Quest Diagnostics to Offer Ambulatory EHR

HDM Breaking News, October 15, 2009

Laboratory powerhouse Quest Diagnostics will introduce an ambulatory electronic health record application Oct. 24. The Web-based application, which Quest Diagnostics will remotely host for smaller group practices, will be marketed nationally early next year, says Richard Mahoney, the company's vice president for healthcare informaiton solutions.

Mahoney is also president of MedPlus, a company owned by Quest Diagnostics that is engineering the EHR that Quest will market.

The Care360 EHR has been in beta tests at several small practices this year, Mahoney says. Madison, N.J.-based Quest Diagnostics will market the EHR to the 150,000 physicians that already use its other Care360 applications, including a hub that connects practices to labs run by Quest Diagnostics and others as well as an electronic prescribing service. Most of these doctors, who generally practice in groups of three or fewer physicians, do not yet have an EHR, Mahoney says.

“Having been involved with so many small practices, we understand their workflows and know why they’ve resisted some EHRs,” he says. Care360 EHR is designed to offer the workflows and interoperability that small practices want, he contends. For example, the EHR will connect to Quest Diagnostic's lab and e-prescribing hubs to enable the exchange of data.

Pricing for the Web-based application will be a fixed annual fee for each physician user, Mahoney explains. Quest Diagnostics will seek certification of its new product for meeting the meaningful use requirements under the federal EHR incentive program of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he adds.

In another effort to entice physicians to use automation, Quest Diagnostics recently announced it is offering a six-month risk-free trial of its Care360 e-Rx service.

--Howard Anderson

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