athenahealth's New Web-Based EMR Service to Include Direct Electronic Connectivity With Local Pharmacies

SureScripts today announced that physicians using athenahealth’s new athenaClinicals™ EMR service will be able to establish a direct, two-way electronic connection with local pharmacies using the SureScripts Electronic Prescribing Network™. athenaClinicals, a Web-based electronic medical record service that manages all clinical workflow and handles communications with labs, pharmacies, and other care partners, has been certified as a SureScripts Certified Solution™.

athenahealth — a premier provider of web-based software, knowledge, and services for medical practices — services more than 7,000 providers representing over 60 medical specialties with its unique revenue-cycle management service. With the introduction of athenaClinicals, athenahealth offers a powerful combination of web-based PMIS/EMR software, continually updated payer and clinical knowledge, and back office processing specialists for a unique results-based offering, paid for based on tangible results not license fees.

“Our new athenaClinicals service takes EMR in a new direction, handling all of the time-consuming scut work invisibly and flawlessly for the practice behind the scenes,” said Jonathan Bush, chief executive officer and co-founder of athenahealth. “Connecting the athenaClinicals EMR directly to the computers at local pharmacies so prescription information can be exchanged electronically is a perfect fit for our vision of taking all of the overwhelmingly manual processes in the physician’s practice and making them part of a digital record and workflow.”

The community pharmacy industry estimates that approximately 150,000 physicians in the United States could be using their existing electronic medical record (EMR) or e-prescribing technology to send and receive prescriptions directly to and from their local pharmacists’ computers. The problem: Most are not aware of this. The result: Most use a computer or handheld device to — believe it or not — send fax-based prescriptions to their local pharmacists’ fax machines.

In addition to improving patient safety and the efficiency of new prescription routing, a direct electronic connection with pharmacies also allows prescription refill requests to be sent directly to a physician’s computer. Physicians and their staff may review and respond with just a few clicks of their mouse. This significantly reduces the time spent managing what has traditionally been a phone and fax burdened process, and leaves more time for patient care.

“Today’s announcement means that physicians who are using athenaClinicals can put an end to the fax-fueled paper chase that has plagued the prescribing process for decades,” said Rick Ratliff, chief operating officer of SureScripts. “The reality today is that most physicians have no network connection to their local pharmacies. As a result, the best they can do is fax new prescriptions using a computer or handheld device. This keeps the prescribing process — including refills — overwhelmingly paper-based. Today’s announcement enables physicians and their staffs to get rid of the phone and fax, and gives them and their patients a safer, more efficient and higher quality prescribing process.”

E-Prescribing’s Growth Opportunity: Save Time, Dollars and Much More

There remains a sizable opportunity to grow e-prescribing adoption and utilization across the country. Realizing its full potential represents an unprecedented opportunity to improve patient safety and the efficiency of the prescribing process.

According to the Center for Information Technology Leadership (CITL), every year more than 8 million Americans experience Adverse Drug Events (ADEs). CITL’s research estimates that, by addressing ADEs caused by preventable medication errors, e-prescribing systems with a network connection to pharmacy and advanced decision support capabilities can help avoid more than 2 million ADEs annually — 130,000 of which are life-threatening.

A study by the Medical Group Management Association’s (MGMA) Group Practice Research Network (GPRN) estimated that administrative complexity related to prescriptions costs a practice approximately $15,700 a year for each full time physician on staff. Multiplying that figure by an estimated 520,000 office-based physicians currently practicing and prescribing medications in the United States reveals an opportunity to save more than $8 billion annually from conversion to e-prescribing.

How To Get Connected

Physicians currently using electronic health record or e-prescribing software can get connected to their local pharmacies by contacting their software vendor directly. Physicians interested in an easy and quick way to determine if their practice already possesses the technology to establish a direct, two-way, computer-to-computer connection with their local pharmacies can also go to www.GetRxConnected.com. There, they can access and complete a one-page assessment online. Upon completing and submitting the technology assessment, practices will receive a personalized Practice Capability Report.

Based on a physician’s individual answers to the assessment, the report will offer an estimate of the time and associated costs currently spent by the practice managing the refill process. The report will specify if a physician’s practice possesses the technology to establish a true electronic connection with pharmacies in their area and outline steps on how to get connected.