EMRConsultant.com Forum - e-Prescribing http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/index.php Sun, 08 Jan 2006 02:43:35 +0000 240 http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/136-heres-an-example-of-a-successful-cpoe/

Stanford Hospital & Clinics Upgrades to IDX® Carecast™
Wednesday May 11, 9:55 am ET
Building on successful CPOE program, upgrade will support initiatives for 100 percent electronic charting, multidisciplinary clinical documentation


STANFORD, Calif. and BURLINGTON, Vt., May 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Stanford Hospital & Clinics (Stanford) and IDX Systems Corporation (Nasdaq: IDXC - News) today announced an upgrade agreement for the next-generation IDX® Carecast™ enterprise clinical system. Using IDX® LastWord®, Carecast's predecessor, Stanford has achieved close to 100 percent physician adoption rates for computerized physician order entry (CPOE) for inpatient care. With its upgrade to Carecast (signed in Q1 2005), Stanford plans to launch wireless medication barcode charting and continue its roll-out of CPOE and electronic, interdisciplinary clinical documentation across its hospital facility.


Stanford plans to roll out Carecast in Q4 2005 across the 613-bed Stanford Hospital, the internationally known primary teaching hospital for the Stanford University School of Medicine. Currently, 1,850 Stanford clinicians and 580 residents and intern physicians use LastWord to support CPOE. CPOE adoption rates are approximately 100 percent for residents and 90 percent for attending physicians, according to Larry Shuer, MD, Chief of the Medical Staff at Stanford. CPOE is used in approximately 80 percent of Stanford's patient care units and the organization anticipates reaching 95 percent CPOE within the next year.

"By enabling our physicians to electronically submit patient care orders, Stanford is fulfilling one of the most important initiatives outlined by the Institute of Medicine for the national improvement of patient safety," said Carolyn Byerly, Stanford's Chief Information Officer. "We look forward to continuing our momentum with CPOE and to supporting our clinicians' collaborative work through Carecast's real-time, online patient care documentation."

IDX and Stanford worked closely together to tailor LastWord CPOE to support the organization's clinical workflows and to incorporate direct feedback from physicians and other clinicians. In keeping with Stanford's collaborative approach to clinical systems implementation, an interdisciplinary committee of Stanford clinicians is pursuing an innovative strategy to promote electronic multidisciplinary documentation (EMD) supported by Carecast.

When the EMD project is complete, all clinicians -- from physicians to nurses to respiratory therapists -- will be able to document and view comprehensive patient information online, using on-screen tools tailored to the needs of each discipline. Through EMD, members of the care team will be able to make more informed clinical decisions because they are viewing timely, comprehensive patient documentation.

"Collaboration has always been essential to patient care -- but communication is often complicated by paper processes and the pace of healthcare delivery," said Dr. Shuer. "With EMD, the clinical team will log onto Carecast to immediately see the full picture of each patient's progress -- complete with an interdisciplinary care plan, new test results, clinical notes, orders, medications and other essential information. EMD will be a major milestone in our progress toward lifetime electronic patient records."

Stanford intends to pilot its EMD functionality in Q1 2006, following the go-live of Carecast, and roll it out throughout the organization in the subsequent months. The organization also will launch wireless barcode medication administration charting in conjunction with the EMD pilot.

Barcode charting provides safeguards against errors during medication administration, the last stage in the medication cycle and the second most likely place for errors to occur (JAMA, 1998). The technology reinforces the "five rights" of medication administration -- that the right dose of the right drug is being administered to the right patient via the right route at the right time -- and alerts clinicians if there are any discrepancies. Both medications and patient ID bracelets will be tagged with barcodes. Stanford nurses will scan the barcode tags to verify patient identity and the "five rights" before medications are administered. Because barcode medication charting is built into Carecast, scanning the tags will automatically enter the drug, dose, time of administration and other relevant data in the patient's chart.

As part of its ongoing medication safety initiatives, Stanford also has made LastWord pharmacy applications accessible from anywhere in its inpatient facility, enabling pharmacists to work in patient care units -- instead of remaining only in a central pharmacy unit. This allows pharmacists to interact more with physicians and other prescribers, nurses and patients. The organization plans to further enhance its clinical pharmacy program with Carecast by automating more of the central dispensing functions, increasing efficiencies and expanding opportunities for pharmacists to serve even greater roles in direct patient care.

"The Stanford team managed their complex CPOE roll-out with persistence, partnership and commitment," said Mike Raymer, Senior Vice President and General Manager, IDX Carecast Operating Unit. "We value our six-year relationship with Stanford, and look forward to working together on the adoption of electronic documentation that will serve as a touchstone for thousands of Stanford clinicians."

As a veteran user of LastWord, Stanford understands the importance of reliability of enterprise clinical systems in the mission-critical hospital environment. Carecast and LastWord run on the HP NonStop™ platform, which offers unsurpassed reliability, scalability and a guarantee of 99.9 percent uptime.

