E-prescribing: One piece of the puzzle

Although e-prescribing is often the first application physicians deploy on their way to becoming fully computerized, the market is still evolving, said Todd Weller, healthcare IT analyst for Stifel Nicholaus. Adoption is being pushed by regulatory trends; as many as a dozen states are close to mandating e-prescribing. As the market matures, Weller said that to provide optimal value e-prescribing must tie into a patient’s medical information. Wes Rishel, vice president of healthcare provider research for Gartner, said physicians are still grappling to understand the difference between hypothetical and real benefits of e-prescribing. In an ideal world, said Rishel, physicians would have an electronic medical record that supports link-ups to such things as formularies. The bottom line is getting an integrated picture of a patient, and e-prescribing is one piece of the puzzle.

     Allscripts

HealthMatics EHR Electronic Health Record

Features: HealthMatics Electronic Health Record is the solution for small and mid-sized physician practices looking to improve clinical and administrative processes. A flexible and easily customizable solution, HealthMatics EHR streamlines clinical workflows by intuitively following your care process.

eRx NOW

Features: eRx NOW is an easy-to-use, free Web-based software solution that is safe and secure and requires no downloading or new hardware. eRx NOW is accessible by Internet on computers, handheld devices and cell phones and features a complete medication database that provides clinical decision support and reference material, automatic population of Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) prescription history for the provider, real-time notification of insurance formulary status, instant checks on drug interactions, dosage levels and patient-specific factors including prior adverse reactions.

TouchWorks EHR

Features: The TouchWorks Rx+ module is an e-prescribing tool that lets physicians update medication and allergy lists with each patient visit, enter historical medications and allergies, process medication renewal requests facilitated by an automated tasking management system, view and print patient drug education monographs and review prescription renewal history/audits.     Cardinal Health Inc.

Pyxis Connect

Features: This document imaging and management system streamlines, automates and decentralizes the entire physician order process. The result is more effective communication between pharmacy and nursing. Pyxis Connect captures a digital image of the handwritten order and routes it to an electronic “in box” in the pharmacy, eliminating the need for multiple faxing, courier or tubing systems. A pharmacist can use the system on a remote and/or portable basis from the floor, remote office or other location.

    DrFirst, Inc.

Rcopia, RcopiaAC (Acute Care)- Electronic Medication Reconciliation

Features: Virtually eliminates calls and faxes with pharmacies; one click renewals and new prescriptions; increase patient care plan compliance at the point-of-care; increased patient safety and convenience; drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checking; integration with ePocrates for drug reference information; full connectivity with SureScripts, RxHub, Medco, Caremark and ESI mail order; true mobility to quickly write and send prescriptions from anywhere; access to accurate medication history; integration with existing practice management and EMR applications; sophisticated reporting system; and more.

    Epic Systems Corporation

EpicCare Ambulatory EMR

Features: EpicCare’s e-prescribing functionality includes order recommendations based on diagnoses and other patient data, weight- and BSA-based dosing, display of relevant lab results at the point of ordering, “actionable” alerts for interactions, dose limits, duplicate therapy and preferred formulary alternatives, eligibility queries and tiered formulary information, capture of patient-reported medications, specialty prescription selection lists, default doses and other details to simplify order creation, electronic prescription routing to pharmacies and automated workflows for cosigns and renewal requests.

    Greenway Medical Technologies

PrimeSuite

Features: Greenway’s PrimeSuite EHR has a fully-integrated, easy-to-use e-prescribing solution with key functionality such as one-click prescriptions and refills, interaction alerts and formulary checks that increases patient satisfaction, practice profitability and medication compliance. Furthermore, the solution is available at the point of care or via a handheld device that is directly integrated with pharmacies.The practice can seamlessly manage a patient’s prescriptions while streamlining its clinical, financial and administrative
workflows.

    McKesson

Horizon Ambulatory Care

Features: The e-prescribing module of Horizon Ambulatory Care is a clinically intuitive system that enhances a physician’s ability to ensure medication safety and prescribe cost-effective medications in a time-efficient manner while remaining confident of compliance with medical and payer guidelines. This solution manages end-to-end connectivity among physicians, patients, payers and pharmacies to drive efficiencies, reduce cost and improve patient safety.

    MEDITECH

Ambulatory Order Management (e-Prescribing feature)

Features: Clinicians can use e-Prescribing to access medication histories; check benefits while ordering; update patient records; electronically transmit scripts; view insurance drug plans; view alternative medications and receive refill requests from pharmacies. When a provider electronically enters an order, the MEDITECH system indicates whether the medication is preferred, approved or requires a higher co-payment. Then, the system transmits the order to a gateway vendor (an electronic prescription management system), which then transmits orders to a retail or mail-order pharmacy.

    Misys Healthcare Systems

Misys EMR

Features: The ePrescribing functions of Misys EMR electronically route prescriptions to more than 40,000 participating pharmacies. Features cover medication and medication list management; drug interaction review alerting; medication reference information; automated prescriptions, refills and reminders and other capabilities. These easy-to-use features save time, help improve patient care with better and clearer communications between practices and pharmacies, and lead to higher reimbursements in pay-for-performance plans.

Misys eScript

Features: A safe, cost-effective and secure decision support tool. Utilize your PDA, PC or any Internet-connected device to write legible prescriptions and approve refill orders electronically. Ensure that accurate prescriptions are received by the pharmacist in seconds. At the point of care, check drug-to-drug interactions; drug-to-allergy interactions; formulary and patient eligibility and medication history. Save time for your staff and you – practices report saving up to 2 to 3 hours a day.

    NextGen

NextGen EMR

Features: Partnering with SureScripts, RxHub and MediMedia, providers through NextGen EMR can search medication lists, automatically check for drug-to-drug interactions and drug allergies and perform real-time formulary confirmation in MediMedia’s InfoScan Formulary Database. They can then instantly transmit the prescription to the patient’s local participating pharmacy through the SureScripts network or, if desired, approve direct mailing of the medications to the patient through the RxHub program.

    Purkinje

CareSeries ERx

Features: Purkinje’s award winning e-prescribing system, CareSeries ERx, presents context-specific integrated clinical decision support at the point of prescribing based on the best published evidence. It gives doctors visibility into the cost, efficacy and adverse effects of various medication-based therapeutic alternatives. This information is seamlessly integrated within physician workflow, enabling informed decision making without slowing down busy doctors.

    Spring Medical Systems

SpringCharts

Features: SpringCharts e-prescribing functionality enables comprehensive prescribing, medication tracking, prescription history at a glance and more. Optional features include drug interaction checking and faxing directly from SpringCharts.

    SRSsoft

SRS Chart Manager

Features: SRS Rx allows physicians to quickly and easily generate prescriptions electronically and keep an up-to-date profile of medications prescribed to patients. Features include an extensive drug database consisting of more than 100,000 drug products, a “favorites” list of drugs customized for each physician, one-click faxing of prescriptions to pharmacies and maintained patient drug profiles that track adverse reactions and discontinued medications. It is optimized for use on a desktop or Tablet PC.