NEW ORLEANS -- Two years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the coastline of Louisiana, the Valentine Medical Center opened (Aug. 23,2007) as the final HIMSS Katrina Phoenix medical clinic based in Gretna, La., a suburb of New Orleans. The clinic, with a state-of-the-art electronic medical records system, is open thanks in part to the Healthcare Information Management System's Society (HIMSS) Katrina-Phoenix project funding, donations, and assistance from Louisiana Health Care Review (LHCR), the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Louisiana.

The Valentine Medical Center is a new family healthcare, urgent care and occupational medical clinic. Christy Valentine, MD, whose practice in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana was obliterated by Hurricane Katrina including all paper medical records on Monday, Aug. 29, 2005, chose to stay in Louisiana and rebuild her practice.

In action since September 2005, the Katrina Phoenix project of the HIMSS Foundation has organized vendor donations for electronic health record (EHR) software and hardware, as well as services for practices decimated that lost thousands of paper records each, with the key to success being HIMSS volunteer physician mentors.

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