"As we further expand our use of clinical IT, the NonStop platform brings a great deal of reliability and a great deal of comfort," commented Byerly.

About Stanford Hospital & Clinics

Stanford Hospital & Clinics is a university-owned, non-profit corporation known for advanced patient care. The 613-bed hospital in Northern California consistently ranks among the top in the nation in surveys by consumers and health professionals. Stanford Hospital & Clinics, in cooperation with the Stanford University Medical School, has pioneered medical advances that save lives and protect against disease. For more information, please visit our Web site at http://www.stanfordhospital.com.

About IDX® Carecast™

Carecast is a fully integrated clinical, financial and administrative system, combining core clinical processes for orders, results, pharmacy and clinical documentation with administrative and financial processes for scheduling, registration, admitting, charging and billing. Representing the next generation of electronic clinical information solutions, Carecast delivers unsurpassed response time and reliability to support fast-paced clinical environments. The system automates workflow throughout the healthcare enterprise and enables rapid access to patient records across the care continuum, from admission to discharge, including inpatient and ambulatory care. The result is a comprehensive lifetime patient record that enhances the quality of care and promotes operational efficiencies.

Developed by and for providers -- in collaboration with leading hospitals, clinicians and healthcare executives -- Carecast builds on 25 years of innovation with the IDX® LastWord® enterprise system. Customers include leading healthcare organizations in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

About IDX

Founded in 1969, IDX Systems Corporation provides information technology solutions to maximize value in the delivery of healthcare, improve the quality of patient service, enhance medical outcomes, and reduce the costs of care. Our systems are deployed to serve approximately 150,000 physicians and are installed at over 3,400 customer sites, including more than 850 group practices and approximately 370 integrated delivery networks servicing more than 500 hospitals.

IDX also provides its enterprise clinical software as a subcontractor to BT and Fujitsu Services, Local Service Providers for the United Kingdom National Health Service's National Programme for Information Technology, an initiative to establish electronic patient records for 50 million patients.

The IDX web strategy includes browser technology, e-commerce and web-based tools -- built using Internet architecture -- that facilitates access for patients, physicians and care providers to vital health information and data managed by the IDX clinical, administrative, financial, and managed care products. IDX has approximately 2,400 full-time employees.

IDX, Carecast and LastWord are registered trademarks or trademarks of IDX Investment Corporation.

This press release contains forward-looking statements about IDX Systems Corporation that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements are uncertainties or difficulties in developing new services, including Carecast, possible failure of IDX to realize the benefits of developing clinical guidelines, difficulties in implementing systems, possible deferral, delay or cancellation by customers of computer system or service purchase decisions, possible delay of system installations and service implementations, development by competitors of new or superior technologies, changing economic, political and regulatory influences on the healthcare and e-Commerce industries, possible disruptions in the national economy caused by terrorist activities and foreign conflicts, changes in product pricing policies, governmental regulation of IDX's software and operations, the possibility of product-related liabilities, and factors detailed from time to time in IDX's periodic reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which important factors are incorporated herein by reference. IDX undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events, or changes in future operating results, financial condition or business over time.


For more information contact:

Catherine Sweeney
Media Relations - IDX Carecast
206.607.5462
catherine_sweeney@idx.com

Helen Allrich
Media Relations Coordinator
Stanford Hospital & Clinics
650.723.1232
hallrich@stanfordmed.org

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: IDX Systems Corporation]]> Sun, 08 Jan 2006 02:43:35 +0000 http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/136-heres-an-example-of-a-successful-cpoe/ http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/712-the-center-founder-gingrich-hosts-e-prescribing-event-with-senator-kerry/
Flanked by co-host Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, and the bipartisan support of Senators Debbie Stabenow (MI-D), John Ensign (NV-R), and the expertise Andrew S. Warner, M.D. of the Lahey Clinic and Board Member, American Medical Group Association, Speaker Gingrich addressed the ongoing concerns with the 19th Century process of prescriptions written by hand. E-prescribing provides better personal security of healthcare information and a safer model for getting prescriptions.

"Americans are ready for e-prescribing," said The Center founder Newt Gingrich. "With Americans using ATM cards everyday in this country and abroad, we believe they are prepared for the massive benefits providing by an electronic prescriptions system - a 21st Century system."

The Center for Health Transformation is working with virtually all of the stakeholders to accelerate the adoption of electronic prescribing including insurers, employers, physicians, pharmacists and pharmacies, technology firms, and government agencies. The Center believes that advanced technology solutions including e-prescribing are necessary for the future for healthcare.

"Electronic prescribing is safer, faster and more efficient for all parties involved in the process -- from the patient to the doctor to the pharmacy," said CEO of The Center Nancy Desmond. "Accelerating the adoption of e-prescribing will save lives and save money."

