Nationwide efforts aimed at bringing about a transformation from paper based prescribing to electronic prescribing received a push, as results of a new survey revealed that most physicians who participated in an eprescribing pilot believed the technology helped them in practicing better and safer medicine.
The survey, conducted by HaldyMcIntosh & Associates, for the Southeastern Michigan ePrescribing Initiative (SEMI), an electronic prescribing collaboration, reported a high level of satisfaction and consensus among physicians on the benefits of ePrescriptions in patient care.
The survey involving physicians and staff of 500 practices participating in the three-year SEMI ePrescription pilot program showed that three out of four physicians strongly believed that ePrescribing enhanced patient safety and about 70% felt that it augments quality of care. The survey also found that 70% of the physicians polled were satisfied with the technology, more than 80% of prescriptions were written electronically by these physicians, and every four out of ten surveyed wrote all of their prescriptions electronically.
Physicians seemed to have benefited most by the safety alert features of ePrescription technology, which forewarns them of potentially harmful drug interactions and allergy risks at the point of prescribing. About 65% of ePrescribers from the survey reported at least one incident of having revised their prescription due to a safety alert received through the system. This finding also reinforces earlier projections, which indicate that employing electronic prescribing systems could prevent over 2 million adverse drug events (ADEs) every year, with 130,000 of them being fatal and save on an estimated $27 billion, per year in the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, ePrescription technology would result in a reduction of 530,000 adverse drug events annually in Medicare alone. These figures illustrate the potential that ePrescribing technology holds in reducing dangerous and costly adverse drug events.
The survey showed that contrary to the common concerns among physicians, regarding the difficulties and time demands involved in learning a new technology and uncertainty over its usefulness, physicians participating in the pilot found that the systems had met or exceeded the expectations of nine out of ten of those polled; more than 70% had fewer prescription related communications with the pharmacy, with 40% of them reporting a substantial gain in time; and more than half concurred on increased productivity upon using this technology.
Despite the benefits of the technology, the lack of consensus on cost saving capabilities of the system was brought to the forefront through this survey with one in four physicians skeptical about the same. Two out of three respondents however felt that they were more likely to prescribe low cost generic or plan-preferred equivalents while prescribing electronically.
Previous results from the 2007 survey SEMI ePrescribing pilot program support the findings on improved safety and formulary compliance. A review of 3.3 million electronic prescriptions found that 39% of the time physicians complied with formulary requirements, when alerts were presented. The review also showed that when presented with a drug risk alert 41% of the time, the prescribing physicians changed or cancelled his prescription. Similarly, 41% of the 100,000 medication allergy alerts were responded to.
According to Kate Kohn-Parrott, director integrated health care and disability, Chrysler LLC, a member organization in the SEMI coalition, reports of improved physician satisfaction and enhanced productivity with the program have helped in moving towards universal acceptance of ePrescribing.
Encouraged by the current results, the SEMI partners have decided to extend the initiative and enroll more physicians through June 30, 2008. Originally designed to equip about 17,000 physicians with ePrescribing technology tools, the SEMI program, lead by General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Daimler Chrysler Corp., is an employer-driven e-prescribing initiative involving a coalition of organizations including Chrysler LLC, the United Auto Workers (UAW), Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Health Alliance Plan, Henry Ford Medical Group, Medco Health Solutions, Inc., CVS Caremark Corporation, RxHub, LLC and SureScripts®.
Electronic prescribing or ePrescribing is the use of an automated data entry system to produce a prescription that will minimize avoidable errors through illegible hand-written prescriptions. The technology also helps improve quality and efficiency of the clinician’s workflow; promotes appropriate drug usage; provides information to providers and pharmacists about formulary-based drug coverage, including formulary alternatives and co-pay information; and speeds up the process of medications renewal. It may also help reduce the incidence of drug diversion by alerting providers and pharmacists of duplicative prescriptions for controlled substances. ePrescribing eliminates the back and forth clarifications that takes place with written prescriptions, and is now less time-consuming for both pharmacists and clinicians.
Many government and private organizations are working towards developing various technologies and initiatives to enforce safety and reduce errors in the prescription process. In 2006, national technology leaders entered into an alliance for the National ePrescribing Patient Safety InitiativeSM (NEPSISM) to provide free access to electronic prescribing software for every physician in America. In 2007, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), invested $31.4 million to encourage the adoption of electronic health records (EHR) and other health information technology (HIT) initiatives like e-prescription, decision support software, etc. by health centers. SureScripts, founded in 2001 by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) and the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), to enhance quality, safety and efficiency of the process of prescribing, established the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange™ in 2001, which is the largest network connecting over 90% of pharmacies in the U.S.
With technology initiatives introduced by both government and private organizations, the healthcare sector is aiming towards the transition from a paper-based process to a solely electronic and safer process of electronic prescribing.
Written by The HealthNEWS Team · Filed Under Industry Watch, Industry Insights, IT Adoption, eHealth
Above article published on http://www.healthnewsdirect.com/?p=274
Tags: electronic prescriptions, ePrescribing, eprescription, Health, Physicians, SureScripts
Posted April 28, 2009 by admin under E-Prescription
