Before You Choose an EMR/EHR - Consider E-prescribing!

Calling all “Ambulatory Care Providers” that have not implemented an EMR, please evaluate e-prescribing vendors that offer e-prescribing as part of a complete, long term EMR solution.

What's is E-prescribing?

Electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) involves the use of application software and connectivity tools that enable hospitals, physician offices and ambulatory clinics to create and send prescriptions electronically directly to pharmacy systems.

E-prescribing systems, like DrFirst,Inc, allow 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.

As a result, there has been increasing interest on the part of healthcare insurers to promote the use of e-prescribing. Although many practices are moving straight to a full electronic medical health record, many practices have run into snags with training and implementation. In addition, many traditional EMR vendors will ultimately have to enhance their products to meet e-prescribing federal guidelines, some EMRs will choose to develop their own application, and others will partner with established e-prescribing vendors. Physicians who choose vendors who develop their own applications, take the risk of not meeting government requirements in time, and therefore being penalized.

For all medical offices, e-prescribing will enables clinician productivity, operational efficiency, patient safety and patient/customer satisfaction. Integrating e-prescribing with your ambulatory patient record will should be an essential long-term strategy for your organization.

My advice

According to 'Maslow's Hierarchy of Healthcare IT', e-prescribing is a proven, off-the-shelf, low-cost, low-risk first step towards an EHR. To help reduce IT investment costs, clinical practices should adopt a tactical approach in which e-prescribing is the first application as part of your overall health IT system, with other applications added in a modular fashion over time. The benefit of doing this is that a practice can make a small initial monetary investment in the standalone e-prescribing system, while receiving annual bonus incentive money at $2,000+ a year, and put it towards the future EMR investment. In addition, this allows your staff to feel comfortable with the change of workflow utilizing technology in the practice, rather then a taking one large step in the opposite direction, potentially causing unparalleled frustration. In addition, waiting to invest in an EMR/EHR for a few more years will allow the market to shake out with better, more economical and more competitive products.

Should I try a free e-prescribing system?

I would advise caution to physicians who are thinking about getting a free e-prescribing program, because the ultimate goal of these vendors is to lead them into purchasing a pricey, full package EHR from the same vendor. In addition, the free programs often require ala carte upgrades to make the product truly useable in an office setting, which at the end of the day comes standard with e-prescribing systems that require a fee, but have better customer service, better features, and will ultimately cause the practice less of a headache.

How do I achieve success with e-prescribing?
ePrescribing is about more than just generating a prescription on a computer and printing it out or faxing it to a pharmacy. It also must provide functionality and workflow flexibility to work not only for physicians but also for staff involved in the prescribing process.

Interoperability with existing practice systems is critical to insure greater efficiency and accuracy of information. DrFirst actively partners with over 65+ EMR vendors in order to provide integrated eprescribing through the physician’s preferred software application. These partnerships provide a seamless migration path from e-prescribing to EMR.

High prescribers, large practices and enterprise systems require software that is adaptable to the practice workflow and that draws the practice staff into the prescribing process. To meet this need, practices should choose software that is designed to be highly configurable, with workflow features that make it a solution for installations of any size.

The benefits of electronic prescribing are proven: improved profits, increased practice efficiency and better patient care.

For more e-prescribing industry news and user testimonials, check out video feeds at www.youtube.com/user/drfirst.