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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

California Emergency Physicians Receives Honorable Mention for National Risk Management Award

Contact: Sarah Hay
800.476.1504
hays@cep.com

(Oakland, Calif., January 2, 2002)–The Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) Program offered by California Emergency Physicians (CEP) Medical Group has received an Honorable Mention for Excellence in Health Care Risk Management, an award sponsored by St. Paul Property and Liability and Modern Healthcare magazine.

The PDA’s allow the more than 600 CEP emergency physicians to access drug and infectious disease references as well as a library of medical references on their website, www.cep.com. CEP and the Palm Pilot Program were featured in the November 12 issue of Modern Healthcare magazine.

"CEP physicians have come to depend on their PDAs for providing up-to-date drug references that can be researched at the bedside," said Wesley Curry, MD, President of CEP. "Many of our physicians who use the hand-held devices reported avoiding at least one medication error per week."

CEP’s report emphasized the program’s effectiveness, efficiency, and impact on the physician group as well as their distribution of the Palm Vx using the Palm Operating System. The report also detailed the self-install CD-ROM that was provided to each CEP physician that contained ePocrates qRx, a comprehensive drug information reference, and qID, a separate infectious disease reference that offers antibiotic/anti-fungal/anti-parasitic drug dosing information. Both references can be integrated so that physicians can research medication in the ePocrates qRx drug reference directly from the qID infectious disease reference. These tools are continuously updated in order to provide current drug and dosing information.

"CEP is taking proactive steps toward reducing the risk of medical errors through the Palm Pilot Program. By preventing just one adverse drug event, this program will have paid for itself," said Mark Spiro, MD, Vice President of Operations at CEP.

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CEP was founded in 1975 and is the leading provider of physician staffing and management services for Emergency Departments and Ambulatory Care Centers in California. CEP is the largest democratic physician group in the country dedicated to the independent practice of emergency medicine. To date, CEP includes more than 800 providers, 47 Emergency Departments, and 20 Ambulatory Care Centers all providing care to an estimated 1.7 million patients each year. Approximately one out of every seven patients is treated at a CEP-contracted site. For more information on CEP visit their website at www.cep.com.