Galen Healthcare Solutions: Allscripts Consultants Enterprise EHR

If there is anything that the Galen team enjoys, it is putting our heads together on a particularly challenging question or problem within Allscripts Enterprise EHR.  We are a group of people who love a problem that you can sink your teeth into, and when we develop solutions we love to share them with the user community.    We are thrilled to introduce a new program in this newsletter where we give our readers an opportunity to enhance the body of knowledge that we publish on our wiki by “Asking an expert.”

Our Wiki content has been driven so far by the knowledge and experience that our consultants gain in the field.    We have gotten great feedback from clients and end users that the wiki is a great resource, and we feel that this program will only serve to enhance that process.    We want to hear what you are struggling with, where you are stuck and where you need a work-around.

Using this link users can submit questions to our website and our team of experts will review the questions and use them to direct future content for the wiki.   We also plan to highlight one question from the “Ask the expert” series in each Newsletter.     We expect that there could be a high volume of questions and we may not be able to answer all of them,  but we will review all submissions and evaluate the utility of the answer to the greater user community as well as looking for trends when multiple users ask similar questions.       We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Tags: Allscripts

Galen Healthcare Solutions is proud to announce that we will be continuing our popular series of free webcasts this fall related to Allscripts Enterprise EHR.   These Webcasts will cover topics including Analytics, Allscripts Enterprise EHR Note, Interfaces, Reports, Allscripts Enterprise EHR Orders, Tech System maintenance.

Learn more »

Tags: Allscripts, Enterprise Order, Galen Webcast Series, Integration, Interfaces, Meaningful Use, Technical

It is with no small sense of pride that we at Galen Healthcare Solutions embrace our role as a leader in moving our community the Allscripts User Community towards its collective vision of improving health care through the use of technology.

Even before our inception nearly 5 years ago, our people have demonstrated an understanding that to achieve our individual goals, we must recognize the value in sharing our expertise and experiences with organizations across our industry that has similar objectives.  We know that to be successful, we must be willing to lend assistance, because we most assuredly will need the support of others from time to time.

It is because of this belief system that we make our combined knowledge freely available to whoever needs access to it through our Galen Wiki and Galen Blog.  We encourage every member of the community, user or vendor, to participate in this free exchange of information with the mindset that we are all in this struggle together.

Further, we are thrilled to introduce a new program in this newsletter where we give our readers an opportunity to increase and direct the body of knowledge that we publish on our wiki by “Asking an expert.”    Users can submit questions to our website and our team of experts will review the questions and use them to direct future content for the wiki.

Additionally, and with the concept of advancing the global effort in mind, we believe strongly in supporting the various regional and niche user groups currently active across the country.  We are witness to the power of these groups nearly every day.  We see email conversations involving dozens of organizations spanning several states sharing concepts with the intention of helping each other move past their obstacles.  We see thousands of users joining to form a single voice demanding resolution to persistent issues.  And we see the times when these groups gather physically, in a single location, to share their experiences, frustrations, and success stories all in an effort to support one another and move forward

We are, of course, in the midst of yet another injection of uncertainty in the form of “Meaningful Use”.  As a result, it appears that ACE 2010 couldn’t come at a better time.  Certainly, ACE is a great opportunity to see old friends and make new ones, but more importantly, it is a chance for the community to convene, give voice to its anxieties, and discuss steps to overcome them.  We relish the chance to participate in that process.

We hope that each of you attending ACE 2010 will stop by our booth, have a little fun (Spin to Win an iPad!), and share your thoughts, voice a concern, or just ask a question.  We know that the success of our organization depends on the success of the community overall.  We, collectively, can achieve that success through a commitment to promoting the greater objectives, freely sharing our knowledge, and continually moving the community concept forward.

Enjoy your summer and I hope to see you at ACE.

Steve McQueen

Tags: Allscripts

Justin Campbell Promoted to Senior Consultant

Galen Healthcare is pleased to announce the promotion of Justin Campbell to Senior Consultant.  He has been an Interface Analyst with Galen Healthcare Solutions since 2008. Justin is a key member of the Galen Technical Services team and a few highlights of his responsibilities include development of new interfaces, enhancement  of existing interfaces, development of training environments, development and deployment of customized application solutions for Allscripts Enterprise, and implementation of SQL server upgrades. Justin works with many large and complex customers including MSO environments and clients with over 40 interfaces.

Justin developed the Solutions Store, where clients can purchase and download reports.  He is currently leading a project to build a new product (ConnectR Toolbelt)  that will enhance the end user experience of working with ConnectR.  Justin has a passion for improving the world of healthcare IT and is a regular contributor to many Healthcare IT blogs.    Justin also conducts free webcasts covering ConnectR Interfaces.

Prior to joining Galen Healthcare, Justin Campbell was an IT Director overseeing IS operations of pharmacy information systems. His responsibilities included overseeing daily operations and support, integration of new hardware and execution of a conversion from a legacy pharmacy information system to a SQL based pharmacy information system.

