In an evolution one executive says will help physicians face an "onslaught of uncertainties and challenges," <a href="/directory/ge-healthcare" target="_blank" class="directory-item-link">GE Healthcare has launched the latest version of its integrated EMR and PM system for physician practices, Centricity Practice Solution 10.

"As healthcare reform continues to gain momentum," said Michael Friguletto, vice president and general manager for GE Healthcare IT, "physicians want assurance that their practices will be ready for the future."

He says GE designed Practice Solution 10 to help docs "build their best practice by being prepared for "important changes" and &quot;evolving industry requirements" such as meaningful use, accountable care organizations, patient-centered medical home, Medicare and reimbursement reform, quality reporting, HIPAA 5010 and ICD-10.

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Kathy Barrows, clinic administrator at Internal Medicine Associates in Fargo, N.D., who took part in the beta trial, says Centricity Practice Solution 10 is "changing the game." She lauds it for having been "built to optimize cost efficiency and deployment of a hybrid system and has intuitively matched our workflow to minimize our training costs."

Friguletto says the new version has a redesigned user interface, a new financial performance dashboard and a meaningful use package bundled with features including a patient portal, secure clinical messaging and e-prescribing.

"It also features integrated quality reporting metrics from our Medical Quality Improvement Consortium (MQIC), a database of more than 20 million patient records that allows practices to benchmark their de-identified data nationally against other practices," he says.

Additionally, improved EMR/PM integration helps ensure "better clinical decisions at the point of care," as it allows docs to "continuously monitor all aspects of the revenue cycle to reduce operating costs and be better positioned to qualify for meaningful use incentives," he says.

A more "intuitive" EMR user interface was "developed based on extensive input from physicians and designed to reduce the number of clicks all the way from patient registration through clinical evaluation," says Friguletto. Meanwhile, on the PM side, "the interface features simplified scheduling, claims filing and billing modules, while enabling staff to monitor progress in real time."

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Centricity Practice Solution 10 also helps enable physician practice readiness for ANSI 5010 and ICD-10 requirements, he adds. "Centricity Practice Solution 10 is fully ANSI 5010 capable; in fact we have made over 850 modifications to ensure our customers meet the requirements." Moreover, "this release introduces the format to send ICD-10 claims with additional capabilities coming in our next release to meet the federal deadlines. GE Healthcare will fully support our customers in the transition to ICD-10."

With embedded reports that providers can use to track their progress toward achieving federal benchmarks for meaningful use incentive payments, the new version has already attained 2011/2012 meaningful use Stage I certification as a complete EHR from CCHIT.

"Based on early copies of Centricity Practice Solution 10, it is clear GE has listened and responded to requests from its users in a big way," said Maurice Rosenbaum, CEO of HealthSystems, a health IT reseller. "This new version is one of the most significant and broad sweeping user interface improvements in years and we are thrilled to bring this innovation to our existing groups and new groups alike."