Introduction
Blessing Health System in Quincy, Illinois, operates multiple hospitals and ambulatory clinics and, like most U.S. providers, is facing the challenges of coordinating care to perform under emerging accountable delivery models. Blessing Health System’s main hospital is a 340-bed regional medical center located in Quincy, and the health system also operates a critical access hospital in Pittsfield, Illinois. The organization was an early adopter of inpatient EHR and CPOE and has had Allscripts Sunrise Acute Care EHR in place since 2005. Blessing Health System added Allscripts Enterprise EHR in its ambulatory clinics in 2008. The organization demonstrated meaningful use in the inpatient setting successfully in 2011 and plans to move forward to demonstrate meaningful use on the ambulatory side later in 2012. Future plans for the health system include applying for patient-centered medical home status for its ambulatory clinics.
Timely, defined communication between inpatient and outpatient patient-centered medical home clinics enhances patient care, decreases admissions, and enhances patient care. As an early adopter of acute care EHR in 2005, Blessing Health System demonstrated its forward-thinking mindset. The organization also has experience participating in codevelopment opportunities with its vendors to achieve excellent communication for patients, including both inpatients and outpatients.
As a longtime Allscripts customer, Blessing Health System was presented with the opportunity to partner with Allscripts on the early development of Allscripts Data Exchange (ADX) and rose to the challenge. Integration between the inpatient and ambulatory settings promises to allow Blessing Health System to enhance patient safety, control costs, and improve communication among its providers. Blessing Health System did not want to take an HIE-type approach to connectivity because its clinical leaders felt that the deep integration with clinical workflows provided by ADX would enhance clinical benefits further. The open platform design of ADX will allow Blessing Health System to build its connections to additional providers in the community in the future. ADX presents an opportunity for Blessing Health System to leverage the deepest possible integration between its care settings and offers a strong value proposition to the organization as it prepares for accountable care.
