Leadership and execution are key to the success of the Allscripts-Eclipsys merger, according to the Allscripts customers, who say the merger presents both challenges and opportunities.

Chicago-based Allscripts, a company focused on selling electronic health record systems to physician practices and community clinics, announced on June 9 it would enter the hospital market by merging with Eclipsys Corp. in a stock deal valued at $1.3 billion.

Allscripts customers say the deal is a good match. Though some caution that how the merger turns out will depend on how well Allscripts can execute. It will require strong leadership, they say.

"I continue to be impressed with Glen's leadership," said William Spooner, senior vice president and CIO of Sharp Healthcare in San Diego, referring to Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman.  "It will be a great opportunity for him to demonstrate it once more."

However, Spooner's endorsement was not without reservation.

"It's good to see another enterprise vendor in the market," Spooner said.  "I hope they can execute on the planned integration, yet my focus continues to be interoperabilty between Allscripts and Cerner – my two EHRs."
 
"I believe this merger will be positive for the healthcare industry," said Michael O'Rourke, senior vice president and CIO for Denver-based Catholic Health Initiatives, which operates 72 hospitals and is ranked as the third-largest faith-based health system in the nation. "At CHI, we recently contracted with Allscripts to provide their ambulatory health record and practice-management solution to our more than 1,000 employed physicians across the 18 states in which we have a presence.

As O'Rourke sees it, the merger of Allscripts with Eclipsys represents the ongoing evolution of the health information technology industry, which recently has been propelled by the necessity to address the exchange of health information and to meet the requirements of meaningful use.

"I think that as these two organizations combine their market strengths, it will translate into new, highly integrated services and products," O'Rourke said.

Integration will, indeed, be critical says Todd Cozzens, CEO of Picis, the Wakefield, Mass.-based technology company that sells high-acuity systems for emergency departments, intensive care units and operating rooms.

"On the surface it makes sense," Cozzens said of the merger. He added that proof of success would be in the rollup of products to be able to offer an enterprise-wide system that is robust.

Allscripts, he notes, is moving from working with small systems with small price points to large integrated systems.

George Brenckle, CIO at UMass Memorial Health Care, says the merger looks like a good fit to him.

"Allscripts is one of our key strategic partners, and the merger with Eclipsys will help make Allscripts a stronger, more diverse company, which can only be good for UMass Memorial Health Care," said Brenckle. "In the near term, we don't see it having any negative impact or change in focus on Allscripts as our ambulatory EHR for our employed physicians and our preferred EHR for private physicians in the community."

"We've had an outstanding partnership with Allscripts as we work to deploy Allscripts Enterprise product with our physician practices and community," said Chuck McDevitt, CIO of Self Regional Healthcare in Greenwood, S.C., which serves as the referral hospital for the seven South Carolina counties. "We don't expect that to change per our discussions with Allscripts. We can certainly see these things being a distraction but given their recent merger with Misys, it is our expectation that their level of service and support will continue to be as good as it today if not better."
 
Spooner said Allscripts made the merger with Misys work, and he expects it will set the stage for the Eclipsys merger.

"The Allscripts-Misys merger brought some benefits as they brought in new technical capabilities and made organizational changes to support transition to larger company and larger client base," Spooner said. "I expect that similar opportunities may present in this next stage."