The Center for Health Transformation has created a working group dedicated to address and develop solutions to the issues of connectivity, provider education, and the creation and alignment of incentives. In addition to the working group, The Center has an overall strategy to move medicine to be paperless releasing the publication Paper Kills: Transforming Health and Healthcare with Information Technology edited by Project Director David Merritt.

Materials from today's press briefing are available on the News Section of The Center's website here.

About the Center for Health Transformation

The Center for Health Transformation is a high-impact collaboration of private and public sector leaders committed to creating a 21st Century Intelligent Health System that saves lives and saves money for all Americans. The Center is a for-profit, bi-partisan membership-based organization with over 100 members who participate in member meetings, collaborative workshops, training sessions and workgroup, and projects such as the Healthy Georgia Project, Ending Cancer as a Cause of Death, Developing a Roadmap to Cure Alzheimer's, Affordable Coverage for All Americans and Diabetes Transformation. The Center, through CHT Press, has recently published The Art of Transformation by Newt Gingrich and Nancy Desmond.

Center for Health Transformation
]]> Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:12:23 +0000 http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/712-the-center-founder-gingrich-hosts-e-prescribing-event-with-senator-kerry/ http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/727-orion-health-congratulates-peninsula-health-on-health-informatics-society-of-australia/
Santa Monica, CA (PRWEB) December 18, 2007 -- Orion Health, a leading provider of clinical workflow and integration technology for the healthcare sector, today congratulates Peninsula Health on being awarded the 2007 Don Walker Award for Effectiveness in Healthcare Delivery by the Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA).

Peninsula Health (PH), an outer Melbourne metropolitan health service, received the award based on an innovative project to improve continuity of patient care using e-Discharge and e-Prescribing. The award acknowledged that the e-Discharge and e-Prescribing initiatives have demonstrated a quantifiable impact on the improvement of patient outcomes through the use of innovative IT solutions.

"Australia is one of the many countries emphasizing the use of technology to reduce medical errors and streamline communications between physicians for more coordinated care and fewer ambulatory admissions," said Ian McRae, Orion Health Chief Executive Officer.

"Peninsula Health's team has implemented innovative e-prescribing and e-health solutions to improve patient care. We're proud to have such solutions be based on Orion Health technology."
Like many Australian healthcare organizations, information sharing at Peninsula Health had historically been paper-based and ineffective. A survey conducted by PH and the Mornington Peninsula Division of GPs in 2000 revealed only 16% of the GP respondents had received a patient discharge summary within three days of the patient's discharge. Many respondents had received discharge summaries up to three months post-discharge. Of the discharge summaries that had been received only 27% were legible.

The aims of the project were to improve the quality of discharge prescribing and reduce the opportunities for medication errors through the use of e-Prescribing. PH also hoped to improve the continuum of care between acute and primary care by providing a legible and accurate medication list via the use of e-Discharge Summaries. The final goal of the program was to enhance the quality, legibility and timeliness of discharge information communicated to primary care practitioners to reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions.

Electronic Prescribing and Discharge in Australia
Efforts to improve the continuity of the patient care journey from acute care settings to primary care have increasingly emphasized the role of information technology. The need to avoid medical errors, and prevent unnecessary hospital readmissions through enhanced communications with General Practitioners (GPs) has been well documented. The Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care has recommended the use of e-Prescribing coupled with the accurate transfer of information between hospital and community settings to reduce medication incidents. These recommendations are supported by other national health authorities. More than half of preventable medication incidents are associated with prescribing errors. A number of Australian controlled studies have indicated the provision of medication summaries to patients and their GPs improves patient outcomes and reduces medication incident.

Poor communication between hospitals and GPs has been identified as an obstacle to effective integrated health care. A number of authors have also highlighted the serious limitations of our current system of handwritten discharge summaries, while others have suggested discharge summaries of inadequate quality may have serious impacts on subsequent patient care. The Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care studies suggest "Communication from hospitals to GPs are in an unacceptable state, and to continue with the current system of discharge summaries appears futile". Citing high error rates (36.4%) and low rates of discharge receipt (27.1%) these researchers suggest resources currently being invested in this inefficient system would be better spent in determining methods of improving communication.

The Don Walker Award
The award was presented by the Health Informatics Society of Australia, in the spirit of Australia's first informatics pioneer, Don Walker, the first Doctor in Australia to introduce a computer into his practice. The award acknowledged that the e-Discharge and e-Prescribing initiatives have demonstrated a quantifiable impact on the improvement of patient outcomes through the use of innovative IT solutions.

