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Community Health Network launches transformative, comprehensive healthcare delivery model, integrating new physician group with Community hospitals

For release on April 17, 2012

Indianapolis, IN---Community Health Network launched a comprehensive new healthcare delivery model today that, when fully implemented, will allow Community patients to be seamlessly connected to all of their physicians and sites of care, including Community hospitals, outpatient clinics, lab and imaging sites, emergency rooms and MedCheck locations throughout Central Indiana. Community is the first healthcare system in the market to implement such a comprehensive integrated delivery model.

A new primary care and multi-specialty physician group, called Community Physician Network, with more than 500 physicians providing comprehensive care at more than 100 locations, will be among the first health professionals within Community to implement a nationally-recognized , cutting-edge clinical and administrative technology system from Epic Systems, dubbed Community CareConnect.

“This is an historic day for Community Health Network,” said Bryan Mills, president and CEO of the network. “Community CareConnect and the Community Physician Network will allow us to substantially improve healthcare quality, reduce medical errors, eliminate redundancy in testing and connect doctors to each other, their patients, and our facilities. Patients will experience a level of integration that provides simpler navigation of their journey through our system, wherever their care is provided.”

With Community CareConnect, Community patients will have a single record of their health history, active medical problems, medications, allergies, immunizations, labs and imaging tests—viewable by providers at all Community Health Network locations. This also means one-time registration and one bill for most services provided.

“If a Community patient visits with his or her primary care physician for an illness, and then visits a specialty physician referred to by the primary care doctor, both physicians will have results of those visits at their fingertips,” said Ram Yeleti, M.D., president of the new Community Physician Network. “If the same patient becomes ill during the night or on a weekend, a MedCheck or Community emergency room physician will also know about those tests, as well as the diagnosis and treatment plan outlined by the patient’s family physician. That’s what integrated care is all about—making it simpler to be healthy.”

Dr. Yeleti went on to say, “Even after the patients leave their doctor’s office, they will have access to their medical records and be able to contact any of the physicians involved in their care for more information. In addition, patients will receive one bill from the network. What we are doing here today is changing the way healthcare is delivered for our local community.”

One of the many key components of Community CareConnect is MyChart, a secure patient portal, where patients can interact electronically with their healthcare providers. Patients can request prescription refills, appointments, copies of lab results, immunization summaries, and even secure message questions to their physicians.

More than 9,000 Community Health Network employees are being trained on the new technology system in phases, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, revenue cycle/patient accounts, and ambulatory care employees.

Community CareConnect is expected to be fully implemented across the network by early 2013. Physicians come on board first, beginning in late April, followed by inpatient and ambulatory care locations later this year.

About Community Health Network
Ranked among the nation’s most integrated healthcare systems, Community Health Network is Central Indiana’s leader in providing convenient access to exceptional healthcare services, where and when patients need them—in hospitals, health pavilions and doctor’s offices, as well as workplaces, schools and homes. As a non-profit health system with over 200 sites of care and affiliates throughout Central Indiana, Community’s full continuum of care integrates hundreds of physicians, specialty and acute care hospitals, surgery centers, home care services, MedChecks, behavioral health and employer health services. To learn more, visit eCommunity.com or call 800-777-7775.

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Lynda de Widt, Media Relations
Lynda de Widt
Media Relations