Source: Washington Blade
Whitman-Walker Clinic has hired a new chief medical officer, filling a position that had been vacant for more than a year, and put in place a new, state-of-the-art electronic record-keeping system for patient medical records, its chief executive officer announced this week.

Don Blanchon, who assumed the Clinic’s top leadership post in May 2006, said the Clinic has nearly completed its goal of transforming itself into the Washington area’s preeminent primary care medical facility for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. At the same time, he said the Clinic has retained its role as the city’s largest provider of treatment and support for people with HIV and AIDS.

The changes announced this week also included layoffs of an unspecified number of employees, due in part to the Clinic’s plan to outsource some financial functions.

Blanchon said the Clinic has named Dr. Raymond Martins, assistant clinical professor of medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine, as its chief medical officer.

Martins most recently worked in private practice in Arlington, Va. He worked from 2004 to 2005 at the Dupont Circle Physicians Group, with a practice in HIV and internal medicine. He has an extensive background in HIV/AIDS care and gay health issues, according to biographical information released by Whitman-Walker. He also has served as chief medical resident at George Washington University Hospital.

Martins joins Whitman-Walker three years after the Clinic announced it was facing a financial crisis. Blanchon, a managed care executive, has been credited with stabilizing its finances and working with the Clinic’s board to transition the longstanding gay clinic into a full service, primary care provider.

Blanchon said this week the transition is well under way, with the Clinic seeing a wide range of patients from the gay community, including those with full medical insurance coverage as well as low-income patients who rely on Medicaid and other financial assistance.

Clinic officials have said the Clinic is encouraging gay residents to use its services for all their medical needs, including treatment for non-AIDS related ailments such as high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.

Full article: Washington Blade Online