The color shouts out to visitors at Allscripts' corporate headquarters in the sprawling Merchandise Mart. There, an array of white-letters-on-orange signs proclaim the new corporate mantra of Allscripts-Misys: "150,000 physicians, 700 hospitals, 1 company." The numbers represent the total customer base formed by the merger of the once competitive clinical I.T. vendors - their combined product line now includes discharge planning, emergency department operations, practice management software that handles billing and scheduling, and software that encompasses ambulatory electronic records for groups of all sizes. In addition, the new company - its brand name remains simply "Allscripts" - has introduced auxiliary products that cater directly to patients, such as registration kiosks and smart phones for diabetics.
Tullman, who talks about the new company with an almost religious fervor, says the numbers are destined to grow - or else. "On a transaction this big, it is easy to get distracted," says Tullman, who remains CEO. "We need to stay focused on our bigger mission, on fixing health care. We have a fundamentally broken system and we have got to fix it. The U.S. cannot be a world leader with a second class health care system. This is bigger than Allscripts."
Tullman has plenty of company on that score, as many I.T. advocates point to the under-automated physician practice environment as an industry choke-hold. Of course, whether or not the newly merged Allscripts can expand its foothold there remains to be seen. Many a merger has gone awry due to disparate cultures. That's one reason that Allscripts adorns its offices with the big signage. It's looking to instill an esprit de corps among its 2700 employees that will be critical to the publicly traded company's future success. "The best companies are driven by committed people," Tullman proclaims. "They reach more deeply inside than just making money."
Allscripts does manage to make money, however. The newly combined company will have annual revenue of approximately $700 million, Tullman says, with up to $82 million in profit. Its suite of products includes some 110,000 physicians who used Misys and 40,000 on Allscripts. Not all of those are pure EHR users, however. Misys had a stand-alone practice management system used by 90,000 physicians and Allscripts brought an ED information system to the mix. In addition, Misys enjoyed a stronger presence in the small to mid-size group practice market, while Allscripts' strong point was larger medical groups that were part of academic medical centers. That's one factor in why Tullman describes the merger in "best of both worlds" terminology. The new company will continue to sell its entire product line, which has some overlap in the small group practice space. However, not all products will continue to benefit from research and development spending, Tullman says.
Upholding a Vision
Certain core products will become integrated, adding to their market appeal and upholding Tullman's vision of a connected health care industry. "We have already done the integration between many of the products," he says. "During the five months (finalizing the merger), we used our time wisely." Some customers, such as Cleveland Clinic, have built interfaces between Misys' home care module and Allscrips' discharge management system. "We will use Cleveland Clinic as a reference site," Tullman enthuses.
The new blend of ambulatory EHRs may give Allscripts an edge in an extremely crowded market, where dozens of companies are attempting to penetrate into the paper-based physician practices that dominate the industry. "We are the only company that has a range (of software) for small to large practices," Tullman says. "You don't use a mini-van and a pick-up truck for the same thing."
To reach the physician market, Tullman says Allscripts will rely on various strategies. The company will continue its direct sales efforts to academic medical centers, while smaller groups will be approached through distributors. Another sales division will focus on hospitals, peddling ED and discharge management software. Tullman also touts two other "on-ramps" to the EHR. One is e-prescribing software, available as a free download. The other is a document management system he describes as "intelligent scanning."
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