Curas, Inc. Puts St. Anthony's Physician Organization Ahead with Electronic Health Records: EHR System Implemented in 2009 to Advance beyond Industry Minimums in 2011

ST. LOUIS, MO, May 19, 2011 (Press-News.org) While many physicians and medical groups are just starting the process of assessing their needs for electronic health records, one St. Louis area physician organization finds itself well ahead of the curve. St. Anthony's Physician Organization (SAPO), a group consisting of over 65 medical professionals, has worked with Curas since 2009 when the firm took them live with eClinicalWorks EHR in July of that year. Today, Curas will help SAPO achieve the next level of productivity and communications with their EHR system, allowing the organization to far surpass existing federal criteria for meaningful use and to provide a higher level of productivity and patient care.

Since the organization's launch of eClinicalWorks with Curas in July, 2009, SAPO has worked together as an organization, learning to function without paper charts and integrating the workflows associated with EHR into all operations. Curas has been instrumental in all phases of the process, from initial planning, installation, roll-out and training, and continues to serve in a support role to the organization. In addition to its support role, Curas also continues to actively work with SAPO to upgrade its existing eClinicalWorks EHR system to meet and surpass meaningful use requirements.

"Curas helped St. Anthony's Physician Organization become an early adopter of eClinicalWorks EHR," said Num Pisutha-Arnond, Managing Partner at Curas. "As we help them to prepare for this next level of EHR, we quickly recognized that they're not looking at meaningful use as the goal, which so many medical professional are. Rather, they're viewing it as the minimum for 2011. That puts them well ahead of where many other practices are with their EHR transitions."

This idea of pushing past the minimums is evidenced in many things SAPO already has in place, or has planned for 2011. SAPO has already implemented a patient portal for better communications, ePrescribing to simplify, expedite, and better coordinate prescription medicines, and a data collection tool to monitor quality data and 7 quality measures. SAPO plans to monitor 7 quality measures this year, exceeding the six required to meet meaningful use standards.

"Strong physician leadership and a drive to be a leader in the use of Electronic Health Records have been a hallmark of the group for more than five years," said Dave Hinkle, Executive Director of SAPO. "We have capitalized on Curas' expertise and will continue our push toward advancement in this area. As we see it, the overarching purpose of Meaningful Use is to provide a set of best practices that enable a better care experience for the patient, more standardized and efficient workflow, and an overall lower cost of service."

As is the case with all medical practices, Curas followed its successful, proven process for the implementation of eClinicalWorks for SAPO. Curas begins each implementation with a full understanding of the organization and each practice, the overall workflow, and each staff member involved. From there, they create the system that will allow the practice to become operational on the new platform as quickly as possible. This process has allowed Curas to enjoy a 99% success rate in eClinicalWorks implementations, versus the industry-wide success rate which is estimated at 27%.

About Curas
Curas is a St. Louis area based health information technology consulting company and a Value Added Reseller (VAR) of the eClinicalWorks suite of products for the electronic medical office. From planning through implementation, training and support, Curas has a nationwide reputation for providing the services physicians need to ensure that technology enables their business, not hinders it. Curas' staff of eClinicalWorks certified specialists install the software, train end users, and assist practices with optimizing their office workflow to maximize the benefit they receive from deploying eClinicalWorks' products. Curas maintains its own call center providing Level 1 and Level 2 support to its clients. In addition to servicing and supporting clients in Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi, Curas is frequently called upon by eClinicalWorks and other eClinicalWorks VARs to install, train, and support users at various sites around the United States. Today, Curas supports over 700 physicians in over 30 states with practices ranging in size from solo practices to multi-specialty 100 provider practices. For more information about Curas, visit: http://www.curas.net.

About St. Anthony's Physician Organization
St. Anthony's Physician Organization is comprised of 65 board certified and board eligible physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants. The physicians represent a network of high-quality, highly accessible primary care and specialist physician offices, conveniently located in South County and affiliated with St. Anthony's Medical Center in St. Louis, Missouri. For more information about SAPO, visit: http://www.stanthonysmedcenter.com/sapo.

About eClinicalWorks
eClinicalWorks is a privately held leader in the ambulatory clinical systems market. The company's unified electronic medical record (EMR) and practice management (PM) solutions are proven for every market segment: large practice groups, including Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC), Electronic Health Records of Rhode Island (EHRRI) and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, as well as medium, small and solo practices regardless of specialty. The company enjoys high profitability with a five-year compounded growth rate of more than 100 percent year-to-year. With an established customer base of more than 50,000 providers and 225,000 healthcare professionals across all 50 states, eClinicalWorks has been awarded multiple top industry honors including being named to the Inc. 5000 in 2009, 2008 and 2007. Based in Westborough, Mass., eClinicalWorks has additional offices in New York City, Pleasanton, Calif. and Alpharetta, Ga. More information on eClinicalWorks can be found at http://www.eclinicalworks.com or by calling 866-888-6929.