About Peninsula Health
Peninsula Health is the major health care provider serving the metropolitan and rural areas on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. With close to 800 beds we provide a wide range of services from obstetrics to aged care, rehabilitation, emergency and intensive care, oncology, psychiatric services and Hospital in the Home (HITH). http://www.peninsulahealth.org.au

About the Healthcare Informatics Society of Australia
HISA was established in 1992 by representatives of health informatics groups operating within Australia at that time. The first HIC national event was held in Brisbane in August 1993. In 1994 HISA confirmed its status as an incorporated body following the first Annual General Meeting of national members at the Gold Coast meeting of HIC'94. In the following formative years HISA and informatics groups continued to work toward a national governing body and constitution.
In year 2000 HISA became a national governing health informatics body. Its constitution and accountability registered with the Australian Securities Commission organisation (ASIC) see http://www.asic.gov.au/

About Orion Health
Orion Health's easy-to-use solutions and applications improve patient care and clinical decision making by providing integrated health data in a single, unified view. By enhancing existing healthcare information systems, Orion Health's Rhapsody Integration Engine, Concerto Medical Application Portal, and workflow solutions provide healthcare workers with easy access to patient data and trends, and reduce errors and omissions by streamlining information transfer.
Worldwide, Orion Health is implementing health information communities involving over 35 million patients with tens of thousands of active users including Maine's HealthInfoNet and the Vermont Health Information Exchange. Orion Health's partners include leading health system integrators and IT vendors such as Accenture, IBM, Oracle Corporation, Sierra Systems and others. Orion Health has more than 1,000 clients around the world, including Lahey Clinic, New York State Department of Health, UCLA Medical Center, and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More information can be found at www.orionhealth.com.

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]]> Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:22:05 +0000 http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/727-orion-health-congratulates-peninsula-health-on-health-informatics-society-of-australia/ http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/706-rxhub-announces-rx-4-success/
Designed to reflect new standards in care and quality measures, Rx 4 Success™ provides the healthcare industry with an enhanced, workflow driven approach for ePrescribing. These workflow requirements offer providers an optimized view of pharmacy benefit decision support content combined with electronic script routing to both retail and mail order pharmacies. The goal of the program is to help providers, PBM’s/payers, and pharmacies realize the full value of their investment in ePrescribing technology.

Rx 4 Success™ was developed by RxHub to meet four key deliverables for the ePrescribing industry:

Utilization of CMS approved ePrescribing transactions including Eligibility, Formulary & Benefits, and Medication History.
Integration of true electronic (EDI) delivery of prescriptions to retail and mail order pharmacies.
Consistent rules-based application of clinical decision support content.
Formulation of transactional data to support development of outcomes based Pay-for-Performance Programs
“We are extremely proud to be associated with our growing roster of partners which includes many of the healthcare industry’s foremost technology innovators,” stated Doug Johnson, VP of Business Development for Technology Partners at RxHub. “Their collective vision not only helped shape Rx 4 Success™ but provides the foundation for ongoing market driven performance analysis and improvement.”

With guidance from constituents through ongoing participant workgroups, RxHub incorporated activity driven specifications into Rx 4 Success™ that satisfy the need for better data to monitor the impact ePrescribing is having on quality measures within the healthcare industry. RxHub has and will continue to communicate these specifications with ePrescribing exchanges and other regional and national initiatives across the country to assist them with documenting the impact and value ePrescribing offers.

“The time is right to monitor the impact and effects of ePrescribing and report the impressive results to the industry,” stated JP Little, Chief Operating Officer for RxHub. “The program was driven by industry feedback and offers a simplified and streamlined approach in interpreting and understanding the outcomes of ePrescribing.”

As part of this program and in conjunction with overall efforts to drive ePrescribing utilization on a national level, RxHub technology partners will integrate the full spectrum of data available through RxHub including real-time:

Patient prescription Eligibility
Patient Formulary & Benefits
Patient Medication History
Electronic Prescriptions (EDI)
Rx 4 Success™ establishes a new benchmark for the healthcare industry not only by providing critical patient prescription information to physicians at the point of care but also enabling those physicians to electronically generate informed prescriptions and securely transmit them to the retail or mail order pharmacy of the patient’s choice. Rx 4 Success™ will become a participation requirement for technology partners connected to the RxHub network as of July 31, 2008.

About RxHub LLC

RxHub (www.rxhub.net) manages the RxHub National Health Information Network™ which electronically routes up-to-date patient-specific medication history and pharmacy benefit information to caregivers at every point of care. Our end-to-end solution enables physicians to prescribe the most clinically appropriate and cost effective prescription and send it electronically to the patient’s pharmacy of choice. Operating as a cost recovery business model, RxHub partners with stakeholders in the prescribing industry to improve patient safety, increase workflow efficiency and reduce the overall cost of health care delivery.


Contacts
RxHub, LLC
Media Contact:
Chris Van Horrick, 651-855-3078
Chris.vanhorrick@rxhub.net

]]> Fri, 11 Jan 2008 13:42:38 +0000 http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/706-rxhub-announces-rx-4-success/ http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/851-complex-medication-doses-prompt-increase-in-safety-measures/
One of my colleagues at McKesson wrote this article about new advanced dosing technology. It gives a good overview of some of the reasons why caregivers may want to use advanced dosing technology and the benefits that this type of software can have for those who are unfamiliar with it:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Complex-Medicati...&id=1175852

For those out there who have used some type of advanced dosing or ePrescribing software, what have been your experiences with it?



