DALLAS, TX -- (Marketwire) -- 03/14/13 -- INTEGRIS Health, Oklahoma's largest health system, will incorporate Phytel's population health and care management tools in its Physician Practices to help enable teams of providers across INTEGRIS's hospitals and physician groups deliver better, safer and lower-cost care for their patients.

The partnership marks INTEGRIS's latest effort to adjust to the emerging value-based system of health, which rewards providers commensurate with the quality of care they deliver. To succeed in a value-based environment, INTEGRIS's leaders realize, they need population health and care management tools that enhance the capabilities offered by their electronic health record (EHR).

The addition of Phytel's solutions will help INTEGRIS speed its deployment of the patient centered medical home (PCMH) model, which uses team-based care delivery led by a physician to provide comprehensive and continuous medical care to patients. Designed to improve health outcomes for large populations of patients, the PCMH model is fast becoming a critical component of accountable care organizations (ACO) and other arrangements that tie provider reimbursement to quality metrics and reductions in the total cost of care for an assigned population of patients.

"Our deployment of Phytel solutions will help us successfully manage our patient population toward improved health outcomes, strengthen our already high quality care and increase our overall patient and physician engagement and satisfaction levels," commented Natha Norman, director of project management for INTEGRIS Health. "Phytel will enable our care managers to reach out to patients who have fallen out of compliance with their physicians' care plans and need preventive or chronic care. In addition, the care managers can use the applications to track the health status of high-risk patients and to intervene and improve their overall health status."

Steve Schelhammer, CEO of Phytel, commented, "INTEGRIS Health's decision to build patient-centered medical homes positions the organization to succeed in the world of value-based care. Phytel's care management tools will provide INTEGRIS's primary care practices with the technology support they need to redesign their work processes so they can fulfill their commitment to coordinate care better for their entire patient population."

Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Grant

INTEGRIS's use of Phytel also will help meet the requirements of a grant from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). This federal funding is part of a $20.75 million Health Care Innovation Grant that CMMI announced last June. Provided to a collaborative that includes Phytel, VHA, and TransforMED, the grant will fund a three-year national project involving health care systems, hospitals, and provider practices in 15 communities.

The CMMI project's goal is to expand the concept of the PCMH to the "medical neighborhood," including specialists, and to connect hospitals with physician practices to improve the quality of care and lower health costs. INTEGRIS's first step toward that goal will be to create PCMHs in its 22 family care practices in the Oklahoma City area. Five INTEGRIS practices will be included in the program's initial phase, and INTEGRIS plans to roll out the PCMH model to the other practices in the future via the project.

The practices designated as medical homes will rely on Phytel technology to help their care managers and other staff members improve the coordination of care, especially for patients with serious chronic conditions. Phytel uses a web-based registry and analytics to identify patient care gaps and generate actionable data to ensure patients receive necessary services on time. Phytel then automates care management by identifying care opportunities, producing work lists, and generating pre-visit care plans. The data for these applications will be extracted from INTEGRIS's EHR.

About Phytel
The premier company empowering physician-led population health improvement, Phytel provides physicians with proven technology to deliver timely, coordinated care to their patients. Phytel's state-of-the-art registry, which now encompasses more than 30 million patients nationwide, uses evidence-based chronic and preventive care protocols to identify and notify patients due for service, while tracking compliance and measuring quality and financial results. For more information, please visit www.phytel.com. Follow us on Twitter and find us on Facebook.

About INTEGRIS

Through its affiliates, INTEGRIS Health operates four hospitals in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, led in the Oklahoma City area by INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center and INTEGRIS Southwest Medical Center. INTEGRIS Health also maintains three regional hospitals across the state and is in a joint venture with five others. The organization has affiliated mental health providers in 50 Oklahoma towns and cities and offers hospice services through Hospice of Oklahoma County. Approximately 6 out of every 10 Oklahomans live within 30 miles of a facility or physician included in the INTEGRIS Health organization. Collectively, the entities within INTEGRIS Health maintain more than 1,900 licensed beds and have medical staffs that number more than 2,500 physicians.

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