Electronic Health Reporter

Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) was informed that one of its key clients, Citrus Valley Health Partners (CVHP), has met the 2014 Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirement for electronic transitions of care (TOC). CVHP (Covina, Calif.) informed Allscripts that it had transmitted the requisite minimum 10 percent of discharge documentation between disparate electronic health record (EHR) acute and ambulatory systems.

“We see it as a significant accomplishment to be among the first healthcare organizations in the country to achieve this milestone,” said Martin Kleinbart, DPM, Chief Strategy Officer for CVHP. “The TOC measure is highly complex and it presented enormous technology challenges to ensure we could automatically send and receive acknowledgement of TOC summaries for patients who were discharged back to their referring physicians.”

Success in this area qualifies CVHP for Meaningful Use incentive payments from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for 2014. With a three hospital campus, one hospice, 3,000 staff members and 750 physicians, CVHP serves a community of nearly one million people residing in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County.

CVHP partnered with Allscripts to ensure TOC summaries could be successfully transmitted from its acute EHR to multiple ambulatory systems, including Allscripts Professional™ EHR and other vendor solutions, via the Allscripts dbMotion population health management platform. Messages conforming to the secure direct protocol were transmitted through Allscripts Health Information Service Provider (HISP) functionality. Referring physicians, primary care providers and long-term care facilities are able to view CVHP’s discharge summaries within their native EHR through Allscripts dbMotion Collaborate and Clinical Views software.

CVHP’s healthcare information exchange (HIE) project manager, Linda Nolton, described the electronic TOC process as a “throw and catch” proposition. “We need to ‘throw’ the summary out to the community providers and they need to be able to ‘catch’ the document within their own systems.” Besides the disparate technology solutions at play, she noted the challenges have been compounded by the fact that the meaningful use timeline is different for ambulatory providers than for acute organizations. The final MU attestation deadline for inpatient facilities is Sept. 30, 2014, while practices and clinics have an additional three months before the window closes. “This means that ambulatory providers may not be as far along as hospitals and health systems,” she added.

CVHP was able to begin TOC attestation so early in 2014—thereby qualifying for a full year of incentive payments—because of its accelerated deployment of Version 5.0 of the Allscripts dbMotion interoperability solution. “It was an extraordinary effort and a fine example of teamwork,” Kleinbart said. “We’re fortunate to have such a dedicated partner in Allscripts.”

Paul M. Black, President and Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts, applauded CVHP’s accomplishment. “Communication and coordination among various care settings is the bedrock of healthcare reform—and closing the gap during transitions of care is critical to the industry’s ability to effect significant improvements in quality and patient outcomes,” he said. “Citrus Valley is a true leader and we’re proud to be able to support their visionary efforts. This represents great progress towards creating open, connected communities of health.”

About Allscripts

Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) delivers the insights that healthcare providers require to generate world-class outcomes. The company’s Electronic Health Record, practice management and other clinical, revenue cycle, connectivity and information solutions create a Connected Community of Health™ for physicians, hospitals and post-acute organizations.  To learn more about Allscripts, please visit www.allscripts.com, Twitter, YouTube and It Takes A Community: The Allscripts Blog.