]]> Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:03:19 +0000 http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/851-complex-medication-doses-prompt-increase-in-safety-measures/ http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/900-texas-medical-association/
Medicare is also taking new steps to speed the adoption of electronic prescribing or e-prescribing by offering incentive payments to physicians and other eligible professionals who use the technology. Beginning in 2009 and during the next four years Medicare will provide incentive payments to eligible professionals who are successful electronic prescribers. Eligible professionals will receive a 2 percent incentive payment in 2009 and 2010 a 1 percent incentive payment in 2011 and 2012 and a one-half percent incentive payment in 2013.

The focal point of the Get Connected program is an online portal http://www.GetRxConnected.com/TMA where prescribers can follow a step-by-step process designed to help them transition from paper-based prescribing to e-prescribing.

Electronic prescribing is one of the first and most important steps a physician can take to make health care safer for our patients and more efficient for our practices said TMA president Josie R. Williams MD a nationally known expert in patient safety and health care quality improvement. I urge all of our member physicians to see how the Get Connected program can help them take this step.

Through the end of 2007 approximately 1500 of the physicians in Texas were e-prescribing. In the most recent ranking of all 50 states plus Washington D.C. based on e-prescribing activity Texas ranked number 30 in the nation.

E-prescribing replaces the need for handwritten printed or faxed prescriptions and is seen as a more accurate and efficient means of prescribing medications. And because it is paperless e-prescribing is also regarded as a secure alternative to paper prescriptions which can be stolen copied forged and otherwise manipulated.

In addition to the TMA Get Connected is supported by:
the American Academy of Family Physicians AAFP
the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners AANP
the American Academy of Pediatrics AAP
the American Academy of Physician Assistants AAPA
the American College of Cardiology ACC
the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists ACOG
the American Optometric Association AOA
the American Osteopathic Association AOA
the American Urological Association AUA
and the Medical Group Management Association MGMA.

If you are a member of a state medical society or national provider organization and would like to get more information about how your membership can Get Connected for e-prescribing please contact Kate Berry executive director at The Center for Improving Medication Management at kate.berry@SureScriptsRxHub.com.

Created under the auspices of The Center for Improving Medication Management founded by the AAFP Blue Cross Blue Shield Association Humana Inc. Intel Corporation the MGMA and SureScripts-RxHub http://www.GetRxConnected.com contains urgent information and guidance for an estimated 150000 prescribers located throughout the U.S. that are currently using electronic medical record EMR and other clinical software to fax prescriptions to pharmacies. Computer-generated faxing of prescriptions not only prevents prescribers from achieving the gains in practice efficiency and patient safety associated with e-prescribing but starting on January 1 2009 all computer-generated prescriptions covered by the Medicare Part D program must be transmitted electronically and not via computer-generated fax. Important Note to Prescribers Using EMRs: Most EMR users believe that they already send prescriptions to pharmacies electronically i.e. they are unaware that it is far more likely that their EMR is generating faxes that arrive on paper at the pharmacys fax machine. These computer-generated faxed prescriptions will not be in compliance with the new Medicare Modernization Act MMA Part D regulations.

Through http://www.GetRxConnected.com/TMA Texas prescribers and their staffs can find out if the software brand and version they are using is certified to generate e-prescriptions compliant with the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs NCPDP SCRIPT standard as required by the new Medicare regulations. The SCRIPT standard facilitates the electronic transmission of prescriptions and prescription-related information. Following the completion of a brief self-assessment visitors to http://www.GetRxConnected.com/TMA can receive a free personalized report that indicates the compliance status of their existing software and that can be used to request an electronic connection to pharmacies through their vendor.

The Get Connected program is equally intended for prescribers and practice management professionals who have yet to invest in EMR or other clinical software. The portal provides guidance on how to evaluate and acquire technology that supports e-prescribing. http://www.GetRxConnected.com/TMA also helps prescribers and practice management professionals to assess the financial impact of e-prescribing using an interactive feature that allows them to calculate an estimate of the time and resources their practice is currently dedicating to the manual processing of prescriptions.

E-Prescribing: An Opportunity to Save Time Dollars and Lives
There remains a sizable opportunity to increase the adoption and use of e-prescribing nationwide. Although SureScripts-RxHub estimates that more than 100 million prescription transactions will be routed electronically in 2008 that number represents only 7 percent of eligible prescriptions see The National Progress Report on E-Prescribing at http://www.surescripts.com/report. The realization of e-prescribings full potential represents an unprecedented opportunity to improve patient safety and the efficiency of the prescribing process.
According to the Center for Information Technology Leadership use of electronic prescribing with an electronic connection to pharmacy and advanced decision-support capabilities could help prevent 130000 life-threatening medication errors annually.
By eliminating paper from the prescribing process and particularly by automating prescription renewals e-prescribing has been proven to offer significant time savings by reducing prescription-related phone calls and faxes allowing prescribers and their staffs more time to care for their patients. A study by MGMAs Group Practice Research Network estimated that administrative complexity related to prescriptions costs practices 15700 a year for each full-time physician that does not even take into consideration the time and cost of managing faxes.


