WATERTOWN, Mass., March 19, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- athenahealth, Inc., a leading provider of network-enabled services for ambulatory and enterprise customers nationwide, is activating its network to help healthcare providers quickly make informed decisions and ease workflow constraints during the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes:
- Releasing software updates nightly to align existing product structures (order sets, social history questions, and more) with CDC best practice recommendations
- Providing instant access to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 guidance through epocrates®, the #1 mobile medical reference app
- Ensuring COVID-19 commercial lab tests are linked to athenahealth’s global compendium as they become available nationwide and in specific states
- Activating its ecosystem of deep partnerships with leading telehealth companies for patient management and triage
- Deploying enhanced online scheduling to enable patients to make appointments themselves and reduce the burden on practice staff
"In this moment of unprecedented pressure for frontline community providers, the entire athenahealth team is focusing on creating and deploying the resources our customers need the most to treat their patients and do their work seamlessly and safely,” said Bob Segert, chairman and CEO of athenahealth. “We are mobilizing our ecosystem to support the healthcare community with real-time information, seamless integration with solutions from telehealth and lab test partners, and enhanced scheduling capabilities that reduce the burden on practice staff."
epocrates free app delivers real-time CDC guidance for medical decision support for all clinicians
To help all healthcare providers make informed, in-the-moment decisions, athenahealth is placing the latest CDC guidance—as it becomes available—into epocrates. In under 60 seconds, clinicians can access the CDC’s guidance as it relates to their patient’s situation, directly from their mobile device. As confirmed cases of COVID-19 continue to rise, views of the guidelines have increased 600 percent over 10 days, receiving seven times more views than any other set of guidelines in the app. For more on how epocrates is helping clinicians stay current with CDC guidelines, please read this athenahealth Knowledge Hub article.
“The epocrates mobile decision tool condenses the guidance from the CDC into an easy-to-access algorithmic format so clinicians at any practice or hospital can quickly retrieve relevant guidance to make informed decisions for their patients,” said Diane Bartoli, epocrates General Manager. “There may be multiple CDC updates on any given day, reflecting the evolving landscape of COVID-19. epocrates reduces the time needed to comb through all of the information and gives that time back to clinicians to spend with their patients.”
COVID-19 commercial lab tests available for ordering in athenaClinicals workflow
CoordinatorCore, athenahealth’s order and referral management service that partners with commercial labs to receive electronic orders from athenaClinicals, is assisting healthcare providers by ensuring that they can seamlessly order COVID-19 tests within their normal ordering workflows. Tests from Quest Diagnostics, LabCorp, and other major commercial labs are all available for providers to order today, ensuring nationwide coverage of test accessibility to the providers and patients served on the athenahealth network.
“Quest Diagnostics recently launched a SARS-CoV-2 Qualitative Real-Time RT-PCR test service to address the national COVID-19 health crisis,” said Sean Carvin, Director, Connectivity Ops & Partner Integration at Quest Diagnostics. “athenahealth and Quest have partnered to provide automated updates to their lab test directories in their EHR. This is vital to enable providers to quickly and easily order the SARS-CoV-2 Qualitative Real-Time RT-PCR test without unnecessary burden on the ordering providers.”
Telehealth partners help alleviate demands on healthcare providers
Telehealth technology allows practices to triage both the “worried-well” and patients presenting with symptoms. To support healthcare providers on the front lines of this pandemic, athenahealth is activating its ecosystem to facilitate connectivity between its customers and telehealth partners. By enabling athenahealth Marketplace partners in record time, athenahealth customers are better positioned to use these important tools in the moment of care.
Enhanced online patient scheduling to ease burden on practice staff
Patients who need an in-person appointment with providers that offer portal scheduling can schedule their appointments online themselves—and importantly, include their reason for the visit. This self-scheduling can ease the administrative burden on staff and enables the practice to prepare in advance to safely receive patients with COVID-19 symptoms.
For more on athenahealth’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit https://www.athenahealth.com/COVID-19-response.
About athenahealth, Inc.
athenahealth partners with medical organizations across the country to drive clinical and financial results. Our vision is to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all, and we are pursuing this through our medical record, revenue cycle, patient engagement, and care coordination service offerings. Our expert teams build modern technology on an open, connected ecosystem, yielding insights that make a difference for our customers and their patients. For more information, please visit www.athenahealth.com.
Contact:
Jean Borgman
media@athenahealth.com
617-402-1031