| (Pasadena, CA – May 3, 2004) – Physicians and staff at Pomona (Calif.) Pediatrics are improving care and administrative processes with integrated practice management and electronic medical records software from Prime Clinical Systems Inc., a company that serves medical practices across the country.The five-physician medical group recently replaced its old electronic medical records (EMR) and practice management software in an effort to bring in a system that could specifically meet the requirements of a pediatric practice.
“Our previous system was not user friendly,” said Karan Howards, office manager at Pomona Pediatrics. “We needed a system that would meet the very specific requirements associated with treating children and a vendor that would be easy to work with.” Such requirements prompted Pomona to implement Prime’s OnSTAFF practice management system and Patient Chart Manager electronic medical records system. “The doctors in the practice were impressed with the fact that Prime was willing to work with us to customize the system so that it would truly meet the needs of pediatric medicine,” Howards said. For example, the Patient Chart Manager EMR, a system that helps physicians access the information they need to make better clinical decisions each time they see patients, has been set up to handle immunization tracking and to include a growth chart, both integral components of pediatric care. “Our systems are built to be flexible,” said Richard Deits, M.D., Prime’s vice-president of the EMR division. “All practices are different and have different requirements. They wanted a database enabled immunization table and we were able to implement it. Plus, we were able to make the transition to a new system easy by automatically transferring more than 25,000 charts from their previous EMR into ours in one session.” The EMR system is also helping Pomona Pediatrics create a paperless environment. Patient Chart Manager’s barcode function makes it possible to label documents, which are then scanned and immediately integrated into the electronic chart, thereby eliminating large backlogs of paper. “We weren’t able to justify the huge investment required to purchase the scanning upgrade with our previous system. And, if you cannot get rid of paper, it more or less defeats the purpose of an EMR,” Howards said. In addition, Patient Chart Manager’s capabilities include care planning, prescription management and digital document/image management. Pomona Pediatrics was also attracted to the advanced workflow capabilities of Prime’s OnSTAFF practice management system. The system provides the ability to process claims automatically to more than 1,300 insurance companies. In addition, OnSTAFF automatically sends letters about individual claims to specific insurance carriers, queries payers and gets answers regarding eligibility before patients come in and displays comprehensive collection data on a single screen. “We have been really impressed with the nightly automation and claims follow up,” Howards said. ”It is really helping to improve our cash flow and control our accounts receivable.” About Prime Clinical Systems ### Sales Contact: Media Contact: |