About the Texas Medical Association
TMA is the largest state medical society in the nation representing more than 43000 physician and medical student members. It is located in Austin and has 120 component county medical societies around the state. TMAs key objective since 1853 is to improve the health of all Texans.

About The Center for Improving Medication Management
The Center for Improving Medication Management serves as an industry resource by gathering and disseminating best and worst practices related to technology deployment for electronic medication management and for leveraging that technology and connectivity to test innovative approaches to improve patient adherence with prescribed medications. The Center was founded by the American Academy of Family Physicians AAFP Blue Cross Blue Shield Association BCBSA Humana Inc. Intel Corporation the Medical Group Management Association MGMA and SureScripts-RxHub. More information about The Center is available at http://www.theCIMM.org.

Press Contact:
Rob Cronin
For The Center for Improving Medication Management
917-414-5289
rob.cronin@SureScriptsRxHub.com
]]> Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:02:27 +0000 http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/900-texas-medical-association/ http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/722-drfirst-creates-stunning-e-prescribing-experience-on-iphone/
RcopiaMini is formatted for the smaller screen of today’s mobile devices and allows providers to easily navigate a full-featured version of Rcopia on this exciting new platform. DrFirst designed the application to provide a real-time interaction between physicians, pharmacies, and health plans, so there is no need to update or sync the device.

“Now physicians can quickly, safely, and securely prescribe from anywhere—through the always-on connectivity of the iPhone, the WiFi connection of the iPod Touch, or while seated at the desktop computer in the practice,” said Peter N. Kaufman, Chief Medical Officer of DrFirst, Inc.. “DrFirst’s goal is to ensure that its new web-based, mobile Rcopia experience delivers the same high levels of innovation and usability as the original Web version.”

To be useful to physicians, e-prescribing must be easily and securely accessible. With the addition of the iPhone and iPod Touch, DrFirst provides physicians with a broad set of e-prescribing platforms, including Apple, Treo, and HP iPaq handheld devices as well as desktop and tablet systems.

E-prescribing on the iPhone with RcopiaMini allows physicians to provide a higher level of patient service and safety, streamline practice workflows, and save time and money through the efficiency of electronic medication orders, renewals and formulary checking. New prescriptions and renewals are sent electronically to the patient’s retail or mail order pharmacy. RcopiaMini checks for patient insurance eligibility, formulary, and patient medication history. The application also offers clinical decision support tools to check prescriptions for drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions and appropriate dosing.

Busy doctors, large practices, and health systems require software that is adaptable to the practice workflow and that draws the practice staff into the prescribing process. To meet this need, RcopiaMini is designed to be accessible to all staff members, to be highly configurable and to accommodate workflow features that make it a perfect solution for groups of any size.

Rcopia is also available in standalone versions for MS Windows Mobile for PocketPC and Palm OS, providing physicians the ability to create prescriptions in the absence of an always-on WI-FI connectivity.

Pricing & Availability

RcopiaMini is now available at no charge to current Rcopia users and can be accessed at www.drfirst.com/pda.

About DrFirst

DrFirst is a national provider of physician connectivity services through its award-winning, GoldRx Certified Rcopia electronic prescription management system. Founded in 2000, DrFirst creates innovative services targeted to physicians in both ambulatory and acute care environments. DrFirst solutions are widely integrated with practice management and electronic medical records software through its "Open Borders" program, and the company counts among its client base not only physician practices, but major health plans, health systems, and EMR vendors. DrFirst partners with SureScripts and RxHub for pharmacy connectivity, health plan information, and patient medication history. More information about DrFirst can be found at www.drfirst.com.


Contacts

DrFirst, Inc.
Irene Froehlich
Director of Marketing
240-671-3320
ifroehlich@drfirst.com
]]> Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:44:47 +0000 http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/722-drfirst-creates-stunning-e-prescribing-experience-on-iphone/ http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/876-virtualhealth-technologies-inc/
June 27th, the Drug Enforcement Administration proposed regulations that would allow physicians to electronically prescribe controlled substances. Current rules bar e-prescriptions for controlled substances, classified as medications that have the potential for abuse or addiction. Controlled substances account for between 10% and 13% of all U.S. prescriptions. The DEA hopes to reduce prescription forgery by creating a "closed system of controls on controlled-substances dispensing." In a separate initiative the House recently approved a bill (HR 6331) that would provide an incentive to physicians to use e-prescribing that would sharply increase its adoption.

