CEP is dedicated to providing its family of Emergency Department physicians with innovative services and programs to provide the best medical care possible. In summer 2001, CEP introduced its Personal Digital Assistant program to help reduce professional liability claims as well as enable physicians to research drugs at the bedside instantly. This initiative marks the first time in CEP history that this type of technology was made available to physicians.

The PDA Program has been well received since its inception by CEP physicians, hospital administrators, and the national medical community. In October 2001, the program received an Honorable Mention for Excellence in Health Care Risk Management, a national award sponsored by St. Paul Property and Liability Insurance and Modern Healthcare Magazine. The program has been featured in several publications including Health Data Management Magazine, East Bay Business Times, and Modern Healthcare Magazine.

The PDAs have become an important staple to each physician as he/she has come to rely on them to research drugs and other information instantly, improving the quality of care for patients, not to mention their ED experience.

Specifically, CEP distributed the Palm Vx using the Palm Operating System, the leading reference tool for bedside use in medicine. CEP also provided a self-install CD-ROM that contained several medical tools including Epocrates qRx, a powerful comprehensive drug information reference, and qID, a separate infectious disease reference that provides detailed, quick, and easy-to-use antibiotic/anti-fungal/anti-parasitic drug dosing information. Both references are integrated so that physicians can research medications in the Epocrates qRx drug reference directly from the qID infectious disease reference. In addition, CEP provides its Partners with an Emergency Medicine Library from eMedicine on its website. The Library includes references that can be downloaded to PDAs, and range from Allergy and Immunology to Warfare.

CEP’s Personal Digital Assistant Program has been featured in several national publications.
To review these articles, click here.

For more information on risk management, contact MedAmerica Risk Retention Group Inc, a physician-directed, controlled, and governed professional liability insurer specializing in serving emergency physicians and their medical groups.  Click here to visit their website.