Post-acute care market awaits Allscripts’ fate

More questions surface about the future of Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, a Chicago-based clinical software company that provides solutions to more than 50,000 post-acute and ambulatory providers and 1,500 hospitals.

Corporate merger-watchers have been buzzing since CEO Glen Tullman’s announcement Thursday that “the company is evaluating strategic alternatives.” Allscripts’ third-quarter net income dropped by nearly 50% of its 2011 third-quarter revenue, the financial report noted.

Allscripts has successfully reinvented its portfolio several times since its founding in 1986, having found early success in ePrescribing and physician practice management and expanding into electronic health records, revenue cycle management, emergency department information systems and home-care automation.

The company acquired electronic medical record system vendor Eclipsys in 2010, hoping to reap a harvest from the federal incentives intended to nudge providers into buying medical record systems. But instead of flocking to the purchase line, many customers went into “wait and see” mode on the newly merged company, reported Bloomerberg news.

But Allscripts' executive unrest reached multiple boil-over points this year, including heated turbulence among its board members, demands for Tullman’s resignation, a lawsuit from one of its largest shareholders, and the bidding loss of a crucial $302 million New York City hospital contract.

Pamela Tabar

Pamela Tabar was editor-in-chief of I Advance Senior Care from 2013-2018. She has worked as a writer and editor for healthcare business media since 1998, including as News Editor of Healthcare Informatics. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Kent State University and a master’s degree in English from the University of York, England.