Practice Partner EHR User Named AAFP’s 2005 Family Physician of the Year
Richard Paris, M.D. was named the 2005 Family Physician of the Year by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) at their annual meeting in October 2004 for his 25 years of patient care and teaching. He is the first electronic health record (EHR) user to win this award.
Seattle, WA (PRWEB) November 22, 2004 -- Richard Paris, M.D. was named the
2005 Family Physician of the Year by the American Academy of Family Physicians
(AAFP) at their annual meeting in October 2004 for his 25 years of patient care
and teaching. He is the first electronic health record (EHR) user to win this
award. However, he probably won't be the last because the AAFP has developed the
Partners for Patients initiative to help AAFP members acquire affordable,
standards-based electronic health records (EHRs). Physician Micro Systems, Inc.
(PMSI)—the creator of the Practice Partner® line of electronic health record and
practice management systems—is a core member of the AAFP’s Partners for Patients
program and is proud to have Dr. Paris as a customer.
Dr. Paris practices
family medicine at Hailey Medical Clinic in Hailey, ID, which consists of nine
providers at two offices that are approximately ten miles apart. Many patients
visit both offices, which posed a problem because the staff at each office did
not always have access to the patients’ paper charts. In January 2002, Hailey
Medical Clinic implemented an EHR and appointment scheduling system, Practice
Partner Patient Records and Appointment Scheduler. By October 2002, they were
completely paperless. A specialized phone line connects the two offices and
allows the staff to access all patient charts, regardless of which office the
patients visit.
Dr. Paris is also part of a rural outreach program. Twice
a month, he flies a small plane to Challis—one of the most geographically
isolated clinics in the lower 48 states—which is about 130 miles away from
Hailey and is staffed by one PA. Currently, this rural clinic uses paper charts.
The PA has to make copies of the paper charts and then mail them to Hailey
Medical Clinic for Dr. Paris to review. Dr. Paris is planning to implement
Practice Partner in Challis—with grant assistance from PMSI—so that all the
clinical staff has instant access to patient data, regardless of their
location.
In addition, Hailey Medical Clinic is a rural teaching site for
students from the University of Washington School of Medicine. Dr. Paris teaches
in the university’s Rural/Underserved Opportunities Program (RUOP), a four-week
program for medical students transitioning between their first and second year,
and the WWAMI Rural Integrated Training Experience program (WRITE), a six-month
rural program for third-year students.
According to Dr. Paris, Practice
Partner has been an instrumental teaching tool. He stated that his students
quickly learn how to enter patient information such as past medical history,
family history, social history, and previous immunizations directly into the
electronic chart. Since implementing Practice Partner, Dr. Paris has found that
he spends less time on documentation and more time directly interacting with
students.
Dr Paris says, “I am excited and proud to be an ambassador for
the AAFP in their initiative to improve family medicine by encouraging more
family physicians to adopt an EHR. I can attest to the efficiencies, and
therefore improvements, to patient care that are garnered by actually using an
EHR.”
For more information about the AAFP’s Partners for Patients program
or the 2005 Family Physician of the Year award, please visit the following Web
sites:
http://www.centerforhit.org/x200.xml
http://www.aafp.org/fpr/20041100/1.html
About Physician
Micro Systems, Inc.
Founded in 1983 by Andrew G. Ury, M.D., Physician Micro
Systems, Inc. (PMSI) is the creator of the Practice Partner line of electronic
health record (EHR), practice management system (PMS), and computerized
physician order entry (CPOE) software applications for ambulatory care
practices. PMSI is committed to making healthcare easier and is grounded in the
daily reality of providing mission-critical clinical and administrative systems
for thousands of physicians and their staff. PMSI has succeeded through a strong
focus on the ambulatory care market combined with technology, leadership, and
vision. PMSI is a privately held, independent corporation that has been
profitable since 1991. Practice Partner applications are used nationwide by
approximately 1,300 practices of all sizes and specialties, from
solo-practitioners to large, enterprise, multi-site practices. Approximately
5,000 providers use one or more Practice Partner products. Practice Partner
Patient Records alone is used by approximately 850 practices, 3,500 providers,
and 14,000 medical office staff, making it one of the market leaders of EHRs in
the U.S.
Public Relations Contact
For more information about Physician
Micro Systems, Inc. or the Practice Partner product line, contact Alicia Basteri
at 206-374-4088 or e-mail protected from spam bots.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/11/prweb180894.htm