Edward Hospital & Health Services, a regional healthcare provider in Naperville, Ill. , is developing a hospital-based community model that will connect its physicians electronically.

Edward will roll out an electronic health record and practice management system to more than 50 of its physicians and mid-level providers.

Another 40 providers affiliated with the health system will implement just the practice management component.

Edward will provide its employed physicians in the Edward Medical Group, which operates 12 clinics in suburban Chicago, with an integrated solution from Chicago-based Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions. Non-employed physicians in the region who contract with Edward to handle their billing and other management services will receive the standalone practice management system.

"We believe Allscripts will help Edward provide a seamless connection to critical patient information along the entire continuum of care," said Pam Davis, president and chief executive officer of Edward."Our goal is to develop a hospital-based community model under which Edward Hospital and all of our staff physicians are able to connect electronically to provide truly integrated care for our 250,000 patients."

"The physicians who participated in the Allscripts demonstration were impressed with how intuitive the electronic health record was and how quickly and easily they could move through their workflow in a natural fashion," said Ron Glas, MD, Edward's medical director of ambulatory informatics and a physician at the Edward Medical Group. "Allscripts clearly designed it with physicians in mind because it enhances the clinical work space, streamlines the order process and really reduces the number of clicks necessary to finalize entries."

The 317-bed Edward Hospital is the top-rated hospital for overall quality in Chicago's south and west suburbs and the top non-academic hospital for overall quality in the entire Chicago area, according to a 2007 survey by the National Research Corporation.

"With so many employees in the Chicago area, it's exciting to see one of our region's most prominent health systems using our technology to build an end-to-end community care model that ensures continuity of care for patients whether they are in the hospital or physician offices outside the hospital, and to know that some of those patients treated will be our own employees and their families," said Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman. "The ability to connect to critical information in real-time across all care settings is the key to improving our healthcare system, and we're delighted that Edward has selected Allscripts to help deliver on that vision."