According to Jim Renfro, President of VHGI, "Both of these recent events are very exciting for Veriscrip because they are key factors in facilitating the use of e-prescribing in real-time Prescription Drug Monitoring. From the beginning our company has stressed the importance of tracking controlled substances from their inception electronically." Renfro goes on further to say, "I am confident that once these rules are put into effect, you will begin to see more local and state governments moving more aggressively to curtail the misuse and major abuse of prescription drugs in a real time manner. I think we have positioned Veriscrip to be a leader in this effort and to take full advantage of the potential new business, which will result from this rule change."

This press release contains forward-looking statements that reflect the Company's current expectations regarding future events. While these statements reflect the Company's best current judgment, they are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ significantly from projected results due to a number of factors, including, but not limited to assumptions, beliefs and opinions relating to the business and growth strategy of VirtualHealth Technologies, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries Verified Prescription Safeguards, Inc., VPS Holding, LLC, Envoii Healthcare, LLC, Medical Office Software, Inc. and implementation thereof, based upon the Company's interpretation and analysis of financial and market conditions, the decisions of businesses with whom the Company is either engaged in business with or negotiating, healthcare industry trends and management's ability to successfully finance, develop, market, sell and implement its e-commerce and internet solutions, clinical and financial e-transaction services and software applications to physicians, pharmacies, governmental agencies, laboratories, insurance companies, HMOs, and payers. These factors and other risk factors are more fully discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements.



]]> Mon, 18 May 2009 18:58:56 +0000 http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/876-virtualhealth-technologies-inc/ http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/241-ashp-and-script-iq-to-integrate/

ASHP and Script IQ to Integrate AHFS Drug Information and U.S. Drug Database
Wednesday January 11, 9:00 am ET
Definitive NDC-11 Database Eases Medicare Part D Compliance for Health Plans, Serves as Foundation for Healthcare Technology Solutions


BETHESDA, Md. and SEATTLE, Jan. 11 /PRNewswire/ --

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and Script IQ, Inc. today announced plans to integrate the AHFS therapeutic classification system with Script IQ's NDC-11 U.S. Drug Database (USDDB), to provide healthcare constituents with a robust, transactional pharmacy informatics solution.
The combined database will be licensed to a broad range of healthcare constituents to serve as a critical underpinning of a number of pharmacy applications including formulary management, hospital information systems, hand-held reference tools, electronic medical records and ePrescribing applications.

"With Medicare Part D and the eHealth initiatives, it is vital that all parties are working from a reference source that is highly accurate, easy-to-navigate and, most importantly, provides the level of detail required to effectively share information," said Carol Wolfe, ASHP Vice President of Publications and Drug Information Systems. "Our customers are looking for a reliable source of NDC-11 coded drug information that supports the AHFS structure with which they are familiar. In an eHealth-driven world information needs to be shared, and our joint database will serve as one of the common denominators," adds Peter Cerretani, ASHP Director of Database Licensing.


Integration with Script IQ's FormularyDynamIQs™ Application Drives Quality
and Accuracy of Pharmacy Benefit Information
The first implementation of the joint database is within Script IQ's FormularyDynamIQs application -- an on-demand solution for Medicare Part D compliance, formulary management, publishing and distribution. The validation of existing health-insurer formularies against the combined database will ensure that pharmacy benefits are clearly and accurately communicated to providers, patients, pharmacists and claims adjudicators.

"Our customers are looking for reliability of information, value and an alternative to the status quo," said Marc Lilly, CEO of Script IQ. "The combination of AHFS and our U.S. Drug Database will deliver a highly accurate, cost-effective solution for our many mutual clients, reducing costs, and providing a solid information base for both medical and financial decision-making."

Pricing and Availability

Suggested retail pricing has not been established. The combined database is expected to ship in Q1, 2006. For licensing information please contact Peter Cerretani, ASHP, at 301-664-8705 or Rod Hoffman, Script IQ at 206-372-6969.

About AHFS Drug Information

Published by ASHP for more than 40 years, AHFS DI has been a widely respected source of drug information in hospitals. The AHFS family of products provides the most comprehensive source of unbiased and authoritative drug information available to health professionals today. The U.S. Congress and various health care insurance providers have recognized the authority of the AHFS DI suite of products as a source of information on the medically accepted uses of drugs. The only official drug compendium published by a non-commercial entity, AHFS DI has a longstanding policy of editorial independence from the influence of pharmaceutical manufacturers, health insurers, pharmacy benefit managers, and other third parties. For more information about AHFS DI, visit www.ahfsdruginformation.com.

About Script IQ's U.S. Drug Database

The U.S. Drug DB is the only NDC-11 coded drug resource specifically engineered to address the needs of health insurers, pharmacy benefit managers, claims processors/adjudicators, healthcare technology vendors, medical groups and health-systems. The U.S. Drug DB is designed to deliver the most current database of products that are valid for human prescribing, eliminating obsolete and otherwise irrelevant ingredients, bulk chemicals and drugs. More than 5-years in research, the U.S. Drug DB is maintained by a team of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to ensure data quality and accuracy.

