Allscripts stock tumbled late Thursday as the company announced a $25.8 million net loss for the third quarter, but CEO Paul M. Black insisted the electronic health record developer "continued to show progress," citing new clients here and abroad.

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Moreover, that net loss was much preferable to the $48.9 million loss posted for the same quarter in 2013.

Allscripts' bookings were $223 million in Q3, compared with $236 million in the third quarter of 2013 and $234 million in the second quarter of 2014.

Still, Allscripts made the case that it's continuing to rebound from its annus horribilis of 2012. For the first nine months of 2014, bookings totaled $680 million – an increase of approximately 8 percent over the first nine months of 2013.

[See also: Allscripts execs stress stability]

New sales of the Sunrise EHR platform in the U.S. and the U.K. helped bookings performance in Q3, according to Allscripts, as the company saw growth in ambulatory bookings, on both a year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter basis.

"Allscripts third quarter results continued to show progress," said Paul M. Black, President and CEO of Allscripts, in a press statement. "We achieved solid new sales results, reflecting new client bookings across our installed base, as well as the addition of new clients globally. Demand was healthy for our solutions in Allscripts primary end markets including health systems, post-acute care givers and physician practices around the globe."

Among other Q3 highlights for Allscripts:


• Catholic Health Initiatives tapped the company to provide ambulatory hosting services nationwide.
• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital extended Allscripts Sunrise and Allscripts TouchWorks to help create a single community-enabled health record platform.
• Saline Memorial Hospital selected Sunrise, citing the strength of its clinical capabilities
Baylor Scott & White Health selected Allscripts' dbMotion interoperability and population health management platform
• In the U.K., Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust will implement the Sunrise EHR

On an earnings call, Black stressed that, "While bookings are down approximately $11 million sequentially, it's important to keep in mind that the third quarter is generally the least active sales quarter in the HCIT industry" – adding that, "while we would have liked to have delivered a stronger performance, the reality is the third quarter is a tough one."

As evidence that Allscripts is making strides with "advanced consumer engagement technologies," Black noted that, for instance, "we also this quarter replaced Epic MyWay or MyChart in one of our clients." He said Allscripts was "progressing towards a community aware EHR, a key deliverable built on our philosophy of open systems, data harmonization and the ability to push relative information to the point of care within existing workflows."

As it does, "we are positioning our clients for success with (Stage 2 meaningful use) and beyond," he said. "And finally, we are on plan to grow bookings in 2014, which supports the three-year financial plan we introduced in January."