The Builders of an Open, Connected Community of Health: Allscripts

Allscripts is an industry leader with more than 30 years’ experience in enabling smarter care, delivered with greater precision for healthier patients, populations and communities. Its health IT solutions help optimize clinical, financial and operational efficiencies for organizations across the globe. Helping connect people, places and data, Allscripts empowers caregivers to make better decisions and deliver better care for healthier populations.

A conversation with the CEO of Allscripts, Paul Black:

Silicon Review: What are the challenges you faced in your initial years as CEO of Allscripts? What can your peers learn from them?

Paul Black: In such a highly competitive, rapidly changing industry, the challenges we face are complex. But, by developing a distinct and relevant vision, with the right strategic focus on our clients’ successes, and getting talent that is “all in”, these challenges can be overcome.

My peers can learn from this outlook that challenges are not wholly negative, but rather excellent sources of motivation to always improve and bring the best to their clients, every day.

SR: What are the factors that have played key roles in shaping your organization’s roadmap?

PB: There are many. For one, many government regulations require organizations in the US to rethink their IT strategy and often, Allscripts needs to stay out in front of these changes to supply clients with the technology to help attest to these complex regulatory mandates. Also, the move to a more consumer-focused market has led us back to how we think about our clients’ needs, and what we can offer to help them weather the change with little to no disruption. The advent of new technologies, such as cloud and mobile, all play a role in how we build solutions. And in some cases, we still focus on moving clients from paper-based records to EHRs.

SR: If you had to list five factors that have been/are the biggest asset to your organization, what would they be and why?

PB: I am reluctant to order these by number. Each, in their own unique way, could be the most important asset:

Our associates: The backbone of Allscripts is the people who show up to work every day, ready to face the challenge of doing something that makes a difference. Without them, Allscripts doesn’t move forward and succeed.

Our clients: If our goal is to help providers drive smarter healthcare, then our clients are the ones who help us achieve that goal every day. Our clients help us understand the needs of the industry as a whole and challenge us daily to deliver what they want and need.

Our drive to innovate: With the client in mind, our laser-sharp focus is always on improving our solutions and developing new ones and that is what keeps us well-positioned for a successful future.

Our commitment to giving back to our communities: It’s important for companies to recognize and reflect on how they can help people and places that suffer from acts of god and other equally damaging forces. At Allscripts, our Give Back program focuses solely on how we can contribute to making the world outside of hospitals and clinics better.

Our growth: Allscripts will keep growing as long as the industry keeps evolving. But by committing to always looking for ways to expand, we are driving smarter business and helping secure our position as a truly global healthcare IT provider.

SR: Is Allscripts a ‘leader’ or a ‘follower’? Do you formulate your own core values?

PB: Allscripts leads from the front. Our vision for how we help our clients achieve success and help them meet the changing needs never wavers. Black Book, a market research company that provides competitive intelligence, market research, opinion mining and related consulting services for brand, product and service awareness tracking, recently named us as a leader in the following categories: Innovation, Breadth of Offerings, Scalability, Client Relationships Trust, Reliability, Strategic Initiatives, Training, Implementation, Program Enhancements, Support, and Customer Care. Allscripts also has core values that help our associates around the world always remember that what unites us and what sets us apart is our dedication to exceeding the clients’ expectations.

SR: Where do you see Allscripts in five years?

Allscripts is on a clear upward trajectory, and that will still be true in the next five years. The healthcare industry never quits evolving, and neither will we. I have confidence in our developing strategy to serve the consumer. I think providing an easier, more automated way for patients and clinicians to interact is going to be a major factor in making patient engagement a standard practice. And this will yield exceptional results and patient outcomes while helping organizations maintain their financial well-being.

We’re also contributing our resources to combatting the opioid epidemic. Through our partnership with University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, we’ve already made headway toward helping alleviate this overwhelming problem, and we’ll continue providing our solutions and support as long as we need to.

Also for the other areas of our business, we’ll continue refining and enhancing our interoperability and connectivity platform offerings, our drive to use genomics for meaningful and personalized care and life sciences efforts.

The Healthcare Leader

Paul Black is the chief executive officer and a director of Allscripts. As CEO, Paul guides the company’s vision to fulfill its global commitment to build Open, connected communities of health.

Prior to joining Allscripts in 2012, Paul spent more than 13 years with Cerner Corporation in various executive positions, retiring as Cerner’s chief operating officer in 2007. Paul’s career started with IBM Corporation where he spent 12 years in a variety of leadership positions in sales, product marketing and professional services.

Paul has served on multiple publicly traded, private company and nonprofit boards of directors for companies in healthcare information technology, patient monitoring, healthcare services, health care delivery, healthcare device and consumer Internet marketing.

In Kansas City, Paul spent 16 years as chairman and as an executive officer of Truman Medical Centers, an academic safety net health system. He currently is on the board(s) of Netsmart, the Advancement Board University of Kansas Health System and the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library. Paul holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Iowa State University and an MBA from the University of Iowa.