eClinicalWorks scores federally qualified health center contract despite EHR fraud case
The Department of Justice just last week slammed EHR vendor eClinicalWorks with a $155 million settlement for falsely obtaining meaningful use certification but that has not stopped hospitals from picking eClinicalWorks.
Ezras Choilim, a federally qualified health center in Monroe, New York, in fact, announced on Thursday that it picked eClinicalWorks cloud-based EHR and population health services.
Ezras Choilim CEO Joel Mittleman said the FQHC chose eClinicalWorks 10e to advance patient and community outcomes.
[Also: DOJ demands eClinicalWorks transfer data to rival EHRs]
The eClinicalWorks platform, the organizations said, will both streamline operations and give Ezras Choilim’s 36 providers access to patients’ medical history, while the population health and care planning for behavioral health services will enable the FQHC to improve care transitions across various settings and deliver preventative care to certain patients.
While health IT pros might be surprised that eClinicalWorks announced a customer win so soon after the DOJ settlement -- part of which mandates that eClinicalWorks transfer a client’s data to a rival EHR vendor for the asking -- it’s too early to tell whether customers start will start moving away from eClinicalWorks or if everything involved in migrating to a new EHR will mean most customers stick with the vendor.
[Also: DOJ will probe more EHR vendors for false claims, sources say]
In the meantime, John Halamka, MD, CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which uses eClinicalWorks and athenahealth, offered advice for other eClinicalWorks clients.
“Remain agile, mitigate risk by supplementing vendor services with internal and third-party resources,” Halamka said. “And assume that these are just bumps in the road.”
Legal experts and industry insiders, meanwhile, are anticipating that the Department of Justice will probe other EHR vendors business practices in the future.
Editor-at-large Bernie Monegain contributed to this report.
Twitter: SullyHIT
Email the writer: tom.sullivan@himssmedia.com
