DeWitt Hospital Adopts Azalea Health EHR Amid COVID-19 to Support Health Information Exchange, Telehealth, and Revenue Recovery
As cases rose in DeWitt's corner of Arkansas, the hospital underwent a digital transformation while testing hundreds for COVID-19 daily
ATLANTA, Sept. 1, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Azalea Health, a leading provider of cloud-based patient management and health IT solutions, today announced that DeWitt Hospital, which serves Southeast Arkansas, successfully implemented Azalea's EHR platform this year. The EHR system integrates revenue cycle management (RCM), health information exchange (HIE), and telehealth under a "one patient, one record" EHR platform. This digital transformation has helped DeWitt secure their revenue, extend their reach, and rise to the challenges of COVID-19.
"The pandemic has challenged rural hospitals like never before," said DeWitt Hospital CEO Brian Miller. "However, I'm incredibly proud of the resilience, ingenuity, and compassion for patients that our team has shown through it all. Azalea has been a big help along the way, providing us with the health IT infrastructure to adapt to this new normal and enabling us to come out of this even stronger and more equipped to care for our community."
As COVID-19 cases rose in Arkansas, DeWitt became one of the only providers authorized to perform testing in their community. Thanks to the efficiency gains and cloud data storage of their new EHR system, DeWitt has been able to conduct more tests and share results faster, helping regional employers like a local fertilizer plant test all of their employees, symptomatic or not.
Thanks to the API-enabled interoperability of Azalea's EHR, DeWitt was also able to connect to the SHARE statewide HIE. The free flow of patient data between health systems is especially critical now, both for tracking COVID-19 outbreaks and for ensuring the medical data of patients travels with them when they are transferred between hospitals, which happens frequently in rural areas where hospital capacity is limited.
"We're proud to support DeWitt Hospital's digital transformation as they support the health of their community during this challenging time," said Baha Zeidan, CEO of Azalea Health. "Small hospitals like DeWitt are the beating heart of the rural communities they serve, and we built our health IT solutions with their needs in mind, with a SaaS model that makes all our solutions quick to deploy and intuitive to use. At Azalea, we're committed to closing the digital divide so every hospital can reap the benefits of a cloud-based, interoperable EHR system."
The digital divide has left many small, rural hospitals without the same advanced EHR capabilities that enable larger hospitals to meet the CDC's Meaningful Use requirements and optimize their revenue, at a time when they need these capabilities most. One in four rural hospitals were at risk of closure before the pandemic, and the loss of revenue from elective procedures has squeezed providers even further. Azalea's EHR has given DeWitt the agility and efficiency to improve outcomes under value-based care models and protect their revenue from risk.
Azalea has been committed to supporting its providers since the start of the pandemic. In March, following the National Emergency Declaration, Azalea Health announced that it would offer free telehealth services for one year to the 800+ community-based healthcare providers using Azalea's EHR. Telehealth sessions increased by 6,500% between February and April, representing $2.3M in reimbursements — a valuable new source of revenue for hospitals reeling from the loss of in-person visits due to COVID-19.
About Azalea Health:
Azalea Health (Azalea) is changing the way health IT platforms connect community-based healthcare providers and patients across the care continuum. Offering a 100% cloud-based, interoperable solution, Azalea delivers electronic health records, revenue cycle management, and telehealth services designed for rural, community and urban practices and hospitals, especially those focused on underserved populations. Quick to deploy and intuitive to use, Azalea solutions ensure better care coordination and communication, and the "one patient, one record" approach provides care teams the agility to achieve better outcomes. The Azalea platform also delivers tools and resources to help providers meet their Meaningful Use requirements, and informs their strategies to navigate accountable care and alternative payment models. For more information, visit http://www.azaleahealth.com.
Azalea PR Contact:
Sara DeMoranville
[email protected]
SOURCE Azalea Health
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