Cecil Hunter Promoted to Senior Consultant

Galen Healthcare is also pleased to announce the recent promotion of Cecil Hunter to Senior Consultant.   Cecil joined Galen in 2008 bringing with him a wealth of knowledge and expertise from over 8 years of working in healthcare and 4 years of working with Electronic Health Records.     Cecil is a seasoned implementation consultant with a passion for providing the kind of leadership and support to healthcare organizations that allows them to optimize their use of the EHR and fosters end-user investment in the system.

Cecil has become an integral member of the implementation teams on which he has worked and clients have frequently requested him when they have had projects that need a highly skilled and effective consulting partner.   Cecil has in depth experience with Allscripts Enterprise EHR build and design, planning and supporting phased go-live support to multi-specialty clinics and providing presentations on new functionality to management and project decision makers. Additionally, he has experience in supporting system analysts and trainers in providing the best possible end user experience.

Prior to joining Galen Healthcare, Cecil was an Allscripts Super User for a large multi-specialty healthcare organization.     Cecil provided input on the build & design process, and was a part of end-user support from training through post –go-live.    Cecil approaches his work with the deep understanding that improving the end user experience leads to improved patient care.

Galen Healthcare Solutions announced today that Queens Long Island Medical Group has gone live with VitalCenter™, the business continuity solution for health care organizations that rely on the availability of their electronic health records to provide patient care.

Garden City, NY October 30, 2009 – Galen Healthcare Solutions today announced that Queens Long Island Medical Group, (QLIMG) has deployed VitalCenter for its 350 physicians in multi-specialty practices as their business continuity solution for Electronic Health Record (EHR) downtime.

VitalCenter fills a long standing void within the marketplace, addressing the needs of every specialty, by delivering off-line copies of patients’ charts when the EHR is unavailable. A PC configured with VitalCenter, receive updates of patients’ chart information on a regular schedule, without impacting the EHR’s responsiveness. VitalCenter provides the ability to view or print copies of a patient chart on PC’s within a clinic. In addition, the solution allows the provider to electronically document and upload the visit details back into the EHR.

We’ve experienced a number of incidents that have prevented access to the EHR. As a leader in our community we feel it is imperative to provide our patients with unparalleled care. This solution provides the continuity of clinical information that allows that to happen. We researched other downtime solutions, including full disaster recovery solutions, but in addition to being expensive to both deploy and maintain, those solutions did not solve the problem of localized network outages”, said Lenny Brunson, Chief Information Officer of Queens Long Island Medical Group.

Galen’s VitalCenter is integrated with the Allscripts Enterprise Electronic Health Record and will distribute off-line copies of patient charts to each clinic based on the location of the appointment. The solution is flexible enough to accommodate the needs of all of the specialties and allows for each provider to customize the data that is delivered.

Shutting down clinics early for maintenance is an inconvenience for patients and is also a missed opportunity for physicians. An upgrade to the server environment, network or EHR may require that the EHR be unavailable to providers. VitalCenter will continue to deliver crucial patient information to caregivers with no interruption in service.

VitalCenter is the answer to the first question on everyone’s mind when they move to a paperless practice,” said Stephen McQueen, CEO of Galen. “‘How do I safely and effectively see patients if I can’t get to my charts?’ VitalCenter overcomes that obstacle and provides our clients with predictable encounter volumes, regardless of the circumstances.”

The implementation of VitalCenter is a quick and secure process by which it is installed and deployed through a PC installer. The VitalCenter Management Suite allows for client-specific configurability.

VitalCenter allows physicians to document their patient encounters while the EHR is offline. The documents, called VitalNotes are then automatically uploaded to the EHR once a connection can be made.

Another advantage of the VitalCenter Solution was the ease of installation. The system works in such a way that we do not need to impact our production system.   With many concurrent projects, and dependencies, the ease of deployment and support are critical to QLIMG,” said Mr. Brunson.

For additional information or to schedule a demo of VitalCenter please contact Cary Bresloff at 888.GALEN.44 ext 706 or visit vitalcenter.galenhealthcare.com.

About Queens Long Island Medical Group: Queens-Long Island Medical Group, P.C. is a physician-owned medical group that staffs and operates twenty-two medical center offices throughout Queens, Nassau and Suffolk Counties. For more information, please visit www.qlimg.com.

About Galen Healthcare Solutions, Inc.: Galen Healthcare Solutions was founded in 2005 with a specific focus on assisting members of the health care community with the challenging, sometimes daunting task of migrating to a predominantly paperless world. Galen resources possess decades of clinical and electronic health record experience. Galen has been on the forefront of the EHR movement and offers a vast array of skills from database architecture to senior-level project management and implementation services. Galen resources have been involved in hundreds of EHR implementations, from inception to completion, varying in size from 6 physician specialty practices to 1,200 physician multi-specialty organizations. For more information, please visit www.galenhealthcare.com

Galen Healthcare Solutions is the foremost third party expert on Allscripts Enterprise EHR.

Tags: Business Continuity, MSO, VitalCenter