(Pasadena, CA – March 31, 2005) – Clinica Medica General has chosen to implement the Patient Chart Manager electronic medical records (EMR) system from Prime Clinical Systems.
The Los Angeles-based integrated delivery system, which includes six “one-stop” multi-specialty clinics, two outpatient surgical centers, a 400-physician independent physicians association (IPA) and an X-ray lab, is implementing the EMR to more efficiently and effectively serve the 15,000 primary care and 400 surgical patients treated each month.
“Our Achilles heel has always been turn-around time,” said Victor Blanco, Clinica Medica’s President. “We need to move our patients fast. And, often times we have the staff and doctors to treat the patients but we just can’t find the medical record or a certain report needed for the visit. So, we knew we needed an electronic medical records system to provide the best service for our existing patients – and to grow. We also needed an EMR designed to deal with the complexity of a regional health system and not just the physician office. Sharing records across a large enterprise is a big undertaking and Prime offers one of few systems up for this task.”
Clinica Medica, which focuses on the needs of the Hispanic population, decided on the Patient Chart Manager EMR after issuing a request for proposal – and closely reviewing system offerings from more than a dozen EMR vendors. After analyzing all of the bells and whistles offered by the various systems, however, the choice boiled down to one factor: Prime’s exemplary customer service record.
“There were many things that stood out about Prime Clinical,” Blanco says. “The most important thing, however, was their customer service – and the positive experience we have had with the company as our practice management system vendor for the past eight years. We are a large health care delivery system and we knew that we needed to work with a vendor that would be very responsive to our unique needs. ”
In addition to this high level of trust, Clinica Medica executives and physicians selected Patient Chart Manager because it is an easy-to-use system that offers advanced workflow management, care planning, charge posting and prescription management features.
With Patient Chart Manager, physicians can easily access and input information each time they see patients, enabling them to make better clinical decisions. In addition, because doctors can choose how they want to input information – whether by keyboard using advanced templating and dropdown lists, by dictation or voice recognition, or by using writing directly on the tablet with a pen – the EMR results in a high level of physician adoption. The close integration between the EMR and the practice management system is another plus.
The EMR is expected to help Clinica Medica improve care processes while saving money by reducing transcription costs, eliminating chart pulls, decreasing supply spending and lessening storage expenses. Most important, because physicians have access to complete medical histories at each visit, Patient Chart Manager will help doctors make informed clinical decisions, which leads to improved care and enhanced patient safety.
“As a company, we have the deep resources needed to meet the needs of large health care delivery systems such as Clinica Medica,” says Barry Ardelan, Prime’s CEO. “Once medical groups start using our systems, they realize that our attention to their unique situation is key in helping them to utilize superior technologies that will result in clinical, operational and financial benefits.”
Prime Clinical will be demonstrating the Patient Chart Manager electronic medical records system in booth 674 at Primed West, March 31 to April 2, 2005, at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California.
About Prime Clinical Systems Prime Clinical Systems Inc. is a medical software company headquartered in Pasadena, California, and regionally in Lincolnshire, Illinois and San Ramon, California. Founded in 1983, the company’s proven products, stellar services and innovative advances have made it one of the fastest growing providers of health care software systems in the nation.
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Media Contact:
Brad Dodge
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