class care.”
The Allscripts Electronic Health Record automates everyday clinical tasks such as documenting patient care, ordering and reviewing tests, and prescribing and refilling medications. The Allscripts Practice Management solution is fully integrated with the Electronic Health Record and features sophisticated scheduling and revenue cycle management tools that will help improve the productivity and bottom-line success of Fergus Falls Medical Group.
About Lake Region Healthcare and Fergus Falls Medical Group
Lake Region Healthcare is a not-for-profit organization which operates Lake Region Hospital (108-beds), Bridgeway Inpatient Behavioral Health Services, Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation Services, Diagnostic and Interventional Rehabilitation Services, Athletic Republic-Fergus Falls, and the Mill Street Residence.
Fergus Falls Medical Group is a physician owned multi-specialty organization which operates seven clinics throughout West Central Minnesota. The Fergus Falls healthcare campus is in a constant state of growth and change, ensuring the group’s physicians provide their patients with the best care available. Fergus Falls Medical Group continually strives for improvement, with an emphasis on safe, high quality patient-focused care.
Police believe Kjaglien may have been traveling between Fergus Falls and Remer. Kjaglien is described as six feet two inches tall, weighing 275 lbs. He was last seen wearing a gray, long-sleeved t-shirt and tan pants. He drives a bluish-green 1996 Ford F-150 regular cab pick-up, with gray striping with license plate number SKV-514.