Tarrytown, NY- OmniMD, one of the leading healthcare information technology companies, which provides Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Practice Management (PMS) and other Healthcare IT products and services to the providers and clinics across the nation, has announced today that Walker Family Medicine (WFM) located in Willcox, Arizona has adopted the companys EMR and PMS solution in order to improve the quality at point of care.

WFM decided to implement an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system from day one to access patient medical records, to improve the quality at point of care, to increase productivity and reduce medical errors. Besides the financial benefits, the major objective was to enhance the quality of care as well as the satisfaction of its patients.

"After comparing many EMRs, I determined that OmniMD was the best software for my new clinic. I run a high volume family practice clinic with two mid-level providers. OmniMD is used for scheduling, reminder calls, medical records, insurance and patient billing. OmniMD is a critical tool for my practice. It is a very good software, but I am also very pleased with the level of service OmniMD provides with their technical support team, Dr. Walker (Board Certified in Family Practice) says.

Dr. Walker is pleased with the performance of the OmniMD solution, which allows her to access and maintain entire patient medical records promptly. The system allows the clinic to customize templates as per their specialty, at the same time multiple providers can access a single chart at once. In case of a Specialty Provider, the system allows the sharing of charts among providers and staff across multiple locations. OmniMD Medical Billing System can electronically track claim status, payments and work flow of the billing team. OmniMD Patient Portal allows patients to register on-line, update and view their information, request an appointment, order an Rx refill and view lab reports.

About Walker Family Medicine
The Walker Family Medicine (WFM) team has worked together for over five years while serving the Willcox community. They are committed to providing patient-centered care in order to maintain their community's health. WFM provides routine healthcare for children, including immunizations. WFM also has associations with pediatric specialists. WFM provides routine women's healthcare. This care includes annual gynecological exams, family planning, pre -and post- menopausal counseling and treatment.

WFM has Urgent Care services. The clinic is available to care for patients basic urgent healthcare needs, such as simple lacerations, sprains, fracture diagnosis and care. They are associated with Charles Leighton Hospice and they provide referrals when appropriate. For more information, please visit www.walkerfamilymedicine.com

About OmniMD
OmniMD is a division of Integrated Systems Management, Inc. (ISM), a leader in software development, system integration, business and technology consulting for fortune 500 companies since 1989.

OmniMD integrated Electronic Health Records (EHR) and Practice Management (PMS) product and services, offers unparalleled reliability, ease-of-use, efficiency, and customizability. The solution is a HIPPA compliant, web-enabled and support device, which can range from tablet PCs, handhelds to desktop computers. The solution is SureScripts Certified, which also provides real-time alerts for drug-drug, drug allergy and other interactions based on a patients EMR. The solution captures complete documentation such as HPI, ROS and Physical Exams, Assessment & Plan to complete patient visits. The system follows HL7 standards for information sharing and integration across practices and hospitals. The solution is secured by Thawte, which uses 128bit encryption and digital certificates to ensure complete data security. OmniMD received a 5-star rating in the AC Group survey in 2006. For more information, please visit Medical Billing Services.

Privacy becomes an issue with electronic health records

The Obama administration’s drive to implement electronic health records (EHRs) should have strong identity management tools to ensure privacy and security of the records, members of a panel of providers, vendors and policy experts said today.

The coming health information technology policies and standards are to include protections for patient privacy and security and safeguards against medical identity theft. Achieving those goals could be advanced by identity management tools, such as strong authentication standards and smart cards, according to panelists at an event in Washington today organized by the Smart Card Alliance and the Secure ID Coalition. Both groups represent vendors of identity management programs.

For example, patients checking in to Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City are assigned a smart card that contains their photograph and a digital summary of recent clinical information. By delivering the information to doctors providing care, the card helps improve care and reduce medical errors. The card also has proven to be critical in reducing fraud and identity theft, which in turn decreases errors in payments and in patient care, said Paul Contino, vice president of IT at Mount Sinai.

“If you don’t catch the errors at the registration desk, you will see dramatic effects downstream,” Contino said. “If you are going to spend money on health IT, you need the right identification standards.” Without strong ID management, care records are likely to have errors because of false identities, misspelled names, duplicative names and other problems. Even a single error, such as a wrong blood type listed on a patient’s record due to a mix-up with another person’s identity, can lead to catastrophic consequences for a patient, he said.

Congress approved spending $17 billion in incentives for doctors and hospitals that install and use health IT systems as part of the economic stimulus law. The Health and Human Services Department is drawing up standards and policies to distribute payments to providers who can show meaningful use of health IT. HHS also is setting up a framework for secure exchange of the health data and the department’s national coordinator for health IT on May 15 released a road map for creating the standards and policies under the stimulus law.

One standards will involve controls on access to patient records. The leakage of private medical information can affect a patient’s employment, housing and insurance status, and because of that extreme sensitivity, medical information requires more than a password for secure handling, said Michael Magrath, director of business development for North America for Gemalto Inc.

“Health information exchanges and regional information exchanges will be targeted by hackers,” Magrath said. “I have strong concerns about the prospect of minimum standards,” such as passwords alone. Identity authentication standards for receiving medical care and handling medical data should require a password and also use of some type of identity token or certificate issued by a third party, he said.

Ideally, patients would be in charge of — and would have complete access to — all of their health records, said William Yasnoff, managing partner of the National Health Information Infrastructure Advisors consulting firm.

“Who has your complete medical records? For most people, it’s no one,” Yasnoff said.
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