PIEDMONT CLINIC AND BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD
EVALUATE PAPERLESS RECORD SYSTEM
ATLANTA, January 29, 2004 -- Piedmont Clinic, a network of more than 400 physicians affiliated with Piedmont Medical Center, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia (BCBSGA), the largest health insurer in the state, are evaluating the benefits of establishing an ambulatory electronic medical record system for clinic medical offices and health plans.
"The potential collaboration between Piedmont and Blue Cross is a new and important area for insurers and providers to work in the interest of patient care," said John Watts, president and chief executive officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia.
JHD Group, healthcare information consultants based in Duluth, has been retained to conduct the evaluation study and develop the business case for the record system. Piedmont and Blue Cross hope to complete the evaluation by early 2004.
While electronic medical record systems offer advantages over paper records, such as a decrease in duplication of diagnostic studies and greater ability to remind providers to deliver preventive care to patients, healthcare systems have been slow to adopt the technology. Unfortunately, ambulatory electronic medical record systems have historically been expensive, difficult to use and struggled from a lack of standard clinical vocabulary.
"However, patients benefit from the ease of information sharing through electronic medical record exchanges between primary care physicians and specialists," said William M. McClatchey, M.D., chief medical information officer with Piedmont and practicing internist. "For instance, patients, who often are ill to begin with, will not be repeatedly asked to provide an extensive medical history."
The Piedmont Clinic, a 444-member physician network, also includes Piedmont Physicians Group, a 54-member primary care physician group with 11 locations throughout metro Atlanta. The Piedmont Clinic is a subsidiary of Piedmont Medical Center, which includes Piedmont Hospital, a 500-bed acute tertiary care facility in Buckhead offering all major medical, surgical and diagnostic services; and Fayette Community Hospital, a 100-bed acute care community hospital in Fayetteville. Piedmont Medical Center is a not-for-profit organization. For more information, visit www.piedmonthospital.org.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia serves more than 2.3 million medical members and is the oldest and largest health benefits company in Georgia. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia is an operating subsidiary of WellPoint Health Networks Inc., one of the nation’s largest publicly traded health care companies serving the health care needs of more than 14 million medical members and more than 50 million specialty members nationally. WellPoint offers a broad spectrum of quality network-based health products including open access PPO, POS and hybrid products, HMO and specialty products. Specialty products include pharmacy benefit management, dental, utilization management, vision, mental health, life and disability insurance, long term care insurance, flexible spending accounts, COBRA administration, and Medicare supplements. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia may be found on the web at www.bcbsga.com . Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
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