Physicians are a wary lot. When a new technology suddenly appears, they usually don’t jump in head first. Their reasoning is legitimate: Any disruption in their workflow could impact revenue, or worse, threaten patient safety and care delivery. In the same typically cautious fashion, they’ve watched electronic prescribing, or ePrescribing, emerge on the scene. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Medicare ePrescribing incentive system and Meaningful Use provisions that financially reward practitioners for utilizing advanced technologies to send medication orders have inspired many early adopters to hop onto the ePrescribing bandwagon. On the other hand, some have simply chosen to endure slight payment adjustments while delaying any major changes in their practices. What these more tentative providers have come to observe, however, is an easy-to-use technology that delivers significant efficiency, convenience and patient safety benefits with very little, if any, disturbance to practice patterns.
Creating a two-way communications platform between physicians and pharmacists, ePrescribing all but eliminates handwritten orders, saving time and reducing hassles for providers, pharmacists and even patients. ePrescribing applications can be configured to generate a log for the patient record, which allows practitioners to easily review a patient’s medication history, not only ensuring consistency, but also streamlining prescription refill requests.
As a more accurate method for generating and sending medication requests, ePrescribing also improves patient safety, thereby meeting one of the CMS’s primary goals of reducing medication errors and adverse drug events with automated solutions. In fact, many ePrescribing technologies include medication reconciliation modules that allow providers to verify prescription information at the point of care.
ePrescribing is becoming an important component of patient engagement programs, helping integrate individuals with the prescription process. When a physician submits an order, for example, the technology can automatically send an email, text or voice message to the patient confirming the order with details such as when it will be ready and where the individual can pick up their medications.
Providers can even participate in ePrescribing for controlled substances (EPCS), which was prohibited by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) until just a few years ago for fear that it couldn’t be adequately protected. With additional security controls now in place, such as passwords, biometrics and secure tokens that fit smoothly within physician workflow, the DEA believes that EPCS creates a safer portal for prescribing and dispensing controlled substances than manual processes, protecting both doctors and pharmacies.
Ease of use, simple implementation and immediate benefits are three reasons why even the most technology-averse practices should consider ePrescribing over traditional methods. While it may seem painless to accept a two percent reimbursement adjustment, the long-term benefits and savings from an ePrescribing capability outweigh any short-term costs.
Emdeon Clinical Exchange EHR Lite, an EHR solution designed for small physician practices, allows users to conveniently and cost-effectively exchange electronic transactions. With its advanced features, Emdeon Clinical Exchange EHR Lite helps providers add efficiency to this important component of their practice, qualify for Meaningful Use incentives and avoid reimbursement adjustments that will continue to increase for those not taking part in an ePrescribing program. To learn more about the benefits of ePrescribing, visit www.emdeon.com.
Read More >>
ePrescribing: worth the wait, but not worth waiting any longer
