Southern Illinois Hand Center Selects Sage as Its Electronic Health Records and Practice Management Provider

TAMPA, FL--(Marketwire - Sep 16, 2011) - Sage, a major provider of electronic health records (EHR) and practice management software and services, announced today that Southern Illinois Hand Center, of Effingham, Illinois, has chosen to implement the Sage Intergy Meaningful Use Edition to meet the practice's financial and clinical needs, as well as to attain Meaningful Use.

The three-physician practice has been a long-time Sage Medical Manager client and recently moved to Sage's EHR solution to transition beyond paper in the office and meet federal Meaningful Use requirements. With more than 11,000 patient visits per year, Southern Illinois Hand Center sought Sage's solution because of its advanced reporting capabilities and to help better manage the clinic's revenue cycle.

"To increase office efficiencies, we knew we needed a reliable product from a company with a strong presence in the market, both of which Sage offers," said Christine Delcour, office manager for the practice. "The product has all of the features we needed and wanted and its ease of use makes it the logical choice for us to move to an EHR from our current practice management system."

Delcour said Southern Illinois Hand Center also will implement the Sage Practice Portal to engage patients through the secure web-based service that patients can use to view labs, schedule appointments, request prescription refills and interact with their physicians.

From a business perspective, the systems' practice management system will be the most beneficial to improving operations, she said. "Specifically, the practice management system should increase efficiency at the front desk, help gather necessary patient information prior to each visit, verify coverage, submit clean claims and successfully manage the revenue cycle," she said.

Delcour said that adding the EHR to the clinic will result in a complete, but positive, culture change for the organization and will require educating staff and patients. Delcour also points to the benefits that an electronic system will deliver including the ability to examine every health detail of each patient, track patient outcomes and monitor issues before they arise rather than after, which is not the case when using paper.

The Sage Intergy Meaningful Use Edition can help physicians improve the quality of patient care and chart documentation; improve coding; reduce patient wait times; help create more efficient compliance with and reporting of outcome indicators for federal, state and regulatory agencies; as well as reduce and eliminate inaccessible results and charts for the clinic.

The Sage system also offers one of the most comprehensive analytics and reporting tools in the healthcare market and allows for integration with the Sage Practice Portal, which provides secure Web access for physicians and their patients to communicate about care.

Sage has been providing ambulatory healthcare systems for almost 30 years, serving more than 400,000 healthcare professionals including 80,000 physicians in the United States with EHRs, practice management systems and other services to streamline patient care. Each year, Sage clients serve more the 133 million patients. Since 2011, Sage has helped its physician clients earn more than $1 million in federal Meaningful Use incentives.

Sage was recently named a top EHR vendor for multispecialty clinics by Black Book Ranking, an international research firm, based on the "highest scores in customer experience in the areas of Document Management, Practice Administration and Revenue Cycle Management, E-Prescribing and Accessibility."

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About Southern Illinois Hand Center
Since 1999, Southern Illinois Hand Center has been providing exceptional care to more than 11,000 patients each year. The physicians are board certified and fellowship trained. Southern Illinois Hand Center is dedicated to providing the best possible care in the field of hand surgery and rehabilitation. The physicians and staff maintain the utmost state-of-the-art skills and knowledge in that field, with a philosophy of treating all patients with respect, care and compassion. For more information, visit http://www.handdocs.com/default.htm.

About Sage Healthcare Division
Sage Healthcare Division provides integrated electronic health records, EDI applications and practice management systems to approximately 80,000 physicians and thousands of ambulatory care practices throughout North America. These systems enable physicians and practice managers to better manage their practices and improve quality of care. Sage Healthcare Division is based in Tampa, Fla., and is a division of Sage North America. For more information, please visit www.sagehealth.com or call (877) 932-6301. Follow Sage Healthcare Division on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/SageHealthcare, and Twitter, http://twitter.com/#!/sagehealthcare.

About Sage North America
Sage North America is part of The Sage Group plc, a leading global supplier of business management software and services. Sage North America employs 4,000 people and supports 3.2 million small and midsized business customers including approximately 80,000 physicians. The Sage Group plc, formed in 1981, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now employs 13,400 people and supports 6.3 million customers worldwide. For more information, please visit the website at www.sagenorthamerica.com. Follow Sage North America on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/SageNorthAmerica, and Twitter, http://twitter.com/#!/sagenamerica.

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