Bernie Monegain, Editor
Rhode Island Gov. Donald L. Carcieri announced Monday that the state has launched a new system for tracking swine flu.
The system makes use of prescribing data provided by the state’s pharmacies via a secure electronic link. The tracking initiative is enabled by the state’s success with e-prescribing and the digital healthcare infrastructure available via the Surescripts network.
“Since 2003 Rhode Island has consistently led the way on e-prescribing, and we have been continually recognized as one of the top 10 states in the nation for our success in implementing this initiative,” Carcieri said during a Monday morning news conference. “I am proud of all that we have been able to accomplish through a very effective public-private partnership.”
“E-prescribing has been a priority of my administration because of its potential to improve patient safety, increase quality of care and reduce healthcare costs,” Carcieri said. “It has tremendous value for monitoring and protecting public health and for increasing efficiencies in our healthcare system. The growth of e-prescribing has been an important component of our overall effort to promote the electronic exchange of health information.”
First for the nation
In what Carcieri called a healthcare first for Rhode Island and the nation, Surescripts and the state’s pharmacies are now providing epidemiologists at the Rhode Island Department of Health with weekly updates of prescription data. Participating pharmacies include CVS, Rite Aid, Stop & Shop and Walgreens.
Epidemiologists can use the data – which has been de-identified to exclude personal information – to identify any spikes in prescriptions of Tamiflu or other antiviral medications.
“Rhode Island is the first state in the nation to work with Surescripts to use prescription data in the aggregate for disease surveillance, specifically monitoring and tracking the use of antiviral data during this H1N1 pandemic,” said David R. Gifford, MD, director of the Rhode Island Department of Health. “This provides another important tool for the state’s public health officials to look at trends related to the course, severity and treatment of the H1N1 pandemic.”
The new capability allows state health officials to:
- Use the data as a valuable proxy for detecting a potential outbreak of swine flu, including its location and affected age group;
- Offer a more far-reaching and granular view of potential flu activity when compared to the state’s “Sentinel” system – 25 physician practices around the state that report flu outbreaks to the state DOH; and
- Help detect discrepancies between disease outbreaks reported by the Sentinel system and outbreaks identified based on flu prescriptions. These discrepancies may suggest a number of possibilities, such as doctors prescribing in the absence of flu, supplies of an important drug that are running low, the presence of outbreak areas not detected by the Sentinel system, or the need for additional education to assure the appropriate use of antiviral medications.
Rhode Island’s electronic tracking of antiviral data represents the second prominent use of prescription data for reasons of public health. In 2005, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a program allowed physicians and pharmacists throughout the country who were caring for displaced residents of New Orleans and surrounding regions to go to KatrinaHealth.org to access the prescription history of an evacuee for whom they were providing care but had no medical records. KatrinaHealth and its successor effort – ICERx.org – were forerunners to the Rhode Island system launched today.
100 percent of pharmacies e-Prescribing
Rhode Island’s new system for tracking swine flu is built upon its success in driving the adoption and use of e-prescribing.
Carcieri also announced today that all of the state’s retail pharmacies are connected for e-prescribing via the Surescripts network.
“This is a very significant milestone in our efforts to leverage health information technology to improve the quality, safety and value of healthcare in Rhode Island,” said Laura Adams, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Quality Institute. “When a misplaced decimal point can cost a life, the value of eliminating hand-transcribed prescriptions cannot be overstated.”
State officials say pharmacists are realizing significant benefits from e-prescribing. Dave Feeney, owner of Oxnard Pharmacy in Warwick, turned to e-prescribing as a way to create more efficiencies and economies for his pharmacy.
Physicians also benefit from e-prescribing, according to David Gorelick, MD, an internist with Aquidneck Medical Associates in Newport.
“I see approximately 500 patients per month,” he said. “I prescribe and manage thousands of medications for my patients. With e-prescribing, refills can be done in seconds. This is a huge time savings for my practice that allows us to focus more of our attention on direct patient care.”
“Rhode Island’s unique collaborative model is leveraging the power of the Surescripts network to produce meaningful improvements across the state’s healthcare system,” said Harry Totonis, president and CEO of Surescripts. “Instead of theorizing about how to drive health IT adoption, the Rhode Island e-Prescribing Committee pulls out spreadsheets, analyzes real data, sets goals, identifies barriers to health IT adoption and use and acts swiftly to remove them.”
Through the end of September 2009, Rhode Island had reportedly achieved the following levels of e-prescribing adoption and use:
- Retail pharmacies connected for e-prescription routing – 100 percent;
- Prescribers using e-prescriptions – 63 percent;
- Prescribers using an electronic health record for e-prescribing – 56 percent;
- Prescriptions routed electronically – 31 percent.
Above article published on http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/rhode-islands-e-prescribing-network-help-track-swine-flu-cases?page=0,0
Tags: E-Prescribing, SureScripts, swine flu
Posted December 4, 2009 by admin under E-Prescription, Hospital
