CHICAGO – Officials at the newly formed AllscriptsMisys Healthcare Solutions want to shake up the healthcare industry.
That kind of thinking comes from being one of the biggest kids on the block – and Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman and Mike Lawrie, Misys’ chief executive and the new company’s executive chairman, say they’re ready for the challenge.
“The market believes in the underlying fundamentals of this transaction,” said Tullman, during a recent conference call with Lawrie. “Healthcare is not going to go away. The problems in healthcare have to be solved.”
“The healthcare industry is one of the last on the planet to use (information technology),” added Lawrie. “Providers need to look for ways to improve their productivity, and this is one of them. This may play right into the economic environment.”
“We now have a platform to grow,” he said.
Both men say the goal now is to help the healthcare field support interoperability, create a paperless environment and work to improve the payment process.
First announced last March, the merger of Misys Healthcare, the Raleigh, N.C.-based arm of British banking giant Misys plc, and Chicago-based Allscripts healthcare was finalized in early October, when both companies’ stockholders approved a deal that gave Misys slightly more than 50 percent control of the company but kept all operations in the hands of Allscripts. The new company, based in Chicago, is touted as one of the largest providers of electronic health record and practice management services in the country, with access to roughly 700 hospitals, 7,000 post-acute and homecare agencies and 150,000 physicians.
The deal is designed to combine Allscripts’ EHR products and Misys’ PM solutions and further the concept of interoperability in the healthcare marketplace. Tullman pointed out that more than 50 healthcare providers are already using Allscripts and Misys products, and that many others would now find a new range of products made available to them.
“We’re going to make it easy for them to integrate and connect to these services,” said Lawrie.
Both man also pointed out that 90,000 Misys clients – roughly 80 percent of the healthcare company’s client base – don’t have EHRs. “Our objective is to offer safe and easy choices to the existing Misys base and to the market in general,” Tullman said in a press release. “Practices that are pleased with their current practice management systems can simply add the Allscripts Electronic Health Record that fits and feels best. Others may choose to upgrade to a new set of products.”
The key to the company’s survival now, both Lawrie and Tullman said, is innovation. Both say there will be several announcements over the coming months of new contract and products. Among them is a self-service kiosk, integrated with the company’s EHR and PM suites, that will be rolled out shortly at the Springfield Clinic in Springfield, Ill.
“Physicians want to make an investment in a company that grows and innovates,” said Lawrie.
“We’re building a growth company,” added Tullman.