Out With the Old and in With the New - E-Prescribing

Electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) is the use of a data entry system to create a prescription, rather than faxing it or writing it on paper. Automation of the prescribing process has several potential benefits to different sections of the health care industry, especially patients, physicians, and pharmaceutical companies. The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA) began on January 1, 2009 to encourage the adoption and utilization of e-prescribing systems. E-prescribing can save time, enhance office and pharmacy productivity, and improve patient safety and quality of care.

Electronic prescribing is about more than just generating a prescription on a computer and printing it out or faxing it to a pharmacy. E-Prescribing must also provide functionality and workflow flexibility to work not only for physicians but also for the staff involved in the prescribing process. High prescribers, larger practices, and enterprise systems require software that is adaptable to their practice workflow and that draws the practice staff into the prescribing process.

According to the 2009 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule, some of the advantages of e-prescribing include:

- Improving patient safety and quality of care
- Reducing illegibility
- Reducing oral miscommunications
- Providing warnings and alert systems
- Providing access to patient's medication history
- Reducing time spent on pharmacy phone calls and faxing
- Automation of renewals and authorization
- Improving formulary adherence
- Improving drug surveillance

Getting started with e-prescribing:

1) Decide whether you wish to choose stand-alone e-prescription software or a full EMR system which includes e-prescribing functionality.

2) Choose an e-prescribing software vendor that utilizes true Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). The e-prescribing vendor will need to be connected to SureScripts-RxHub the universal electronic prescribing network.

3) Install a high speed internet connection.

4) Purchase hardware such as desktop PC's, laptops, pocket PC's, tablet PC's, PDA's utilizing a wired or wireless network.

This article is brought to you by DrFirst, provider of Rcopia, a full featured stand alone electronic prescribing management system. DrFirst is committed to improving healthcare and patient safety by delivering technologies that enable medical professionals and their staff to quickly and easily access critical medical information at the point of care. For more information about e-prescribing, visit http://www.drfirst.com.

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