Today, more than 75,000 physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, as well as hospital, office and IT administrative staff at more than 500 healthcare organizations in the United States, Canada, France and the Netherlands are using the portal to support their medical procedures.

Horizon(WP) Physician Portal is an Internet gateway that lets community-based physicians, hospitalists and other caregivers log on once to gain single-source access to the patient's virtual electronic health record, no matter where the data resides. The "do-all," mega-site functionality is similar to that found on popular consumer Web portals such as Yahoo. Instead of retrieving and consulting paper records, caregivers can immediately access medical histories and reports, place orders, review and sign off on charts from their office, home or hospital, and collaborate with colleagues more quickly and easily. For the physician, this means faster decision-making, reduced administrative tasks and more time for direct care. Hospitals benefit from reduced administrative costs, fewer chart pulls and phone calls, and improved patient care.

Healthcare organizations such as Methodist Medical Center of Illinois, Peoria, Ill., are using McKesson's portal to better support their physicians. Methodist is using the portal in conjunction with McKesson's Horizon Ambulatory Care™, a Web-based clinical order entry, documentation and workflow solution to eliminate redundant, inefficient ambulatory-setting processes, prescribe medications electronically for more accurate processing, and improve workflows to contain costs and enhance care. "The portal serves as our electronic access to patient health information. Doctors appreciate being able to access records right from their offices, the hospital or their homes," said David Trachtenbarg, M.D., director of medical informatics at Methodist Medical Center. "Online access to test results, images and nursing documentation enables physicians to develop the most effective therapies by first performing 'electronic rounds' prior to seeing patients."

St. Luke's Episcopal Health System in Houston, Texas, is supporting its employed and affiliated physicians by combining the portal with McKesson's picture archiving and communication system (PACS) and computerized physician order entry solution. St. Luke's has seen portal use climb to nearly 80,000 logins per month. Dr. William Granberry, an orthopedic surgeon and chairman of the Clinical Information Management Advisory Committee at St. Luke's, reports, "The portal is great! I never have to worry about where to find patient information. I can log in from home and immediately see the patient's medical images. Before the portal, I could spend an hour driving to the hospital and waiting in medical records for an X-ray that was already checked out."

Real-time access to information also is paramount to Dr. Jimmie Lewis, a hospitalist, who cares for more than 80 patients at St. Luke's each month. "I see a lot of patients that are complaining of chest pains," says Lewis. "I can make the right diagnosis much faster because the portal gives me immediate access to patient results. These patients are not waiting for my medication orders to triage through unit secretaries and multiple departments. I'm expediting patient treatment and ensuring the right medication for each patient's condition by placing my orders electronically. Horizon(WP) Physician Portal and Horizon Expert Orders™ have really improved the way I work."

Bronson Healthcare Group in Kalamazoo, Mich., has successfully integrated the portal with EHR-management applications such as McKesson's Horizon Patient Folder™ Solution. With that move, Bronson eliminated duplicate paper records, reduced paper use by an average of 2,200 pages per day, streamlined workflow and improved physician satisfaction. Currently nearly 1,700 users, including more than 1,000 physicians, are regularly accessing Bronson's portal.

"Like many other healthcare providers, we use a third party to measure our medical staff's satisfaction based on a variety of factors, including information technology," according to Mac McClurkan, Bronson's vice president and chief information officer. "Ever since we installed the portal in late 2002, our survey scores have gone through the roof. Easy and secure access to the patient's chart -- from anywhere at any time -- has served as a catalyst to grow market share, to bridge information gaps between care settings, and to increase physician involvement and enthusiasm as we roll out McKesson's computerized physician order entry product, Horizon Expert Orders, and other quality improvement efforts."

"Achieving the 2 million milestone demonstrates the value that physicians place in McKesson's clinical decision support solutions to enhance their ability to practice medicine," said Sunny Sanyal, group president, Clinical Solutions, McKesson Provider Technologies. "The portal gives physicians real-time electronic access to patient information from multiple systems at virtually any location, enabling hospitals to leverage existing IT investments while driving adoption of advanced new clinical applications. This is particularly critical as institutions seek to participate in regional health information networks and provide for a paperless, electronic health record."

About McKesson

McKesson Corporation is a Fortune 15 healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to helping its customers deliver high-quality healthcare by reducing costs, streamlining processes, and improving the quality and safety of patient care. Over the course of its 170-year history, McKesson has grown by providing pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management across the spectrum of care; healthcare information technology for hospitals, physicians, homecare, and payors; hospital and retail pharmacy automation; and services for manufacturers and payors designed to improve outcomes for patients. For more information, visit http://mpt.mckesson.com.