About ASHP

For more than 60 years, ASHP has helped pharmacists who practice in hospitals and health systems improve medication use and enhance patient safety. The Society's 30,000 members include pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who practice in inpatient, outpatient, home-care, and long-term-care settings, as well as pharmacy students. For more information about the wide array of ASHP activities and the many ways in which pharmacists help people make the best use of medicines, visit ASHP's Web site, www.ashp.org, the AHFS Web site, www.ahfsdruginformation.com, or its consumer Web site, www.SafeMedication.com.

About Script IQ, Inc.

Founded in 2000, privately-held Script IQ serves Health Insurers, Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) and Healthcare IT vendors with a family of on-demand solutions and services. The company's offerings are designed to simplify Medicare Part D regulatory reporting, effectively manage formulary data, and to streamline the flow of pharmacy information among healthcare constituents. Headquartered in Seattle, WA, the company's solutions are used by many leading health insurance plans and PBMs to control pharmacy benefit costs, and to effectively leverage e-Prescribing and Electronic Medical Records (EMR) initiatives. To learn more please visit our web-site at www.scriptiq.com or call 1-866-SCRIPTIQ (866-727-4784).


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Source: Script IQ, Inc.]]> Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:07:12 +0000 http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/241-ashp-and-script-iq-to-integrate/ http://www.emrconsultant.com/forum/topic/1076-physician-practices-help-michigan-become-a-leading-adopter-of-e-prescribing/

One of those doctors is Michael Schaub who, with Physician Assistant Jake Sauve, has wiped out the danger of doctors' scrawl on prescriptions they write in their family practice. They're among 1,200 Michigan prescribers -- doctors and other medical professionals who prescribe medications -- who have moved from handwriting to electronically producing medication orders in a BCBSM-supported initiative.


"Our handwriting is not always the greatest," said Schaub about himself and Sauve, partners who care for adults and children at Northern Lights Family Medicine in West Michigan's Montague. "But every prescription we write is 100 percent legible because of e-prescribing."


In the BCBSM e-prescribing program, doctors electronically send prescription information directly to pharmacists through a secure Web portal. Partnering doctors get access to BCBSM's full-featured stand-alone e-prescribing management system, free hardware, help with installation and Web access for two years.


"Through this partnership with physicians and their teams, we've helped boost e-prescribing to more than 4,800 -- or about 30 percent -- of all doctor's offices across Michigan," said James Lang, Blues vice president of Pharmacy Services. "The efforts underway by BCBSM and doctor's offices are among the industry's best and most progressive."


E-prescribing results in improved patient safety and system efficiencies. To help prevent potentially dangerous drug interactions, a primary care physician can use an e-prescribing system to see what medications have been prescribed for a patient by specialists. Doctors can view their own medication records for a patient. Upon entering prescribing orders, doctors can get alerts about potential harmful interactions, drug allergies and dosing issues. E-prescribing also may reduce time spent by pharmacy staff to make callbacks to doctors' offices, and it avoids paper waste.


More than 1 million prescriptions have been handled by the BCBSM program. Current volume is about 130,000 prescriptions per month. Nearly 50,000 member alerts have been triggered. About 30 percent of them resulted in the prescribing doctor taking action to resolve potential problems.


The collaborative program is one of several e-prescribing efforts supported by BCBSM. E-prescribing is also supported through BCBSM's Physician Group Incentive Program, a collaborative effort that includes 35 participating physician organizations across Michigan. They represent some 6,400 primary care physicians and specialists who care for about 1.6 million patients. The program provides incentives to physician groups for introducing efficiencies in the delivery of care. In some cases, the physician groups use their incentives dollars to start or maintain e-prescribing in their offices.


In Southeast Michigan, Blue Cross is a very active participant in a coalition saluted in June for boosting Michigan to third in the nation in e-prescribing. Michigan ranked third, behind only Massachusetts and Rhode Island, in the Safe-Rx Award from Surescripts, America's largest electronic network. The Safe-Rx Award recognizes Blue Cross and fellow partners in the Southeast Michigan E-prescribing Initiative as national leaders in e-prescribing.


Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, a nonprofit organization, provides and administers health benefits to 4.7 million members residing in Michigan in addition to members of Michigan-headquartered groups who reside outside the state. The company offers a broad variety of plans including: Traditional Blue Cross Blue Shield; Blue Preferred®, Community Blue(SM) and Healthy Blue Incentives(SM) PPOs; Blue Care Network HMO; BCN Healthy Blue Living(SM); Flexible Blue(SM) plans compatible with health savings accounts; Medicare Advantage; Part D Prescription Drug plans, and MyBlue(SM) products in the under-age-65 individual market. BCBSM also offers dental, vision and hearing plans. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network are nonprofit corporations and independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. For more company information, visit bcbsm.com.



SOURCE Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan CONTACT: Helen Stojic of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan,
+1-313-549-9884, newsroom@bcbsm.com

Web site: http://www.bcbsm.com/
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