CERN Cerner Corporation

Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc. (MDRX) was selected by Aria for its Allscripts Community Record, powered by dbMotion, to provide end-to-end connectivity in the health system and the concerned communities. 

Aria Health, with 477 beds, is the largest healthcare provider in Northeast Philadelphia and Lower Bucks County. It has three community hospitals and a robust network of outpatient clinics and primary care doctors.

The Allscripts package/solution provides over 700 affiliated and employed physicians at Aria with common access to one integrated patient record. This will reduce gaps in information frequently faced by independent care givers and health systems, which treat common patients.  

Aria Health hospitals and its physician practices will implement the Allscripts package to facilitate coordinated sharing of data among the Allscripts ambulatory Electronic Health Record (“EHR”) utilized by its physicians, the Allscripts Sunrise acute care EHR used by its hospitals and the ex-Allscripts systems used by several other local healthcare providers.

The Allscripts package harmonizes the information and provides it at an opportune time and place within the provider’s EHR workflow, instead of requiring them to log on to a website. Consequently, care givers can comfortably collaborate to provide patient care, irrespective of where they are situated or which clinical know-how they use.

The Healthcare IT (“HCIT”) market is competitive and price sensitive. Among others, Allscripts faces strong competition from Cerner Corp. (CERN), Quality Systems (QSII) and Athenahealth (ATHN) in this market.

However, optimism about the growth prospects of select HCIT service providers remains high under the Obama Administration, which passed the Stimulus package in May 2009, aimed at increasing the use of EHR systems by medical practitioners.

Allscripts has widened its user base and increased cross-selling opportunities following its merger with Misys and Eclipsys.  We believe that the company is well positioned in the fast-growing business of selling EHR to physician practices and other ambulatory care settings.

The acquisition of Eclipsys provided the company with an acute care product for sale in concert with its ambulatory services. We are of the opinion that acute and ambulatory care will continue to converge in future and that Allscripts is well positioned to provide integrated clinical applications that will permit health care providers to satisfy HITECH Act requirements and eventually comply with an outcome-based reimbursement system.

On the other hand, we are concerned about the intensity of competition, price elasticity, volatility in bookings and the extent of the company’s ability to absorb large acquisitions. Currently, we are neutral on Allscripts.

 
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