DALLAS, TX — (Marketwire) — 05/14/12 — , the leader in automated, physician-led population health improvement, announced today that in Rochester, N.Y., has selected Phytel to help the organization improve diabetes care as part of a statewide health IT program. In addition, Phytel will be an integral part of the technology infrastructure that Unity will use for population health management.
The (NCQA) has recognized 11 of Unity-s 12 primary care practices as Level 3 patient-centered medical homes. Six of those practices, including 21 primary care physicians, and two endocrinologists that support the Unity Diabetes Center, will use to improve the outcomes of high-risk diabetic patients with the help of a $6.5 million state grant. Eventually, Unity will expand the use of Phytel to all of its primary care practices, and will also deploy certain Phytel services to its specialty sites.
The healthcare system has a sophisticated approach to health IT that encompasses an enterprise-wide health information exchange (HIE), a longitudinal patient record, decision support systems, analytics tools, personal health records, and mobile patient engagement and monitoring. Unity also utilizes the Rochester RHIO, a community HIE that provides it with lab results and clinical summaries from other healthcare organizations. Unity chose Phytel to identify care gaps in its patient population and to supply the proactive outreach required to engage noncompliant patients who need preventive and chronic care.
The includes all of the components required for population health management that leverage the enterprise health information exchange framework being deployed. Besides identifying, monitoring and alerting patients who have care gaps, the solution encompasses identity management, data mapping and normalization, and storage of large datasets; an advanced analytics engine and business intelligence software; a care coordination application for transitions of care; online solutions to increase patient engagement; and easy-to-use reporting tools for measuring and reporting quality data to payers.
Commenting on Unity-s agreement with Phytel, Michael Nazar, M.D., senior vice president, Clinical Affairs for Unity Medical Group, said: “Unity Health System is implementing a comprehensive care management model that will address care for patients that are healthy, have a chronic disease, or have a multitude of diseases and other challenges. The Phytel solutions will leverage clinical standards of care and clinical information to help our Level 3 PCMH practices to identify and close gaps in care with less time and effort on the part of clinicians, nurses, care managers, and administrative staff.”
Phytel will work with Unity to feed clinical data from the health system-s new data warehouse to Phytel-s registry, which uses evidence-based clinical protocols to drive automated messaging to patients for clinical follow-up. The warehouse will include data from the multiple EHRs used across the Unity organization that has been normalized by the HIE from dbMotion.
Margaret Donahue, M.D., chief medical information officer, Unity Health System, said, “Our health information technology objectives are to provide tools to clinicians and support staff throughout the health system, allowing them to easily access the information they need from our longitudinal patient record, and to provide decision support to guide the care process and improve patient engagement. Phytel plays a critical role in helping us accomplish these objectives.”
Steve Schelhammer, CEO of Phytel, commented, “Phytel-s solutions will help Unity-s patient-centered medical homes improve outcomes for their patients with diabetes. Our platform enables Unity to manage their entire patient population across a multitude of care settings and health conditions. We welcome the opportunity to demonstrate improved health outcomes in Unity-s sophisticated health IT environment.”
The premier company empowering physician-led population health improvement, Phytel provides physicians with proven technology to deliver timely, coordinated care to their patients. Phytel-s state-of-the-art registry, which now encompasses more than 20 million patients nationwide, uses evidence-based chronic and preventive care protocols to identify and notify patients due for service, while tracking compliance and measuring quality and financial results. For more information, please visit . Follow us on and find us on .
At Unity Health System you-ll find the friendliest and most compassionate people dedicated to providing the best possible health care experience. We have over 70 locations in Rochester and Monroe County, including Unity Hospital, located on the Unity Park Ridge Health Care Campus in the town of Greece and the Unity St. Mary-s Campus in Rochester. Key programs include our Joint Replacement Center, Family Birth Place, Spine Center, Diabetes Center, Stroke Center, Brain Injury & Physical Rehabilitation, and Chemical Dependency. Our Center for Aging has the area-s most comprehensive range of services for older adults which includes specialized care for dementia, a chronic ventilator unit, three skilled nursing facilities, assisted living, a short-stay transitional care center, home health services, adult day programs, and The Villages at Unity — an independent senior living community. ACM Medical Laboratory is a world leader of patient and clinical trials testing, with locations in western New York, York, England, and India, and lab partnerships across the globe. Our shared commitment to delivering health care the way it should be is reflected in our overall employee and patient satisfaction ratings and quality outcomes. For more information, visit .
Dave Anderson
Amendola Communications
678-401-2991
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